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Garry Kasparov reacts to Hikaru Nakamura's controversial celebration against D Gukesh, Carlsen's coach backs American GM
Chess legend Garry Kasparov came up with a totally cryptic reaction to Hikaru Nakamura's controversial celebration after checkmating D Gukesh.
The recent Checkmate: USA vs India exhibition event saw controversy, with mixed reactions from fans and chess players. Veteran American GM Hikaru Nakamura found himself in the middle of it, as he threw D Gukesh's king after checkmating him on the board in a bullet game.
Team USA clinched a 5-0 victory against India, who were outperformed in all five showdowns. There were some other big names too, like Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, Divya Deshmukh and Carissa Yip.
Also Read: Hikaru Nakamura finds support amid backlash after throwing D Gukesh's king, organisers troll FIDE CEO in brutal remark
But the main spotlight fell on Hikaru after his win against Gukesh, as it sent social media into a state of meltdown. Some reactions supported his celebration, stating that it was needed in chess and it was for entertainment purposes solely. Meanwhile, others like FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky found it disrespectful.
Meanwhile, chess legend Garry Kasparov came up with a totally cryptic reaction, responding to Magnus Carlsen's coach's post on X.
Peter Heine Nielsen, Carlsen's coach, wrote, “There is a lot of things elderly conservative chess-guys like myself find hard to accept. But at least we should agree this makes chess look like a sporting event. Spectators at venue who cares. Teammates who acts like teammates in a sport. Players celebrating when they win.”
Meanwhile, Kasparov had his own special cryptic response.
Reacting to Nielsen's tweet, Kasparov posted:
YouTube Levy Rozman, who was part of Team USA, explained Nakamura's celebration and said it stemmed from the organisers. "Without context, it will look like an unprovoked gesture. But we were encouraged by the organisers to do that stuff. I forgot that if I won my game against ChessBase India’s Sagar Shah, or he won, we were supposed to break the king. It was for the entertainment angle," he said.
"The winner of Gukesh and Hikaru’s game was supposed to toss the king into the fans. I don’t know if Gukesh would have done that. Hikaru spoke to Gukesh later and explained that it was all for show and no disrespect was meant," he added.
