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Alireza Firouzja leaves arena, Hikaru Nakamura says sorry: What sparked chaos at Esports World Cup 3rd-place chess match
A technical failure, Alireza Firouzja's walkout, and Hikaru Nakamura's apology turned the third-place chess match at the Esports World Cup 2026 chaotic.
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Paris: Controversy broke out on the day of the Chess final at the Esports World Cup as American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was awarded the third-place match 3-1 against Alireza Firouzja on Saturday. Nakamura was leading Firouzja 2-1 when a technical glitch caused a lengthy pause to the game, and despite efforts to fix the issue, a solution couldn’t be found. Off came the headphones as the arbitrator listened to Nakamura’s concerns. In an ideal scenario, the competitors would have stayed on and waited a whole lot longer, but five minutes into the outage, and frustrated by the situation, Firouzja forfeited the match and left the arena.
Nakamura, meanwhile, had no idea what had transpired as he chatted with the referee. At first, Nakamura expected Alireza to return. But when he didn’t, things got serious. Nakamura’s wait turned into frustration and eventually anger as he sat alone for 20 minutes before the official verdict was delivered.
After the match was awarded to him, Nakamura slammed Chess.com. But here’s the twist: his outburst stemmed from a misconception. The fault lay not with Chess.com, but with the EWC, prompting Nakamura to retract his statement and issue an apology.
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“Today's match with Alireza certainly didn't go well for anyone. It was chaos with multiple disconnections and then Alireza's untimely departure from the event. I was left hanging for 20 minutes until I was finally told that the match would be recorded as a forfeit by Alireza,” he posted on X.
“During this time, I wasn't given any additional information as to the technical issues; I had no access to my phone or anyone outside providing context, and I wrongly assumed it was a chess.com issue because it showed up on my screen as a disconnection first. After the forfeit decision, I was then escorted to do interviews, and I said that I thought it was a chess.com issue and that I was fully frustrated by this. I now know I was wrong."
“It was an EWC issue that took out a few events, not just chess. I wish I had been informed of that before going through the interviews, but I jumped to conclusions and wrongly blamed chess.com for a tech issue that caused this whole problem. I apologise to them for these statements, and I hope this retraction is printed and/or discussed wherever it was originally shown. I am not under duress by the "chess mafia", and no, Danny's not holding my hand on the stove. I definitely misjudged the situation while upset.”
Nakamura had earlier lost to 19-year-old Denis Lazavik in the semi-final on Thursday. Magnus Carlsen eventually won the title, defending it successfully against Lazavik, winning both sets 3-1.
Why Alireza quit
The only possible explanation is that, by the third game, Nakamura led 2-1, and by the fourth, Alireza’s chances were seemingly all but over. Nakamura was on the verge of making it 3-1 when disaster struck. As per the format, the next game begins immediately after the previous one. It can be confirmed by official sources that both players were facing issues throughout the game, and the frustration eventually got the better of Alireza. With no one around to explain what was happening, Nakamura’s patience also began to wear thin, and understandably so.
Why did Nakamura apologise?
The only explanation is that, after Carlsen, Nakamura is the biggest face of Chess.com. Besides, he was already not much of a fan of the EWC’s format. After picking up a win in the first round, Nakamura pointed out that he doesn’t exactly ease into the rules because of the way the matches are structured. This also meant that, even if he and Magnus Carlsen won all their matches, the two would not face each other in the tournament.
“It’s weird. Let’s assume I, Magnus, Alireza, and Nodirbek qualify. But then the other guys play to and fro, and four of them join us on the next round. It’s not my place to criticise, but it definitely is a little bit unusual,” he had said on Wednesday.
Will action be taken against Alireza?
It depends entirely on the stakeholders. If they believe Alireza has let them down, the chess star could land in trouble, including a possible ban from the tournament. The chess grandmaster has a history of being a tad temperamental. At the Tata Steel tournament in 2021, he shouted at arbiters and complained about severe noise disruption. Then, at the 2024 Grenke Chess Open, Alireza declined to play Israeli FIDE Master Or Bronstein in the third round, forfeiting the game in line with Iran’s strict policy against competing with Israeli athletes.
