Hikaru Nakamura throwing D Gukesh’s king into the crowd at the Esports Arena Arlington in Texas after defeating the world champion in an exhibition game has gone viral on social media, with plenty of controversy about the American’s perceived disrespect towards his young Indian opponent. Nakamura had led Team USA to a dominant 5-0 sweep of the Indian team in the Checkmate: USA vs India exhibition contest with Fabiano Caruana defeating India’s Arjun Erigaisi and Carissa Yip taking down Divya Deshmukh. But the final act of the battle — Nakamura throwing a chess piece into the crowd — became controversial with players like former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and Kevin Goh Wei Ming criticising Nakamura for the act, while Anish Giri said he didn't see what the fuss was about. Even FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky slammed Nakamura on X, saying: “For better or worse, name me one top player who would do what Hikaru did.” ALSO READ | ‘No disrespect’: Story behind Hikaru Nakamura tossing Gukesh’s king at fans after checkmating world champion But it must be noted that while all hell has broken loose on social media about Nakamura’s gesture, Gukesh’s reaction himself after the incident is what stands out. Just like he has multiple times in the past — including after defeating Ding Liren in the final game of the world chess championship last year to become the youngest world champion in history — the teenager from India went on to reset his board. A video posted on social media shows that while Hikaru was celebrating with fist pumps and egging the crowd on to shout louder, Gukesh was putting the pieces back on board. Then, teammates like Arjun walked over to pat him on the back. Gukesh resets the board after Nakamura throws away his king HIKARU THROWS A PIECE TO THE CROWD TO CELEBRATE THE USA 5-0! @GMHikaru What an event!! 🔥👏 @CheckmateUSAIND pic.twitter.com/LGnM8JLulJ— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 5, 2025 Other players at the event, like YouTuber Levy Rozman (popularly known as Gotham Chess), have explained that it was suggested to the players by the organizers of the game itself that if they win, they should engage in exaggerated celebrations. 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.
