Nakamura: “I have rewired my brain over the last 5 years... I like to surprise my opponents with openings that are considered wrong”

Hikaru Nakamura

World's No. 3, streamer

“My favorite chess format is Blitz where you play with five minutes for the entire game or in some cases three minutes. I really like it because it’s about the intuition and making quick decisions.

I look at chess as a bit of a sport and when you have to make these decisions without complete information it makes it more interesting. When we play the longer formats where the games can go up to six hours, you have a lot more time to think.

And generally, in that situation, I would argue it’s almost like math. It’s almost like a formula where you spend all this time calculating the exact outcome. And to me, I find that a little bit less interesting than having to make these decisions where you don’t know the outcome. I like the uncertainty around the game.

I have essentially rewired my brain over the last 5 years. The approach I had as a professional player from 2010 until about 2020, I was very set. I played certain opening strategies and I thought that I knew them perfectly.

The problem with that is that your opponents of course are studying your games. They’re studying what you’re doing and they adapt and they find little weaknesses. And I’ve actually gone the exact opposite route. I like to surprise my opponents, play openings that maybe are considered wrong or inaccurate because I don’t think my opponents will be able to play perfect chess.

The game is very different now than it was 5 or 10 years ago. And this is due to the rise of technology. Computer programs have become so strong at the game that a lot of our thinking about the openings in the old days is now rendered basically useless. Strategies that we developed for the last 100 years we found that they’re maybe not optimal.

You can pretty much do anything you want within a certain risk tolerance. And so, you always have to learn and adapt with how the game is changing due to technology. And for me that means looking for things that are unusual, opening strategies that have not been played before where maybe I might be a little bit worse but my opponent has to play perfect chess in order to defeat me. And if they don’t play perfectly, they’re not going to be able to win the game.”