The Most Famous
CHESS PLAYERS from Japan
This page contains a list of the greatest Japanese Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 461 Chess Players, 1 of which were born in Japan. This makes Japan the birth place of the 51st most number of Chess Players behind Mexico, and Peru.
Top 1
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Japanese Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Japanese Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Hikaru Nakamura (b. 1987)
With an HPI of 44.79, Hikaru Nakamura is the most famous Japanese Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 50 different languages on wikipedia.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura (born December 9, 1987) is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history. Nakamura has represented the United States at seven Chess Olympiads (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), securing a team gold medal and two team bronze medals, and participated in three Candidates Tournaments, finishing second in 2024 edition. In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Nakamura ranked No. 1 in the world on both lists; he has remained at or near the No. 1 rank in rapid and blitz ever since. Since 2018, Nakamura has pursued a career as a content creator and subsequently signed with an esports organization TSM, later joining Misfits Gaming. Having popular channels on Twitch, Kick and YouTube, Nakamura is the most popular chess streamer and has been credited with contributing to the growth in popularity of online chess.
People
Pantheon has 1 people classified as Japanese chess players born between 1987 and 1987. Of these 1, 1 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Japanese chess players include Hikaru Nakamura.
