Hikaru Nakamura hits back at FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky over 'personal insult', claims he has 'no equity in Freestyle Chess'

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) continued to attack world No 1 Magnus Carlsen and those viewed as his close associates with CEO Emil Sutovsky taking aim at American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in a long post on social networking platform X recently. And like Carlsen, Nakamura came up with a strongly-worded response to Israeli GM Sutovsky’s post in which he questioned the “personal insult” that was directed towards him.

The 37-year-old also claimed that he doesn’t have much to do with Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour – the private tour co-founded by Carlsen that the Lausanne-based world governing body for chess is at loggerheads with currently .

“I’m not the one creating this (the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tour). So I find this really bizarre that I am the one he chooses to attack. I’m not spearheading this. This is being spearheaded by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner. This is a personal insult,” Nakamura said in a video posted on YouTube.

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“I don’t know why he has to try and attack me. I can also make personal attacks but I choose not to. I have no equity in Freestyle Chess. I don’t have any contract with them that I’m going to play every tournament or anything along those lines. So, it’s kind of weird to try and make this in some way about me. It’s funny that I’m apparently the bad guy," added the world No 3.

Also Read | Hikaru Nakamura urges top chess players to boycott FIDE amid Freestyle controversy

Sutovsky had also claimed that FIDE provided “a lot of income” for players, citing the prize fund of US$ 2.5 million in the World Championship and over US$ 2 million in the World Cup.

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One major difference between FIDE events and nearly all the private ones is as follows:

We engage hundreds, thousands of players from all over the World.

Not only very top players, but many strong GMs get a chance. Many rising stars, representatives of countries that get to…

— Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) January 21, 2025

The Japanese-American GM however, responded by describing the FIDE CEO’s claim as “complete horses**t” while adding that top players earned most of their income from non-FIDE events such as Norway Chess.

“This is complete horses**t. This is complete horses**t. The players are not making 2.5 million dollars.”

“All this money gets watered down and players are not making that much money. The top players make most of their money from other events like Norway Chess, Grand Chess Tour and German Bundesliga,” Nakamura added.

The inaugural Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, which gets underway in Weissenhaus next month and will also conduct events in Paris, New York New Delhi and Cape Town, has been co-founded by Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner. Matches are conducted in the unique Freestyle chess format (also known as Chess960) that had been developed by legendary American GM Bobby Fischer.

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FIDE, however, has objected to Carlsen and Buettner labeling the event as a ‘World Championship’, insisting only it has the authority to conduct such events. Carlsen has also been accused of trying to blackmail FIDE into recognising Freestyle Chess.

The Norwegian GM’s recent antics including the jeans controversy at the World Rapid Championship in New York City as well as sharing the blitz world title with Ian Nepomniachtchi seen as attempts to portray FIDE in poor light.