 "World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura defeated reigning Classical world champion D Gukesh as USA defeated India 5-0 in the 'Checkmate' event in Arlington, USA. Image credit: X/@chessclubICC")
‘Checkmate: USA vs India’ turned out to be a surprisingly one-sided affair as the Americans completing a 5-0 sweep against the Indians in Arlington, USA on Sunday. Reigning world champion D Gukesh and Indian No 1 Arjun Erigaisi fell short against world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura and No 3 Fabiano Caruana respectively while Carissa Yip got the better of Divya Deshmukh despite the latter being the higher-ranked player.
Levy Rozman, similarly, defeated Sagar Shah in the battle of the popular streamers while Tanitoluwa Adewumi beat Ethan Vaz in a showdown between chess’ up and coming stars.
USA had home advantage over India not just in terms of the support of the Texan crowd at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, but also due to the fact that they played as white in all five games. The event, however, was not expected to be as one-sided as it turned out to be, especially since India have been something of a chess powerhouse in the recent years, completing a golden sweep at last year’s Olympiad.
Nakamura draws flak for his gesture after beating Gukesh
One of the highlights of the event, meanwhile, was Nakamura defeating an out-of-form Gukesh in what was billed as the main showdown of the evening. The two players produced back-to-back draws before the former triumphed in the bullet game to complete an American sweep.
And being the showman that he is, Nakamura celebrated the victory by picking up Gukesh’s King from the board and tossing it into the crowd . Nakamura, after all, is a popular streamer and is known not just for being quite the animated individual, but also for not holding himself back and speaking his mind from time to time, especially on controversial topics.
That is in complete contrast with the Indian contingent, especially young players such as Gukesh who are known to be quiet and humble and usually let their chess moves do the talking. Gukesh, on the contrary, is someone who takes time out to rearrange the board at the end of a game.
Whether Nakamura intended to disrespect Gukesh and the Indian contingent with his wild gesture or was simply trying to entertain a crowd that is used to watching sports that is infused with copious amounts of showbiz is something that remains to be seen.
It did not, however, go down too well within the chess community, with several criticising Nakamura. Here are select reactions: