This week, a prestigious chess event, the FIDE Candidates tournament, started. The winner of this tournament will have the chance to compete for the title of chess world champion. However, one of the participants, Hikaru Nakamura, enters the event not only as a favourite but also as a streamer, not a professional player.

In his interview with FIDE Chess prior to the event, Nakamura once again states that he identifies himself as a streamer playing chess, not as a professional chess player doing streams.

I am a streamer first. Creating content is what I do for a living. Playing chess is somewhat secondary.

Hikaru Nakamura and his streams became a gateway to chess for many people, especially during the pandemic. Since 2020, online chess gained massive growth, and Hikaru is one of the faces of this community, if not the face.

While being a chess champion is really prestigious, and since 1886, there were only seventeen chess champions, Hikaru does not think of it as an ultimate goal:

If I were to become world champion, the reach or the influence of that is so minor compared to what I've done through streaming content creation.

In the first round of Candidates, Hikaru played against Fabiano Caruana. The game ended in a draw.

Main image: FIDE chess

Comment on this