Hikaru Nakamura Quotes

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

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

At a very young age I was predicting outcomes, trying to take all the information and find the best route to wherever I was going. I avoided a lot of pitfalls because of that.

You have to be just as mistrustful of straightforward rationality in business as you do of a uniquely gut approach.

Chess is a great training ground for poker players because it's a math-based game, much like backgammon is.

I don't think I'm always right, but I would like to empower people to come to sound conclusions using a systematic way of looking at things.

Playing chess can make you a better poker player because it forces you to think several moves ahead. That kind of intense mental exercise develops a deeper level of thinking than is typically encountered when playing poker.

Writing is sort of like chess for me. You have to think carefully before you move, thinking, planning.

It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. In the stock market you don't base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.

Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of Chess, always relating it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call chess a typical inexact problem similar to those which people are always having to solve in everyday life.

Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems

Learn to use your brain power. Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving in business.

I started playing chess when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is very good for children to learn to play chess, because it helps them to develop their mental abilities. It also helps to consolidate a person's character, because as it happens both in life and in a chess game we have to make decisions constantly. In chess there is no luck and no excuses: everything is in your hands.

Every good mathematician should also be a good chess player and vice versa.

Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.

Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.

I want to make smart choices.

Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.

Guys are natural problem solvers - they like to have strategies.

I like to study the question or the problem or the opportunity in hand, work with the team to come with the right answer, make a decision, and act upon it. Some people have said that, actually, today they pretty much like their bankers dull.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

I encourage active skepticism - when people are being skeptical because they're trying to identify the best course of action. They're trying to identify the next step for themselves or other people.

Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.