Updated on: Oct 07, 2025 06:09 am IST
Hikaru Nakamura threw D Gukesh’s king into the crowd after checkmating him, leading to controversy.
Hikaru Nakamura’s celebration against D Gukesh during the Checkmate: USA vs. India exhibition event created controversy. The American GM checkmated Gukesh with his queen in the one-minute bullet game and then threw the Indian GM’s king into the crowd in celebration.
Hikaru Nakamura opened up on his celebration after defeating D Gukesh.(X)
It was a back rank checkmate from Hikaru, who also used a biship to cut off the escape square. The match began with draws in the 10-minute and five-minute games, and then Nakamura reigned supreme in the bullet game. In the final game, Gukesh had early advantage on the clock and also the evaluation bar was on his side. But Hikaru used his experience to fight back and ended up sealing an easy win, with Gukesh struggling on the clock.
Hikaru Nakamura clarifies controversial celebration after defeating D Gukesh
Speaking to ChessBase India after the match, Nakamura revealed that his celebration was pre-planned.
He said, “If I won, I was always going to throw the king. The fact that it was a dramatic bullet game, made it even better. I hope the fans enjoyed it!”
It was an easy victory for Team USA, who sealed a 5-0 clean sweep. Fans also saw Fabiano Caruana defeat Arjun Erigaisi and Divya Deshmukh lose to Carrisa Yip.
Nakamura has received some support for his controversial celebration. Magnus Carlsen’s coach, Peter Heine Nielsen, took to X to lend his support. “There is a lot of things elderly conservative chess-guys like myself find hard to accept. But at least we should agree this makes chess look like a sporting event. Spectators at venue who cares. Teammates who acts like teammates in a sport. Players celebrating when they win,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky wrote on X, “Nothing to do with India. In case of Magnus it was an absolutely organic outburst. Raw emotion. Appropriate or not is another matter. In case of Hikaru, it was just a showmanship. Rather distasteful if you ask me. I understand this entire match was about show, but there should be some red lines IMO. However, in both cases it had nothing to do with India.”
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