The normally staid world of chess has been divided over a flamboyant celebration by one of the game's leading players after he beat the current world champion.
World number two Hikaru Nakamura picked up Gukesh Dommaraju's king and threw the piece into the crowd after sealing a 5-0 whitewash for the United States over India at the Checkmate exhibition event in Arlington, Texas.
"If the future of chess is one where it’s acceptable behaviour to toss opponent’s pieces into the crowd, I'm not sure I want anything to do with it," Singaporean grandmaster Kevin Goh Wei Ming said.
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was even more scathing in his criticism, accusing Nakamura of "damaging our game".
"This is not just vulgarity, but a diagnosis of degradation of modern chess," the Russian grandmaster wrote on X.
"I don’t know who came up with this childish, tasteless act.
"Likely this 'thinker' had no specific intention to humiliate Gukesh, but could have realised that this public gesture (using opponent’s KING) looks offensive and provocative ESPECIALLY against the World Champion."
Nakamura's American teammate, Levy Rozman, later revealed on his popular GothamChess YouTube channel that it had been a prearranged stunt suggested by the event's organisers.
"I understand that without context it seems like Hikaru did that unprovoked and it was like some really disrespectful gesture, but we were encouraged to do that stuff," Rozman said.
"That was kind of the point, this kind of entertainment angle, and the last person was supposed to throw the king into the crowd.
"I don't know if Gukesh would have done that, but Hikaru decided to do it — it was not unprompted."
Rozman said Nakamura had spoken to Gukesh after the match to tell him he had not meant to insult him.
"He was like, 'look, that was obviously all for show and I didn't mean any disrespect,'" Rozman said.
"But the people at home don't know that — they just think that Hikaru is a prick and Gukesh is getting disrespected.
"Please don't listen to that. Have some common sense."
19-year-old Gukesh last year became the youngest chess world champion in history after beating China's Ding Liren in a 14-game series in Singapore.
