Hikaru Nakamura

I was rather nervous when I was 10 years old.

It's easy to become angry, but when you get better, you channel your energy into the game.

I've had to grow up pretty fast, which is not a good thing.

If you're not at the elite levels there are a lot more opportunities to play tournaments.

When you watch chess, you don't see the four hours that the player spends preparing for a match ahead of time.

The image that everyone has of a chess player is not necessarily positive. I think it's partly due to Bobby Fischer - his rise to fame and then his descent into madness. That left a lot of people with negative stereotypes, of nerds who aren't interesting.

A lot of people see a future where you could make a living as a chess player.

I get tired of the traveling.

I'd rather play for the Yankees. You get more money.

Chess.com is my home turf.

As you get stronger, you learn to maintain the position against higher rated players. This comes with experience.

I've found for playing that it's generally not a good thing to be drinking.

I will say there have been occasional times - not when I'm playing, but when I'm studying - that I have found a little bit of alcohol has been good for the creative process.

The way I play is not like most people. The moves are more computeresque. They're not the moves that most humans are going to play.

There aren't really any 'American' grandmasters that are higher rated than me.

If you talk to some of the older players, they definitely say they see beauty in certain games. In my case, there are certain times when I think, 'Wow, that's so amazing, chess is so full of ideas.' But most of the time I tend to be much more pragmatic about it, as opposed to thinking about it as art or something exquisite.

There are so many strong players that everything has to go right for you to win.

It's very encouraging that the game of chess is growing in the U.S. and is becoming more popular.

The first championship in 2005 will always be the most special but winning this fifth one was by far my best performance because of the strength of the field.

You can't follow or understand the game unless you play chess yourself, unlike poker which you can pick up in five minutes.

Definitely, some of the artistry and poetry has been lost in modern chess. It's very rare that I play a game where I'm like, 'Wow, this is really interesting. There were so many possibilities! It was such a rich game.'

When I was younger, I would look at a game with computers and still be fascinated by the possibilities.

Everyone is using the same programs, everyone is looking at the same opening ideas. I wouldn't say everyone is necessarily the same in terms of talent or ability, but when you're able to prepare games that go so deep that you don't have to think, really, it balances out the field.

Chess is a game where all different sorts of people can come together, not a game in which people are divided because of their religion or country of origin.

Winning the second title feels better to me than the first.

It's interesting to find new things with the game. It's fun finding new positions, new openings and new strategies.

When you're 17 and 18 is when you get really good, and in college, you have to put the chess aside.

Chess is a great game. It's a lot of fun, but sometimes you wonder what else is out there.

What was great about Fischer is that when he became world champion is that chess was being covered everywhere. It was in all the major newspapers, it was on TV.

Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.

In poker, you want to play the weaker guys. In chess, it's the opposite.

It's good to win. Losses aren't good, and draws are O.K.

I'm not a mad genius.

I play different styles, and am very good at changing how I play.

I like the feeling when you don't have much time and you have to think fast.

I don't consider myself a nerd.

The way I play is very unique.

No matter how badly you play, unless you make a flat-out blunder, there's always going to be some narrow path to being able to save the game and draw instead of losing.

No, I've never had a job other than being a chess player.

I had been playing a lot of chess and I wasn't really enjoying it, so I decided to go to college to see what else is out there for me. But after about six or seven months away from the game, I just decided that the whole college life wasn't for me and that's why I decided to come back.

I would say out of all the things I studied growing up, math was probably one of the things that I liked the least.

I think for me the main goal that I have, or at least what I really aspire to, is to raise the level of chess.

Well, I think, in large part, when I first began playing chess at seven years old, I was quite bad at it. I lost a lot of games when I first started.

I play quite a bit of tennis on the side.

It's certainly an honor to have kids who are looking up to me, but at the same time, I'm just trying to do what I can to raise the profile of chess.

I'm into hiking and mountains and I follow hockey and basketball pretty avidly.

Because of the Internet, chess is not about your nationality or your background. Anyone can get good now.

Life is very much about making the best decisions you can. So I think chess is very valuable.

I've won the U.S. Championship. I've won a lot of tournaments.

In chess, everyone's accepted. That's what's great about it. You can be a little bit different. You can be an oddball.