Shuhei Nakamura is one of the most successful professional players. He has reached the Top 8 of six Pro Tour |Pro Tours and won sevenGrand Prix |Grands Prix, as well as being the Pro Tour #Pro Player of the Year|2008 Pro Player of the Year. In 2011, he was inducted into the.
Career
Nakamura's first success came in a second place at Grand Prix Kobe in. This qualified him for Pro Tour New Orleans. However, he chose not to attend. In January 2002 he played his first Pro Tour |Pro Tour in San Diego. Managing several Top 8 at Japanese Grand Prix, a Top 8 appearance at Pro Tour Columbus in was his first major showing on the Pro Tour. He followed this finish with another Top 8 at the the same season. Ultimately, Nakamura would finish fourth in the with 66 Pro Points. In Nakamura achieved several high finishes at Limited events, including third places at PT Prague and GP Toulouse. Eventually he also won his first major tournament, Grand Prix St. Louis 2006, immediately backing up the victory by winning the next Grand Prix event in Hiroshima four weeks later. As both of his Grand Prix wins were in the Coldsnap limited format, Shuhei earned the nickname 'Snowmaster'. Nakamura gained 56 Pro Points throughout the season placing him second in the 2006 Pro Tour #Pro Player of the Year|Player of the Year Race, only four points behind winner Shouta Yasooka. was not quite as successful for Nakamura, however, he did manage to make his fourth Pro Tour Top 8 appearance at PT Valencia. started off perfect with a victory in the first professional tournament of the season, Grand Prix Stuttgart. This victory made him only the third player to have won a Grand Prix in Europe, Asia, and North America. Nakamura proceeded to manage Top 4 finishes at Pro Tour Hollywood, Grand Prix Copenhagen, and Grand Prix Rimini. He finished the season with 70 Pro Points to become Pro Tour #Pro Player of the Year|Pro Player of the Year. Nakamura was the fourth of five Japanese players to win the Player of the Year title in a row, preceded by Kenji Tsumura, Shouta Yasooka, Tomoharu Saito and followed by Yuuya Watanabe. Nakamura has personally referred to this period as a 'golden age' for Magic in Japan. In 2009 Nakamura finished third at Grand Prix Rotterdam in February, but achieved no further final eight appearances until his victory at the in July. On 19 August 2011 it was announced that Nakamura will be inducted into the along with Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz and Anton Jonsson. The ceremony took place on 17 November at the. In the, Shuhei placed tenth in the Pro Players Club Standings at the end of the season with 51 Pro Points. This performance earned Nakamura an invite to the inaugural. Shuhei would take fifth place at the inaugural event, narrowly missing the cut to Top 4.
