An incident at the ‘Checkmate: USA vs India’ exhibition event in Texas triggered a huge controversy on Sunday after Hikaru Nakamura threw D Gukesh’s king into the crowd after defeating him. The act by the USA’s Nakamura left chess fanatics fuming on social media, with many suggesting that there’s no place for such theatrics in the game of chess. Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik was one of the most vocal critics of the act on social media. However, it has now been reported that the ‘tossing the king’ act was planned by the organisers.
Critics called Nakamura’s act “tasteless,” “vulgar,” and disrespectful, particularly since it was directed at the opponent’s king, a symbol of the game, and was aimed at the reigning World Champion.
“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’s 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,” chess expert Levy Rozman explained in a YouTube video.
Nakamura also shared his reaction to the victory on his YouTube channel, saying it was one of his finest in-person experiences.
“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 said.
That moment when @GMHikaru Nakamura turned around a lost position and checkmated World Champion Gukesh – picking up and throwing Gukesh’s king to the crowd, celebrating the 5-0 win of Team USA over Team India!
Video: @adityasurroy21 pic.twitter.com/GuIlkm0GIe
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) October 5, 2025
Russian chess great Kramnik, however, wasn’t on board with the theatrics, no matter who planned it.
“This is not just vulgarity, but already a diagnosis of the 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.
Kramnik even accused Nakamura of damaging the game in another post: “There are players who show respect and mature gentlemanly behaviour, many prominent players in fact (Wesley So, Gukesh himself, and many others). Promoting for years the player known for his awful behaviour, instead, a deliberate action, is damaging our game in my opinion.”
In the end, the act was only the desire by some players and organisers to embrace flamboyant showmanship to market chess to a wider audience.