Hikaru Nakamura took the king from pieces D Gukesh and after injury threw him into the crowd (Screengrabs) Coach Magnus Carlsen Peter Heine Nielsen defended the controversial event Hikaru Nakamura throwing champions Gukesh Dommaraju in the crowd. The incident occurred during the exhibition match called Checkmate: USA vs India in Arlington, Texas.Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky were among those who criticized Nakamur’s gesture after his victory against Gukesh.Nielsen responded to a video of an incident with the support of Nakamura actions: “There are many things that are older conservative chess guys like me, hard to accept. But at least we should agree to make chess look like a sporting event.The incident caused outrage among Indian fans who considered it disrespectful to the game and Gukesh. When the fan proposed that Nielsen responded against Indian players, Nielsen responded by emphasizing his login data.Nielsen reminded critics of his connection with Indian chess: “I am with considerable span the most winning Indian chess coach in general. Please have respect.”Vladimir Kramnik expressed a strong disagreement with Nakamur’s behavior on the social media: “This is not only a vulgarity, but a diagnosis of modern chess degradation.”Kramnik further criticized Nakamura in another post: “There are players who show respect and mature gentleman behavior, in fact many prominent players (Wesley So, Gukesh himself and many others).The popular chess streamer Levy Rozit, known as Gotham Chess, who was part of the American team, offered an incident context.He explained, “Without context, it will look like an unprovoked gesture. But we encouraged the organizers to do it. Hikaru spoke to Gukesh later and explained that it was all for the show and there was no disrespect.”The situation created a gap in the chess community, some of which considered it fun and others considered it a disrespectful chess tradition.According to Rozian’s explanation, the gesture was planned and encouraged by the organizers of events in the entertainment aspect of the exhibition match.
