 "Nakamura gambles on a Nepomniachtchi-inspired opening in clash against Erigaisi. Image: Reuters")
The Paris leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour featured one of the wildest games of the tournament so far, as American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi delivered a chaotic, edge-of-the-seat battle on the first day of the quarterfinals .
The game was headlined by Nakamura’s bold experiment with what is now being dubbed the ‘Nepo gambit.’ The newly coined opening idea, inspired by the current World Blitz Chess Champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, saw Nakamura lose his advantage early on, with Erigaisi holding the edge for the first 20 moves at least.
Nakamura on testing the Nepo gambit
Nakamura, trusting Nepo’s suggestion from the pre-game prep room, committed to the plan. But it didn’t take long for regret to creep in.
“Apparently I did a good job of acting there if you think I looked happy. Because for pretty much the first 1.5 hours, I literally wanted to get up from my board and strangle Nepo!” Nakamura said after the game.
But if there’s one thing Nakamura is renowned for, it’s his resilience. As complications piled up, Arjun slipped, handing the American a chance to catch up. Nakamura seized the opportunity and the game ended in a draw.
In his post-match analysis, Nakamura spoke candidly about the gambit and emphasised that his comments were made in jest, urging fans not to direct any criticism toward Nepomniachtchi.
“For anyone who’s wondering, this is position number 841, I mentioned that because I think from now on we should refer to this as the Nepo Gambit as this was his great idea. I actually felt really good. I trusted Ian’s analysis. But Arjun, who is a very principled player, simply takes the pawn and then goes g3. And suddenly I’m in trouble,” Nakamura said on his YouTube channel.
“I made a little bit of a joke after the game ended — about how I wanted to strangle Nepo because I got a bad position and how you should never trust the Russian. I’m putting this at the very start of the video so that nobody tries to blow this out of proportion create some fake drama that simply doesn’t exist as I was making a joke," he added.