Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik had some withering criticism for world no 2 Hikaru Nakamura after the American threw D Gukesh’s king in the air after checkmating the current world champion from India in an exhibition event called Checkmate: USA vs India. “This is not just vulgarity, but already a diagnosis of degradation of the modern chess,” Kramnik posted on his X handle just hours after clips of Nakamura throwing Gukesh’s king into the fans at the Texas' Esports Stadium Arlington. In another tweet slamming Nakamura, Kramnik accused Nakamura of damaging the game: “There are players who show respect and mature gentleman behaviour, many prominent players in fact (Wesley So, Gukesh himself, and many others). Promoting for years the player known for his awful behaviour instead, deliberate action, damaging our game in my opinion.” ALSO READ | ‘No disrespect’: Story behind Hikaru Nakamura tossing Gukesh’s king at fans after checkmating world champion WATCH: Hikaru Nakamura throws Gukesh's king into crowd America shouldn’t be allowed to host chess events- they turn everything into WWE-style drama. An absolute mockery of the game.#Chess pic.twitter.com/yDJnsai7oX— Meru (@MeruOnX) October 5, 2025 The Gukesh vs Hikaru Nakamura clash was the final act of the five-match clash between some of India and USA’s top stars. After the game ended, one of the world’s most popular YouTubers, Levy Rozman (who goes by Gotham Chess) mentioned in a video how the idea was not Nakamura’s but had come from the organisers. WATCH: Levy Rozman discusses the match against Gukesh “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, who was part of the American team with Nakamura. When a fan pointed out that it was a pre-planned move, Kramnik retorted: "Even worse if planned." In another reply, Kramnik wrote: “Taking pants off would attract even more attention, if asked by organisers, should players do it therefore? It’s about inner ethics.” WATCH: Hikaru Nakamura discusses the match against Gukesh Kramnik, in fact, engaged on X with many fans, thundering away at Nakamura’s act. “It’s about general culture, respect for your opponents and other people, and the game. You can celebrate anyhow you prefer, I can find it vulgar and stupid, undecent.” Meanwhile, Singaporean grandmaster Kevin Goh Wei Ming, who had organised last year’s world chess championship match, where Gukesh had been crowned the world champion, also weighed in and agreed with Kramnik. “If the future of chess is one where it’s acceptable behaviour to toss opponent’s pieces into the crowd, I'm not sure I want anything to do with it,” he wrote on X.
