[4][5] Since 2018, Nakamura has pursued a career as a content creator and subsequently signed with an esports organization TSM, later joining Misfits Gaming and then Team Falcons.

In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy, becoming the youngest American to earn the grandmaster title at the time, breaking the record of Bobby Fischer by three months.

[18] Nakamura qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, played in Tripoli, Libya, and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams, the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up.

Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and defeated his fellow prodigy by 4½–1½.

[20] In November and December 2005, Nakamura competed in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round.

[22] The same year, he helped the U.S. team win the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad at Turin, Italy, playing on the third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 U.S. Champion Alexander Onischuk.

[24] He placed joint first in the tournament the following year, finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay playoff.

Although he drew with the black pieces against eventual winner Magnus Carlsen and with White against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Nakamura failed to win a game during the tournament and ended in seventh place out of eight.

6 and recent FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King's Indian Defense, won him the individual gold medal for board one and led the U.S. to a second-place finish behind Russia.

[41] Nakamura's performance at this tournament, his first involving an entirely super-elite field allowed him to "force (the chess elite) to respect him", according to noted Russian commentator grandmaster Sergey Shipov.

[43] In December 2010, Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic, among a field including Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane.

With Anand's final round draw against Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura clinched sole possession of first place,[49] making him the first American to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament since 1980.

The win also guaranteed that Nakamura would join Carlsen (winner of the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament) as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011.

[53] The victory also opened the door for Nakamura to receive invitations from other super grandmaster tournaments for the first time, and increased his world ranking to a career-high number eight.

[56] Nakamura competed in the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September, after which he played in the Tal Memorial for the second consecutive year in a field comprising Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Hao, and Nepomniachtchi.

[63] After another lackluster performance in the European Club Championship in Eilat, Israel, Nakamura finished first in the "crown group" at the Univé tournament in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands.

[65] Nakamura finished the year by winning three silver medals in the three chess events (rapid, blitz and blindfold) at the World Mind Games in Beijing.

In early May, Nakamura shared second place[112] with French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour which was held in Côte d’Ivoire.

[131] In the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the next tournament on the Champions Chess Tour, Nakamura scored +3−0=12 to place fourth in the preliminary stage and thus qualified for the knockout phase.

Following a thriller against Esipenko in the sixth round, Nakamura held a draw with Black to win his group and advance to the semifinals to face Richárd Rapport.

[155] Nakamura won Norway Chess 2023 in June by beating Fabiano Caruana in the final round to finish the tournament ½ points in front of him, ending with a score of 16½/27.

[158] In July, Nakamura won his fourth Bullet Chess Championship title, defeating runner-up Magnus Carlsen in a tight Grand Final match.

Nakamura believed this post was targeted towards him, and responded with a statement on Twitter reading "Vladimir appears to be referencing my record...is he really accusing me of cheating???

[165] Throughout 2023 Nakamura frequently played in chess.com's Titled Tuesday online blitz tournaments, which usually attracted strong fields, often including five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen.

He was touted as one of the favourites to win (alongside Fabiano Caruana) by former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand,[167] but had a slow start to the tournament after losing to Vidit Gujrathi with the white pieces in the second round.

Playing on the top board for the American Gambits team, he compiled a +2 record (+3−1=6) including wins against Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand.

For the year he won more of the tournaments than any other player and earned the site's Titled Cup award for 2024, 4.5 points ahead of five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen.

This ten-player Fischer Random event consisted of a rapid-play round-robin followed by a series of playoff matches, which were played at classical time limits with rapid and blitz tiebreakers if necessary.

He won matches against Alexander Grischuk (2.5-0.5), Ian Nepomniachtchi (3-0) and Alireza Firouzja (3-2) but lost in the winners bracket final to Magnus Carlsen (2.5-0.5).

[208] When asked about his popularity online, Nakamura attributed it to "the ability to play extremely high-level chess" while "seemingly ... not focused on the game" and conversing with his viewers.