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Hikaru Nakamura Stars In TV Series Billions
A scene from the Billions episode featuring Nakamura.

Hikaru Nakamura Stars In TV Series Billions

PeterDoggers
| 81 | Chess Players

GM Hikaru Nakamura made a cameo appearance in the TV show Billions. The American grandmaster appeared in the second episode of season five, aired on Sunday on the premium television network Showtime.

Billions is an award-winning and critically acclaimed American television drama series that first aired on Showtime in January 2016. It tells the story of hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis) as he accumulates wealth and power in the world of high finance while being chased by U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti).

The fifth season premiered last week and on Sunday, May 10, the second episode of the season was aired. It included a cameo appearance by Nakamura playing himself.

Hikaru Nakamura Billionaire
A scene from the Billions episode featuring Nakamura giving a simul.

Nakamura is seen for about a minute giving the simul. In one scene, he delivers a pretty checkmate on one of the boards. The simul is part of a fundraiser taking place during the episode.

The board position seems to be this one before the start of the combination, which is a mate in four. Can you find it?

The episode is called "The Chris Rock Test" and was written by Adam R. Perlman and directed by Lee Tamahori. It was the 50th episode of the show. It's a fitting show to appear in, as Nakamura has a keen interest in the world of finance.

Nakamura was a participant in the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup, which finished on May 10 with a victory for China. The American grandmaster is a very active streamer; you can watch him regularly on his Twitch channel

View this post on Instagram

Just a random pic with the super talented @asiakatedillon on the set of #billions !!

A post shared by Hikaru Nakamura (@gmhikaru) on

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.

Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.

Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.

As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!


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