By Rahul Sadhu

Copyright timesnownews

During a recent India–USA match in the first Checkmate event in Arlington, United States, World Champion and India star Gukesh King went up against America’s Hikaru Nakamura. After securing victory, Nakamura shocked everyone by picking up Gukesh’s king piece and tossing it into the crowd of more than 1000 people at Esports Stadium. This act by the world No. 1, Nakamura, after delivering a checkmate on the world champion, was not only unprecedented but also unconventional, going by traditional chess standards. But what was the real reason behind it? One of the world’s most popular YouTubers, Levy Rozman (who goes by the name Gotham Chess), revealed that the idea was not Nakamura’s but had come from the organisers. “Without context, it will look like an unprovoked gesture. However, we were encouraged by the organisers to do that. 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’m not sure if Gukesh would have done that. Hikaru spoke to Gukesh later and explained that it was all for show and no disrespect was meant,” Rozman explained. Rozman, who goes by Gotham Chess and was part of the American team, noted that it was as much about entertainment as it was about the sport itself. “This was one of the best in-person experiences I have had as someone who has been playing chess for a very long time. We are so accustomed to celebrating our victories on our own… chess can be such a lonely job; you don’t feel any validation for what you are doing. Even the Indian players, despite losing, had a great time. So this event exceeded my expectations,” Nakamura later said on his YouTube channel. However, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was not at all happy with the gimmick and had some intense criticism in store for Nakamura. “This is not just vulgarity, but already a diagnosis of degradation of 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 in 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.” The Gukesh vs Hikaru Nakamura clash was the final act of a five-match series between some of India’s and the USA’s top stars.