Published on: Oct 08, 2025 06:20 am IST
Hikaru Nakamura’s celebration after defeating D Gukesh in an exhibition event created controversy recently.
After winning the World Chess C’ship, D Gukesh found an arch-rival in Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian, who has been away from the FIDE cycle, criticised the quality of Gukesh’s match against Ding Liren. The pair have faced each other multiple times this year in Norway Chess, Grand Chess Tour 2025 and also in Freestyle Chess. Now the Indian GM has found a rival in Hikaru Nakamura.
The American GM’s celebration after defeating Gukesh in an exhibition event created controversy recently. Nakamura checkmated Gukesh and then threw the Indian GM’s king into the crowd, while continuing to urge them to cheer louder. It wasn’t only a controversy, it also set up a rivalry, which could define chess in the coming years.
So when will D Gukesh face Hikaru Nakamura next?
They are going to face each other later this month at the St. Louis Chess Club, where they will also be joined by Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in an event called Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown. It willt ake place from October 27-29 at the Saint Louis Chess Club.
The format will see another exhibition game between Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov.
Gukesh will also face Nakamura in the Global Chess League later this year. Gukesh will represent the Alaskan Knights, and Nakamura will play for the American Gambits.
Speaking to ChessBase India after his win against Gukesh, Nakamura said, “If I won, I was always going to throw the king. The fact that it was a dramatic bullet game, made it even better. I hope the fans enjoyed it!”
Nakamura used his queen to give a back rank checkmate to Gukesh, and also a bishop was cutting off the escape square. This was after their 10-minute and five-minute games ended in draws, and then veteran GM came out top in the one-minute bullet game.
