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Chess found itself in the middle of a fresh controversy on Sunday, after world no 2 Hikaru Nakamura tossed D Gukesh’s king into the crowd at the Esports Arena Arlington in Texas after defeating the world champion in an exhibition game where the Indian team were swept by Team USA. The Indian team had players of the calibre of Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Divya Deshmukh, but lost 5-0 to a team with Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Carissa Yip.
The biggest talking point of the clash was Nakamura giving Gukesh’s king an almighty heave-ho into the fans, which other players like YouTuber Levy Rozman (popularly known as Gotham Chess) explained were suggested to the players by the organizers of the game itself.
Players like former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and Kevin Goh Wei Ming have slammed Nakamura’s act, while Anish Giri said he didn’t see what the fuss was about.
On Sunday, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky also criticised Nakamura.
“The event was a show. Fans were ecstatic. Players were encouraged to behave accordingly. All true. Now, for better or worse, name me one top player who would do what Hikaru did,” Sutovsky posted on X.
To this, the organisers replied with sarcasm: “On behalf of the organizers, we admit having forced the players to have fun, to please the crowd and to forego the FIDE Etiquette. We sincerely apologize if the players, the live audience and the vast majority of online viewers had a good time.”
After the controversy had started to spread on social media, YouTuber Levy Rozman, who was part of the American team, explained that Nakamura’s gesture was a gimmick by the organisers.
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“Without context, it will look like an unprovoked gesture. But we were encouraged by the organisers to do that stuff. I forgot that if I won my game against ChessBase India’s Sagar Shah, or he won, we were supposed to break the king. It was for the entertainment angle. The winner of Gukesh and Hikaru’s game was supposed to toss the king into the fans. I don’t know if Gukesh would have done that. Hikaru spoke to Gukesh later and explained that it was all for show and no disrespect was meant,” said Rozman.
