Overview

• Hikaru Nakamura defeated world champion D. Gukesh after draws in the 10-minute and 5-minute games, delivering a back‑rank checkmate in the deciding one‑minute bullet tiebreak.
• Moments after the win in Arlington’s Esports Stadium, Nakamura picked up Gukesh’s king and tossed it to the crowd, a gesture widely shared on video.
• Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik condemned the act as degrading to chess, and FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky called it showmanship he found distasteful.
• Participant Levy Rozman said players were briefed that crowd‑pleasing theatrics, including tossing or toppling kings, were allowed, and Nakamura said he planned the throw and hoped fans enjoyed it.
• Team USA also logged wins by Fabiano Caruana over Arjun Erigaisi, Carissa Yip over Divya Deshmukh, Levy Rozman over Sagar Shah, and Tani Adewumi over Ethan Vaz under a format favoring fast tiebreaks, with a return leg in India to follow where colors will be reversed.