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Frustrated Alireza Firouzja leaves arena, Hikaru Nakamura says sorry: What caused chaos at EWC 3rd-place chess match
Chaos erupted during the Chess 3rd place match at the Esports World Cup when Hikaru Nakamura's third-place match was disrupted by a technical glitch.
Controversy broke out on the final day of the Chess final at the Esports World Cup when American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was awarded the third-place match on Saturday. Nakamura was leading Alireza Firouzja 3-1 when a technical glitch brought the game to a lengthy pause. The screens of both competitors went blank, and after minutes of trying to fix the issue, Nakamura and Firouzja were left clueless with no solution in sight. In an ideal scenario, the competitors would have stayed on and waited, but the frustrated Firouzja forfeited the match, got up and left the arena. Nakamura, meanwhile, had no idea what transpired and sat alone for a good 20 minutes before the final verdict was delivered.
After the match was awarded to him, Nakamura blasted Chess.com left, right and centre. But here’s the twist. His outburst stemmed from a misconception. The fault was not at Chess.com’s end, but with the EWC, prompting Nakamura to retract his statement and issue an apology.
“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.
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“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.
