Hikaru Nakamura has defended himself against the harsh criticism he received on social media for throwing D Gukesh's King into the audience after his victory over the world champion in the exhibition Checkmate: USA vs India. In addition, Nakamura has proposed a novel way for Gukesh to celebrate if the Indian defeats him in a rematch in India later this year, such as dancing to a Bollywood number.
“Assuming we go to India and play a match in India. I would tell you what Gukesh should do if he wins. He should just stand up, they should queue up the Bollywood music, and he should start dancing or something. He should start dancing on the chessboard in front of me. Something like that. And that would not insult me. That would be no insult whatsoever,” Nakamura said.
Although Gukesh has not commented on the incident, Nakamura has faced heavy criticism from Indian fans and a section of former players, terming the viral act as an insult to the opponent and the game.
It has also come to light that the event organisers had advised players to break into wild celebrations. According to Nakamura no player would ever do that in a real chess competition.
“It was not an insult… If it were a serious event, like the Candidates, of course you would never do such a thing. Nobody would! It doesn’t matter if it was Magnus Carlsen, Hans Niemann, Anish Giri, or me. But this was a purely entertainment event,” Nakamura said on his YouTube stream.
He further explained his action of throwing the King underhanded. “Because of the way the King is shaped, I could not really throw the King like a baseball. If the King were like a baseball, I would have probably thrown it halfway deep. But with the King, I could have actually hurt someone. And there was no other way to give it to the fans… unless I was going to walk and hand it over.”
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