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‘Throwing pieces or taking off pants…’: Kramnik slams Hikaru Nakamura-D Gukesh controversy supporters in huge accusation
Vladimir Kramnik made a huge accusation towards the supporters of Hikaru Nakamura's controversial celebration against D Gukesh.
Hikaru Nakamura's controversial celebration after defeating D Gukesh has taken social media by storm. The American GM checkmated Gukesh in a bullet game, and then thew the Indian GM's king into the crowd in celebration. Then Hikaru continued to urge the crowd to cheer more as he celebrated his win against the reigning world champion, at Checkmate: USA vs India.
Team USA sealed a 5-0 clean sweep against Gukesh's side. It was a packed venue, and fans also got to see Fabiano Caruana defeat Arjun Erigaisi. Meanwhile, Carissa Yip bagged a win against Divya Deshmukh.
Also Read: Garry Kasparov reacts to Hikaru Nakamura's controversial celebration against D Gukesh, Carlsen's coach backs American GM
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was aghast by Hikaru's celebration and labelled it a 'degradation of modern chess' on X.
YouTuber Levy Rozman, who was part of Team USA, later clarified Hikaru's celebration as pre-planned by the organisers. Meanwhile, the organisers also claimed on X that the players were asked to behave in that way. Meanwhile, supporters have explained that such gestures attract more fans and also entertain them.
Vladimir Kramnik slams Hikaru Nakamura-D Gukesh supporters
Kramnik took to X to dissect such claims and pointed out that 'private interests are driving them'.
"These people, "chessgrowers", are trying to hide, that majority of chess fans prefer watching serious chess. It is clear by stat reports. Yet, private interests are driving them to pretend and try to convince us that the opposite is true, by throwing pieces in particular", he wrote.
"I have information about spectator numbers of different tournaments live streaming, and throwing pieces or taking of pants would not change the trend. But only damage the chess image, that was build for centuries, of a respectful cultural and intellectual competition", he continued in another tweet."
After drawing their 10-minute and five-minute games, Gukesh and Nakamura faced each other in the one-minute bullet game. The game ended with Hikaru's queen checkmating Gukesh, and also using another bishop to cut off the escape square.
