Photo by Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images
Esports organization TSM has signed its first professional chess player, US grandmaster and five-time champion Hikaru Nakamura. The youngest American to ever earn that coveted ranking at age 15, Nakamura is considered among the best players in the world, routinely ranking alongside world champion Magnus Carlsen as one of the greatest living chess grandmasters.
Nakamura, now 32 years old, also maintains a successful social media presence, with more than 170,000 Twitter followers and a Twitch channel where he live streams himself playing chess and explaining various strategies to his viewers. At the time of the announcement, Nakamura’s channel had more than 500,000 followers and he was streaming live to more than 18,000 people. Nakamura…