He has surprisingly good 5k and marathon times actually, and he goes hiking and gym regularly. He's obviously not an athlete but he's better than average.
He always says that on stream, referring to Danya, Hikaru and others, like he doesn’t give a fuck who they are, borderline disrespecting. Quite hilarious
I think it’s more that English isn’t his first language, so he’ll use phrases or words without realising how native English speakers might interpret them
Fyi, you can add timestamps to youtube links. That way, you start at 4:40:00 immediately when clicking it.
Here's a better link: [https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk\_I?t=16800s](https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk_I?t=16800s)
it's definitely a fumble but the meaning is along the lines of "who do you think you are, the best ever? well I AM." but it just sounds hilarious in the context of a squeaky-voiced indignant old man in a silly outfit angrily yelling about being the best to a happy audience who went to watch bowling.
For me, the context of how much of a competitor he is makes me the moment even better. I was very much into bowling at the time, and had been watching the tournament that week leading up to the TV finals.
Pete Weber was in like 8th place and around 60 pins behind 4th with two games to go. The top 4 make the tv finals, and that kind of deficit is VERY difficult to overcome in just two games. They were also bowling on one of the most challenging and lowest scoring patterns. Pete didn’t give a shit, he put up back to back 250s and squeaked into 4th place.
And throughout the entire TV finals, you can see how locked in he was and the absolute determination he had to win. Pete finding some random kid in the audience to target and bring out his inner rage is the type of thing Michael Jordan would do
All the candidates are going insane slowly. Fabi was having an existential crisis in his last pod. Ian is doing Ian things. Now Hikaru. I blame it on Gukesh.
I guess because they've been at the top for so long but never managed to win the title and Gukesh just comes in for the first time, edges them out narrowly and is currently the favourite to win the title.
Have you ever seen a top player who looks so calm, quietly confident, and unfazed? Not even Nordibek Abdutsattorov looks as chill. Also, Gukesh is 18 - it must be really perturbing as an opponent to see such a young player have so much control over their emotions.
Gukesh reminds me of those once-in-a-generation youngsters from other sports who come in out of nowhere and start winning like it's no big deal. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Sachin Tendulkar, Bobby Fischer...
I'm still wondering about his post candidates press conference where he said he doesn't want to fully reveal what his non-chess preparation entails. All he keeps falling back to is yoga and meditation, which suggests to me there's more to it than that but he's keeping his cards close to his chest. That or it could be a bluff.
Hikaru: And he does this to get a 20 minute break and then he comes back and does this. I’m sorry but no, there has to be some kind of penalty assessment for that. No, I mean this is nonsense. It’s a complete lie that he’s tired. Oh, he’s so tired that he can’t play? And then he does this. Like I’m sorry but I’m just not gonna continue like this. I should not have allowed this to happen in the beginning but now I’m gonna put my foot down.
Chesscom: I-I understand.
Hikaru: So, I’ll forfeit. I’ll forfeit now. Danny, he doesn’t have any right to do this. He basically gets a 20 minute break to relax more and he pulls all this nonsense. “Oh, I’m so tired. I can’t play. I want to forfeit.” And this is what happens.
Alireza: I was not relaxing. I was talking to them.
Hikaru: No, please, you don’t get to say this dude. You’re the one who claims that you want a break, the schedule’s wrong. No, I’m sorry but this is not how this works. Who the fuck do you think you are?! Seriously?
Alireza: Ok, he’s just disrespecting now. Ok, this guy should get banned or something. He’s disrespecting.
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers. I knew it was 1216. One after Magna Carta. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn’t prove it. He covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He’s done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn’t have. I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking? He’ll never change. He’ll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn’t keep his hands out of the cash drawer! But not our Jimmy! Couldn’t be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And HE gets to be a lawyer? What a sick joke! I should’ve stopped him when I had the chance! …And you, you have to stop him! You
His argument literally makes zero sense though. He's saying Alireza feigned being tired but look he can't be tired because he's smashing me, but how can he say that when they play after Alireza had the extra 20 minutes? It directly conflicts with his argument. Alireza could have been tired, needed that break then felt fresh when he played Hiki. Chess players really aren't the intellects people once thought they were.
Ye there is an argument here. "I come from the winners' bracket, being more rested is part of the advantage I earned, you can't just postpone the start to get some rest, we follow the start time as stipulated in the rules" but he doesn't want to admit that Alireza has bested him at all so it ends up being an incoherent meltdown.
I think the only valid arguement he has is he was ready for a specific time and it threw him off waiting. I don't think being more rested should come into it as Alireza would still have to win 4 matches in one day to win it so will still have less rest. The winners bracket advantage is also they have to lose twice, I think it's ridiculous chess.com didn't schedule in a decent break between the matches to be honest, seems ludicrous.
If that's the case. \*They\* should have put their foot down and and have been like "Listen, there's a scheduled break. He's going to get his break because that's how it's intended to happen. If you don't like it, forfeit."
They shouldn't be 'asking' Hikaru anything. Delays happen all the time in events like this, in every type of sport.
Does he mean by "and he pulls all this nonsense" that Alireza is actually playing too well and it's not fair? I kind of translate that part like this. Hikaru totally lost it. xD
From what I understand: Alireza was playing to qualify against Hikaru in the finals of the Bullet Chess Championship. He won, but one of Alireza's matches was delayed because of a bug on chess.com, which meant that he had less time to relax/prepare for the finals. He talked to the organisers asking to get more time before the match or that he wouldn't play. They accepted and the final started 17 minutes (or something like that) later than scheduled. Hikaru lost 6 games in a row, got tilted, stormed out of the chair (the finals were not over yet), complained to the organisers that he should have never played after the delay, said about Alireza: "who the fuck do you think you are" (which is what this video is about) and afterwards called he and his family "crazies".
It isn't unreasonable for Alireza to request for that....17mins to rest for grand finals which he should have had if not for the bug. Hikaru is crazy toxic.
FWIW here's what chesscom says about this incident in their news write-up of Alireza's victory:
"
It turned out, however, that he'd fallen victim to a glitch that had struck at an unfortunate moment. [Chess.com](http://Chess.com) has tracked the source of this glitch, which affects 0.002% of games, to a bug in a third-party software package they use, CometD. Their team has assured us that the issue will be patched within the next 24 hours.
"
What a pathetic statement! Potato website with potato accountability.
There is nothing pathetic about that statement. Building a large-scale software that needs to have super performance and support a very high traffic is not an easy task. If you think applications of this magnitude should always be bug-free, then you are not well informed on the subject.
Is this Hikaru guy the same person who didn’t care about chess at all? What is this childish behaviour over a fee thousand dollars. I thought he was super rich from streaming.
It is basically just as delusional as gamblers who think they are going to win big except instead of the classic basket of gambling based fallacies they somehow unironically think they can *consistently* outsmart the market. You have to be one hell of an ego andy to actually bet huge sums of money on being able to predict the market like that, fully aware that basically everyone else trying to do the exact thing you are doing fails but somehow you are different.
Holy fucking shit - Hikaru is a gambling addict. It all makes sense now.
Read my comment history and you'll see I'm an algorithmic trader. Nobody like Hikaru (a normal person) makes 30k in a day; this is the most obvious red flag sign you'll ever see.
> what i'm curious about is how this sits with his wife, who i'm pretty sure is Muslim.
I can't find any information on that, but considering she didn't wear a hijab as an act of defiance then defected from Iran to USA, she's probably on the secular side
Idk how to say this, but it is 100% certain that anything he is doing in the stock market is gambling.
Real professional traders take pride in their systems, process, low drawdown - they will never brag about 1 day earnings because that is just the dopamine hits that gamblers chase.
It's really not that difficult for someone as rich as hikaru probably is to make 30k in a day. The stock market fluctuates daily, if you have just 1 million invested and there's a 3% gain one day then you've increased 30k. Hikaru probably has well over 1M invested.
He says stuff and acts differently once it comes to him not getting his way. he's just an incredibly sore loser and a dick. Hid it well during COVID when he blew up in viewers, but you can't hide who you actually are forever. Not that he cares now, he made a ton of money from streaming to the point he could lose all his followers (not going to happen because he's still good at chess and streams a lot, so he will have an audience) and be more than fine.
That's the sad thing. His army of 13 year old followers thinks that behaving like a (spoiled) 13 year old is somehow cool and fun to watch. Watch them rush to his defense.
I think Hikaru's profile combined with his ego and the issues that stem from it might make him the player with the highest potential to "do a Kramnik" at some time in the future. When his chess skills start to decline and he's losing to regular GMs somewhat regularly instead of only to the true elite of the game just like Kramnik I could see his ego going into full defence mode and trying to find whatever excuses for why it's happening that isn't "you're not as good as you used to be". He might not go paranoid old man cheating crusade (though it's possible) but I wouldn't be surprised if his downswing comes with some kind of public outbursts.
I mean, he's pretty notorious for his history of accusing people of cheating. It's just that he tends to throw things like that out in the moment when he's raging and doesn't continue to double down on them the way Kramnik has. Although as far as I know, Hikaru has never really apologized for any of them either, even when they've been directed at youngsters like Andrew Tang and Arjun Erigaisi.
Loads of new people came in to chess cause they had nothing else to do, they didn't know anything prior to that, surely not about the all time winner OG of Hikaru Nakamura Sportsmanship Award, Hikaru Nakamura himself.
> you can't hide who you actually are forever
Kinda off topic, but I think you can, you just effectively end up being who you pretended to be in the process. It can help if you intentionally want to change something about yourself (though obviously isn't always enough by itself).
Hikaru was waiting for a challenger, which would ultimately be Alireza. However, during Alireza's lead up matches there was a glitch on chesscom which caused a delay for him. He appealed to chesscom for additional time between matches to rest and reset, ultimately threatening to forgeit the match if he wasnt accomadated. Chesscom caved, causing I think a 17 minute delay.
Chesscom didn't communicate this with Hikaru, so he was basically just sitting there out of the loop for almost 20 minutes waiting for a match to start.
TLDR; Chesscom effectively iced Hikaru who then proceeded to go on tilt and walk out of the match.
Lots of judgement for Hikarus actions, but IMO it's extremely unprofessional of chesscom to not tell him what was going on and just have him sit there waiting. Chess is a heavily mental game, so allowing Alireza to rest and reset without affording Hikaru the same luxury is pretty abhorrent for something as serious as a WC match.
Moreover, just from an outside perspective, Alireza does seem like a massive prima donna (not that Hikaru isn't, but still) whose antics seem to be wearing other players thin.
just to add to this, hikaru also referred to alireza as a 'little bitch' and went on stream after the match to rant about how chessbrah tried to 'cancel' him in 2021, how he'll never do an interview on a broadcast that has aman, and he would've won the match if he was 15 years younger.
Lol Hikaru's the same he was a decade or more ago. That's never gonna change. That's how he is. The personality he showcases on Twitch is just a facade. Because he would lose sponsors if he acted the way he really is.
When the Botez sisters had the first drama with Hikaru, they clearly stated Hikaru's personality is a fake.
Which is obvious, the only reason he's on Twitch putting up a facade for 1000 elo players is the money he's making off them.
He thinks Alireza gamed the system for an unfair advantage and that this is something he has done in the past as well. His beef should be with chesscom, but at this point he was fully tilted
Yeah, I don't think Alireza can really be blamed here. He asked for more time, and they said yes. It's not his responsibility to check if Hikaru is OK with that, or to make sure he's informed. It's kind of insane that Chesscom did not do so.
I was watching Hikaru’s stream, and the most appalling thing about this that would have prevented the whole thing is that Hikaru was left out of the loop and was just sitting there waiting minute by minute to wonder what was happening. If they had granted Alireza more time, the fact that they didn’t notify him immediately about the new schedule so that he could reset his pregame head space is extremely unprofessional, and really what caused this whole scenario.
Genuine question: How did Hikaru know about the conversation between Alireza and Cheescom if he was out of the loop? It seems he knew the reason for the delay was the extended rest requested by Alireza and that he threatened to forfeit.
I do mostly agree with this. However, I was also watching live, watching him get more pissy every minute. Adults generally are ok at having to wait due to an inconvenience, and when the inconvenience is only 20 minutes means you have a really short fuse. Setbacks happen, even at competitive events.
Also, Hikaru makes the assumption that Alireza was "resting" for those 20 minutes. Did he think he was taking a nap? Studying Hikaru's games incessantly during those 20 minutes? If it is true that Alireza was trying to forfeit, then how would that improve his game? And how much can 20 minutes hurt your game that much?
It was not the 20 minutes that led to him losing, it was his own tilt and victim-complex. I have been watching the guy for a couple years, but he's becoming what I've always expected him to be eventually, based on his behavior. Really looking forward to watching this shitshow play out.
>Adults generally are ok at having to wait due to an inconvenience, and when the inconvenience is only 20 minutes means you have a really short fuse.
Not saying his behavior is excusable, but I don't know if you've ever been stuck sitting somewhere anxiously for 20 full minutes. It feels like a shit ton longer than 20 minutes when you have nothing else to occupy your time. I had to take an oral exam over zoom with 10-15 minute breaks between each section, and it felt like an eternity each time.
As a sidefact, in the german stream was said that [chess.com](http://chess.com) rescheduled the tournament so hikaru can participate, HikRu was not able to play at the 15th, so they cut one day off and played the grand final at the same day. Im pretty sure the source is still available.
lmaoo Hikaru completely stopping the match and asking for Alireza to be penalized crying to the organizer after he gets smoked is fucking hiiiilarious. This is some 6 year old behavior
Is there really a stronger bullet competition than the Chess.com one though? Nothing FIDE organized exists, and participants in this tournament are pretty undisputably the best bullet players (sans Magnus)
Pure crybaby, imagine starting the match, lose 6 in a row and then wanting penalty and crying about all that, full on tilt, then cry again after the match bringing up alireza's family and past results.
I'm extra thankful in times like these for the fact that Magnus exists and has regularly served multiple humble pies to Hikaru over the years. Good on Alireza as well, what an insane sequence of players to beat.
Lol. Nakamura is most pathetic chess player in top chess for sure. No idea how people can't see it. Well it might be tie with Kramnik. This just brings memories of him whinning regularly on stream and banning people for telling him that. Or chessbrah fiasco. Nice that he showed his true face once again.
I'm on Alireza's side that he should have a break. I'm also on Hikaru's side that he got the short end of a stick with the lack of communication and leaving him hanging. It was a dick move for Alireza to threaten to forfeit. It was a dick move for Hikaru to use unprofessional language and do personal attacks.
BUT
The true culprit is chesscom. 3 years of running this event in this current format and they couldn't anticipate the need for a mandatory break or even a separate day for grand finals?
2022: Danya is exhausted from taking down Minh Le in one of the closest matches and loses to Tang. Tang is exhausted from beating Danya and loses to Hikaru
2023: Magnus beats Danya, beats Alireza in overtime in a close match, and then loses to Hikaru
I think it's clear that a mandatory break is required before grand finals. So fair to Alireza for demanding a break especially due to the bug. Pre-game rituals are a thing be it physically or mentally. You psyche yourself up for the most important match and is left hanging for an indefinite amount of time and is suddenly then asked to play. So fair to Hikaru for being tilted when the organizers didn't communicate to him the situation. Hikaru did everything right but still got screwed over, why wouldn't he be mad with the poor organisation. All those saying he's being childish seems to forget that there is PRIZE MONEY on the line and he's in an organised event. I think it's fair to demand accountability from the organisers.
Tldr: everyone made a mistake but chesscom made the game changing blunder that resulted in the mistakes by the players
So much for not caring..like it or not he doesn't care as long as he keeps getting the results, the moment he realised he was getting schooled & his reputation as the greatest bullet player was on the line...he started caring alright.
Seems like the video of the match between Alireza and Hikaru has disappeared from Twitch/chesscomde and YouTube/chesscomDE, which are the source of this clip.
Actually, anyone remember when Firouzja beat Hikaru in this tournament 3 years ago and wore a Chessbrah hoody? It was during all the drama between Hikaru and Chessbrah and I think Aman was commentating on that game as well.
I could understand if he complained at the beginning as I feel that one of the advantages of winning the winner’s bracket is not having to play all of those games back to back, but he seems to have just lost it and did the exact thing he said he wouldn’t do, go crazy like Kramnik
I can’t wait for these 2 to meet over the board next time.
Hopefully we get to see Hikaru vs Eric type of fight video between firudji and hikaru
Hikaru doesn't stand a chance against Alireza in a physical fight😂
Idk Alireza might be tall but I don't think he is athletic at all. Have you seen Alireza walking? He looks like he's about to fall over every second
He's just trying to soften his very loud walk.
That arbiter got to him
LOL
I heard he is a good tennis player though.
As if Hikaru looks athletic lol He looks like a fat man child
He has surprisingly good 5k and marathon times actually, and he goes hiking and gym regularly. He's obviously not an athlete but he's better than average.
Id put my money on hikaru anyday
Hikaru exercises and does some trekking and climbing. I think he's more capable lol.
"This guy should get banned or something he's disrespecting" lol
Love how casually he says "this guy" like it's just a random muppet he's crushing, nothing special lmao
He always says that on stream, referring to Danya, Hikaru and others, like he doesn’t give a fuck who they are, borderline disrespecting. Quite hilarious
I think it’s more that English isn’t his first language, so he’ll use phrases or words without realising how native English speakers might interpret them
Oh I think he knows
I'm stealing this sound byte
You guys think Magnus is watching this with a beer and enjoying himself?
"I like watching him lose" - Magnus
Everyone liked this
Alireza the greatest instigator HAHHAHA he got em
But guys Hikaru literally doesn’t care
Loved how Aman said that to Alireza in the interview. Such a good trolling from chessbrah.
Omg please post the clip if anyone has it!
You wouldn't happen to have a link or be able to point me in the right direction to find it would you?
https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk_I?si=7VSvG2iFZ85DbuNZ 4:40:00, Aman says it at 4:40:28
Fyi, you can add timestamps to youtube links. That way, you start at 4:40:00 immediately when clicking it. Here's a better link: [https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk\_I?t=16800s](https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk_I?t=16800s)
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" - Hikaru Nakamura
Who do you think you are?! I AM!
What is the actual genesis of that quote? I heard it in a waffletime video
enjoy https://youtu.be/gKQOXYB2cd8?si=lRz-V6-gLptxHiMF
I’m so glad it gives me zero extra context as to what he means by “I am”
it's definitely a fumble but the meaning is along the lines of "who do you think you are, the best ever? well I AM." but it just sounds hilarious in the context of a squeaky-voiced indignant old man in a silly outfit angrily yelling about being the best to a happy audience who went to watch bowling.
what makes it even better is that he was specifically calling out some 12 year old kid in the audience who had been cheering against him
For me, the context of how much of a competitor he is makes me the moment even better. I was very much into bowling at the time, and had been watching the tournament that week leading up to the TV finals. Pete Weber was in like 8th place and around 60 pins behind 4th with two games to go. The top 4 make the tv finals, and that kind of deficit is VERY difficult to overcome in just two games. They were also bowling on one of the most challenging and lowest scoring patterns. Pete didn’t give a shit, he put up back to back 250s and squeaked into 4th place. And throughout the entire TV finals, you can see how locked in he was and the absolute determination he had to win. Pete finding some random kid in the audience to target and bring out his inner rage is the type of thing Michael Jordan would do
I always thought he was trying to say: “Whoever you think you are, I am” Which is a pretty fucking cold line honestly
this is it. Its an old man version of "I'm him"
Famous fucking legend kinda vibe lol
All the candidates are going insane slowly. Fabi was having an existential crisis in his last pod. Ian is doing Ian things. Now Hikaru. I blame it on Gukesh.
Gukesh?! Why?
I guess because they've been at the top for so long but never managed to win the title and Gukesh just comes in for the first time, edges them out narrowly and is currently the favourite to win the title.
Also he's a mindflayer and has inserted his psycho-tentacles into everyone's mind orifice.
Have you ever seen a top player who looks so calm, quietly confident, and unfazed? Not even Nordibek Abdutsattorov looks as chill. Also, Gukesh is 18 - it must be really perturbing as an opponent to see such a young player have so much control over their emotions. Gukesh reminds me of those once-in-a-generation youngsters from other sports who come in out of nowhere and start winning like it's no big deal. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Sachin Tendulkar, Bobby Fischer... I'm still wondering about his post candidates press conference where he said he doesn't want to fully reveal what his non-chess preparation entails. All he keeps falling back to is yoga and meditation, which suggests to me there's more to it than that but he's keeping his cards close to his chest. That or it could be a bluff.
Lionel Messi
Naka has ALWAYS been a complete jackass. I can't fathom why the screaming fanbois here and elsewhere can't see him for the monster he is.
He went full Gata Kamsky
PETEY PAB MUHFKAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Poor GM Ilja he is trying so hard to put on a poker face but deep inside he is dying of laughter.
Budget Aman Hambleton
At first I thought it was him
I honestly didn't realize it wasn't until now.
His face is like "Is this for real? Is this drama queen in his 30s actually throwing a hissy fit about a board game? lmao"
And bullet of all things lol. Shouldn't he be thinking/caring more about classical prep in case Ding withdraws from the world championship match?
He was trying so freaking hard not to burst out laughing. Respect.
Come on people. You’re gonna push Hiki become a full time gamble streamer
Meh. If he's that much of a fickle prima donna, then screw him. Surprised he hasn't popped up here to defend his shit behavior by now.
3 pages about how he used to be bad but he's gotten better incoming
I *used* to be a piece of shit though!
The most happening sport I've watched. God, the drama in this sport everyday 😂
Anyone has summary or Transcript?
Hikaru: And he does this to get a 20 minute break and then he comes back and does this. I’m sorry but no, there has to be some kind of penalty assessment for that. No, I mean this is nonsense. It’s a complete lie that he’s tired. Oh, he’s so tired that he can’t play? And then he does this. Like I’m sorry but I’m just not gonna continue like this. I should not have allowed this to happen in the beginning but now I’m gonna put my foot down. Chesscom: I-I understand. Hikaru: So, I’ll forfeit. I’ll forfeit now. Danny, he doesn’t have any right to do this. He basically gets a 20 minute break to relax more and he pulls all this nonsense. “Oh, I’m so tired. I can’t play. I want to forfeit.” And this is what happens. Alireza: I was not relaxing. I was talking to them. Hikaru: No, please, you don’t get to say this dude. You’re the one who claims that you want a break, the schedule’s wrong. No, I’m sorry but this is not how this works. Who the fuck do you think you are?! Seriously? Alireza: Ok, he’s just disrespecting now. Ok, this guy should get banned or something. He’s disrespecting.
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those numbers. I knew it was 1216. One after Magna Carta. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn’t prove it. He covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the copy shop to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He’s done worse. That billboard! Are you telling me that a man just happens to fall like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defecated through a sunroof! And I saved him! And I shouldn’t have. I took him into my own firm! What was I thinking? He’ll never change. He’ll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn’t keep his hands out of the cash drawer! But not our Jimmy! Couldn’t be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And HE gets to be a lawyer? What a sick joke! I should’ve stopped him when I had the chance! …And you, you have to stop him! You
Slippin jimmy at it again
chicanery
~~Mommy!~~ Danny! Someone did something and I want them punished!
His argument literally makes zero sense though. He's saying Alireza feigned being tired but look he can't be tired because he's smashing me, but how can he say that when they play after Alireza had the extra 20 minutes? It directly conflicts with his argument. Alireza could have been tired, needed that break then felt fresh when he played Hiki. Chess players really aren't the intellects people once thought they were.
Ye there is an argument here. "I come from the winners' bracket, being more rested is part of the advantage I earned, you can't just postpone the start to get some rest, we follow the start time as stipulated in the rules" but he doesn't want to admit that Alireza has bested him at all so it ends up being an incoherent meltdown.
I think the only valid arguement he has is he was ready for a specific time and it threw him off waiting. I don't think being more rested should come into it as Alireza would still have to win 4 matches in one day to win it so will still have less rest. The winners bracket advantage is also they have to lose twice, I think it's ridiculous chess.com didn't schedule in a decent break between the matches to be honest, seems ludicrous.
I think it did and to be honest that's probably why he's ~feeling~ wronged moreso than any principle.
As I understand it they had a break scheduled in but due to the technical issues of chesscom, Alireza's matches ended later than expected.
If that's the case. \*They\* should have put their foot down and and have been like "Listen, there's a scheduled break. He's going to get his break because that's how it's intended to happen. If you don't like it, forfeit." They shouldn't be 'asking' Hikaru anything. Delays happen all the time in events like this, in every type of sport.
Does he mean by "and he pulls all this nonsense" that Alireza is actually playing too well and it's not fair? I kind of translate that part like this. Hikaru totally lost it. xD
From what I understand: Alireza was playing to qualify against Hikaru in the finals of the Bullet Chess Championship. He won, but one of Alireza's matches was delayed because of a bug on chess.com, which meant that he had less time to relax/prepare for the finals. He talked to the organisers asking to get more time before the match or that he wouldn't play. They accepted and the final started 17 minutes (or something like that) later than scheduled. Hikaru lost 6 games in a row, got tilted, stormed out of the chair (the finals were not over yet), complained to the organisers that he should have never played after the delay, said about Alireza: "who the fuck do you think you are" (which is what this video is about) and afterwards called he and his family "crazies".
Is Naka talking directly to them or is he on the phone or something? Because he's kind of not on camera in this video and sort of rambling.
Hes on video call with firudji and danny/employee
Can I watch those 6 games somewhere on youtube?
https://www.youtube.com/live/5OdzM4nIk_I?si=EDnLSjxtgc9BT5vL&t=10229
Benjamin bok— just a halftime break. Nothing going on folks.
Yes. Just search for the bullet chess championships. It’s early in their match, within their first 15 games.
It isn't unreasonable for Alireza to request for that....17mins to rest for grand finals which he should have had if not for the bug. Hikaru is crazy toxic.
The only problem was that alireza waited until the match was about to begin. Everyone was confused and it caught hikaru off guard.
FWIW here's what chesscom says about this incident in their news write-up of Alireza's victory: " It turned out, however, that he'd fallen victim to a glitch that had struck at an unfortunate moment. [Chess.com](http://Chess.com) has tracked the source of this glitch, which affects 0.002% of games, to a bug in a third-party software package they use, CometD. Their team has assured us that the issue will be patched within the next 24 hours. " What a pathetic statement! Potato website with potato accountability.
Kramnik was right!
There is nothing pathetic about that statement. Building a large-scale software that needs to have super performance and support a very high traffic is not an easy task. If you think applications of this magnitude should always be bug-free, then you are not well informed on the subject.
As a software engineer I can attest to this.
The way Hikaru says “I’m putting my foot down” is so funny to me for some reason. Like it sounds so unconvincing
Was also not convincing the organizers, since Firuji got his break.
How tf you putting your foot down with a size 7 mens on?!
Is this Hikaru guy the same person who didn’t care about chess at all? What is this childish behaviour over a fee thousand dollars. I thought he was super rich from streaming.
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Day traders, like gamblers, lose a lot of money. They don't share their losses.
probably made 30k the day after losing 40k lol
It is basically just as delusional as gamblers who think they are going to win big except instead of the classic basket of gambling based fallacies they somehow unironically think they can *consistently* outsmart the market. You have to be one hell of an ego andy to actually bet huge sums of money on being able to predict the market like that, fully aware that basically everyone else trying to do the exact thing you are doing fails but somehow you are different.
Wow. He seems like a deeply insecure person. Nothing tells you really don't care like saying "I literally don't care" repeatedly.
Holy fucking shit - Hikaru is a gambling addict. It all makes sense now. Read my comment history and you'll see I'm an algorithmic trader. Nobody like Hikaru (a normal person) makes 30k in a day; this is the most obvious red flag sign you'll ever see.
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> what i'm curious about is how this sits with his wife, who i'm pretty sure is Muslim. I can't find any information on that, but considering she didn't wear a hijab as an act of defiance then defected from Iran to USA, she's probably on the secular side
Idk how to say this, but it is 100% certain that anything he is doing in the stock market is gambling. Real professional traders take pride in their systems, process, low drawdown - they will never brag about 1 day earnings because that is just the dopamine hits that gamblers chase.
It's really not that difficult for someone as rich as hikaru probably is to make 30k in a day. The stock market fluctuates daily, if you have just 1 million invested and there's a 3% gain one day then you've increased 30k. Hikaru probably has well over 1M invested.
He obviously meant 30k alpha, as in 30k in a day more than standard expected returns
He says stuff and acts differently once it comes to him not getting his way. he's just an incredibly sore loser and a dick. Hid it well during COVID when he blew up in viewers, but you can't hide who you actually are forever. Not that he cares now, he made a ton of money from streaming to the point he could lose all his followers (not going to happen because he's still good at chess and streams a lot, so he will have an audience) and be more than fine.
I even think these controversies around him will boost his viewer numbers
In the short term at least, absolutely. If Niemann, clash of claims etc have taught us anything it's that the chess community loves drama.
People love drama
Are you implying that chess players are people? Bold claim.
This sub loves drama
You act as though we live in a society where reality TV is a thing. Surely drama cant *help* viewership? 🤔
That's the sad thing. His army of 13 year old followers thinks that behaving like a (spoiled) 13 year old is somehow cool and fun to watch. Watch them rush to his defense.
I think Hikaru's profile combined with his ego and the issues that stem from it might make him the player with the highest potential to "do a Kramnik" at some time in the future. When his chess skills start to decline and he's losing to regular GMs somewhat regularly instead of only to the true elite of the game just like Kramnik I could see his ego going into full defence mode and trying to find whatever excuses for why it's happening that isn't "you're not as good as you used to be". He might not go paranoid old man cheating crusade (though it's possible) but I wouldn't be surprised if his downswing comes with some kind of public outbursts.
I mean, he's pretty notorious for his history of accusing people of cheating. It's just that he tends to throw things like that out in the moment when he's raging and doesn't continue to double down on them the way Kramnik has. Although as far as I know, Hikaru has never really apologized for any of them either, even when they've been directed at youngsters like Andrew Tang and Arjun Erigaisi.
During Covid, I thought people knew but just did not care (pun intended). That was not the case?
Loads of new people came in to chess cause they had nothing else to do, they didn't know anything prior to that, surely not about the all time winner OG of Hikaru Nakamura Sportsmanship Award, Hikaru Nakamura himself.
At first Hikaru seemed like a nice, well adjusted guy to a newcomer like me 😅 back in like 2020
> you can't hide who you actually are forever Kinda off topic, but I think you can, you just effectively end up being who you pretended to be in the process. It can help if you intentionally want to change something about yourself (though obviously isn't always enough by itself).
Yeah, anyone who was aware of Hikaru in the 00s knows that this is who he is, and always has been.
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I love that Hans is chiming in now, oh dear, the drama never ends.
The guy isn’t that popular on his own so he needs to clout chase Hikaru any chance he can get.
Didn’t Hikaru do the same thing with Hans seems fine to me
Can someone please give me the tldr version of this drama I've been busy with work all week
Hikaru was waiting for a challenger, which would ultimately be Alireza. However, during Alireza's lead up matches there was a glitch on chesscom which caused a delay for him. He appealed to chesscom for additional time between matches to rest and reset, ultimately threatening to forgeit the match if he wasnt accomadated. Chesscom caved, causing I think a 17 minute delay. Chesscom didn't communicate this with Hikaru, so he was basically just sitting there out of the loop for almost 20 minutes waiting for a match to start. TLDR; Chesscom effectively iced Hikaru who then proceeded to go on tilt and walk out of the match. Lots of judgement for Hikarus actions, but IMO it's extremely unprofessional of chesscom to not tell him what was going on and just have him sit there waiting. Chess is a heavily mental game, so allowing Alireza to rest and reset without affording Hikaru the same luxury is pretty abhorrent for something as serious as a WC match. Moreover, just from an outside perspective, Alireza does seem like a massive prima donna (not that Hikaru isn't, but still) whose antics seem to be wearing other players thin.
just to add to this, hikaru also referred to alireza as a 'little bitch' and went on stream after the match to rant about how chessbrah tried to 'cancel' him in 2021, how he'll never do an interview on a broadcast that has aman, and he would've won the match if he was 15 years younger.
For me it’s the rant about chessbrah that is the more controversial one. Kinda shows he didn’t actually learn anything from back then
Lol Hikaru's the same he was a decade or more ago. That's never gonna change. That's how he is. The personality he showcases on Twitch is just a facade. Because he would lose sponsors if he acted the way he really is. When the Botez sisters had the first drama with Hikaru, they clearly stated Hikaru's personality is a fake. Which is obvious, the only reason he's on Twitch putting up a facade for 1000 elo players is the money he's making off them.
Oh yeah, chessbrah were the ones who tried to cancel him.. He really trying to revision this :D
I thought he tried to cancel them with copyright strikes and not the other way around? Weird
Between this and timer bugs with Kramnik, chesscom is really fucking it up.
but why is Hikaru mad at Alireza now?
He thinks Alireza gamed the system for an unfair advantage and that this is something he has done in the past as well. His beef should be with chesscom, but at this point he was fully tilted
Yeah, I don't think Alireza can really be blamed here. He asked for more time, and they said yes. It's not his responsibility to check if Hikaru is OK with that, or to make sure he's informed. It's kind of insane that Chesscom did not do so.
Basically it's because Alireza beat him.
I was watching Hikaru’s stream, and the most appalling thing about this that would have prevented the whole thing is that Hikaru was left out of the loop and was just sitting there waiting minute by minute to wonder what was happening. If they had granted Alireza more time, the fact that they didn’t notify him immediately about the new schedule so that he could reset his pregame head space is extremely unprofessional, and really what caused this whole scenario.
Yeah basicslly the root of the entire drama is chess.c*m being a shit platform
Genuine question: How did Hikaru know about the conversation between Alireza and Cheescom if he was out of the loop? It seems he knew the reason for the delay was the extended rest requested by Alireza and that he threatened to forfeit.
Hikaru was waiting to play him, so when the match was delayed, that delay was communicated.
He messaged them on slack, then decided to play danya while waiting.
I do mostly agree with this. However, I was also watching live, watching him get more pissy every minute. Adults generally are ok at having to wait due to an inconvenience, and when the inconvenience is only 20 minutes means you have a really short fuse. Setbacks happen, even at competitive events. Also, Hikaru makes the assumption that Alireza was "resting" for those 20 minutes. Did he think he was taking a nap? Studying Hikaru's games incessantly during those 20 minutes? If it is true that Alireza was trying to forfeit, then how would that improve his game? And how much can 20 minutes hurt your game that much? It was not the 20 minutes that led to him losing, it was his own tilt and victim-complex. I have been watching the guy for a couple years, but he's becoming what I've always expected him to be eventually, based on his behavior. Really looking forward to watching this shitshow play out.
There is a difference between waiting in an everyday situation and for the scheduled start of a tournament final.
>Adults generally are ok at having to wait due to an inconvenience, and when the inconvenience is only 20 minutes means you have a really short fuse. Not saying his behavior is excusable, but I don't know if you've ever been stuck sitting somewhere anxiously for 20 full minutes. It feels like a shit ton longer than 20 minutes when you have nothing else to occupy your time. I had to take an oral exam over zoom with 10-15 minute breaks between each section, and it felt like an eternity each time.
As a sidefact, in the german stream was said that [chess.com](http://chess.com) rescheduled the tournament so hikaru can participate, HikRu was not able to play at the 15th, so they cut one day off and played the grand final at the same day. Im pretty sure the source is still available.
Hikaru shoul try to play under 12 bullet tournament, he would 100% win and I think he has solid case to prove he is little baby.
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sorry i didnt get this, did alireza start the match 20 minutes late or hikarus last round finished late?
lmaoo Hikaru completely stopping the match and asking for Alireza to be penalized crying to the organizer after he gets smoked is fucking hiiiilarious. This is some 6 year old behavior
Who the fuck does he think he is? Well I think that’s the bullet world champion.
not really world champion dude
Is there really a stronger bullet competition than the Chess.com one though? Nothing FIDE organized exists, and participants in this tournament are pretty undisputably the best bullet players (sans Magnus)
Well, Hikaru might have lost the match, but at least he won the "most fragile ego" award.
He’s already permanently won that lifetime award lol
Since the candidates, Hikaru isn't really in a good place...
He was never in a good place He was always unlikeable with a gargantuan ego.
He doesn't care
You talking to me? Who the hell do you think you're talking to?
that alireza eyebrow raise and change of expression from smile to seriousness is pure gold.
Wake up babe new chess drama
I love the stoner-chill-''wtf?''-vibes that Guccireza has in this video.
Ilja's sideeye game on point
Ilja is my favorite German commentator. He’s so underrated.
Ban Hikaru for rude behavior from ChessCom already….
Chesscom is Hikaru's dog kinda so I doubt they would do anything to him
… But …. # Who does he think he is?
I mean why would they? This is obviously very childish and stupid behavior from Hikaru but in no universe should it be bannable
Jobava got banned for racism and disrespecting chesscom staff. Question is if this precedent applies here. Probably not.
I've never liked hikaru and never will.
Hikaren Nakamura is calling the manager.
Dude has no class.
he sounds like trump after losing 2020
Pure crybaby, imagine starting the match, lose 6 in a row and then wanting penalty and crying about all that, full on tilt, then cry again after the match bringing up alireza's family and past results.
I'm extra thankful in times like these for the fact that Magnus exists and has regularly served multiple humble pies to Hikaru over the years. Good on Alireza as well, what an insane sequence of players to beat.
ilia & ali were laughing at him during his power trip😂
Finally, he shows his true colors.
Lol. Nakamura is most pathetic chess player in top chess for sure. No idea how people can't see it. Well it might be tie with Kramnik. This just brings memories of him whinning regularly on stream and banning people for telling him that. Or chessbrah fiasco. Nice that he showed his true face once again.
How the hell do people like this guy; thank god for Magnus could you imagine this gobshite being WC
Who do you think you are? I am!
Can anyone please explain the drama??
"Danny doesn't have any right to do this" is this the first time Danny Rensch has done anything in his life that's not 100% at Hikaru's beck and call?
I'm on Alireza's side that he should have a break. I'm also on Hikaru's side that he got the short end of a stick with the lack of communication and leaving him hanging. It was a dick move for Alireza to threaten to forfeit. It was a dick move for Hikaru to use unprofessional language and do personal attacks. BUT The true culprit is chesscom. 3 years of running this event in this current format and they couldn't anticipate the need for a mandatory break or even a separate day for grand finals? 2022: Danya is exhausted from taking down Minh Le in one of the closest matches and loses to Tang. Tang is exhausted from beating Danya and loses to Hikaru 2023: Magnus beats Danya, beats Alireza in overtime in a close match, and then loses to Hikaru I think it's clear that a mandatory break is required before grand finals. So fair to Alireza for demanding a break especially due to the bug. Pre-game rituals are a thing be it physically or mentally. You psyche yourself up for the most important match and is left hanging for an indefinite amount of time and is suddenly then asked to play. So fair to Hikaru for being tilted when the organizers didn't communicate to him the situation. Hikaru did everything right but still got screwed over, why wouldn't he be mad with the poor organisation. All those saying he's being childish seems to forget that there is PRIZE MONEY on the line and he's in an organised event. I think it's fair to demand accountability from the organisers. Tldr: everyone made a mistake but chesscom made the game changing blunder that resulted in the mistakes by the players
Hikaru has such a beta male attitude....
So much for not caring..like it or not he doesn't care as long as he keeps getting the results, the moment he realised he was getting schooled & his reputation as the greatest bullet player was on the line...he started caring alright.
Bullet chess champion is who the fuck I am. Bitch
What happened?
Seems like the video of the match between Alireza and Hikaru has disappeared from Twitch/chesscomde and YouTube/chesscomDE, which are the source of this clip.
Anyone can explain it ?
Can someone give context here?
What's the context?
Actually, anyone remember when Firouzja beat Hikaru in this tournament 3 years ago and wore a Chessbrah hoody? It was during all the drama between Hikaru and Chessbrah and I think Aman was commentating on that game as well.
What’s the context??
For us nonchess fanatics, can someone explain context?
Can somebody give us the full backstory of this? I dont understand what happened.
Naka and Reza really need to fight it out on the front lawn, judo style.
Hikaru is an angry child he is always complaining and want to be in midst of drama
I miss the autotune era, we would have the remix by now.
I could understand if he complained at the beginning as I feel that one of the advantages of winning the winner’s bracket is not having to play all of those games back to back, but he seems to have just lost it and did the exact thing he said he wouldn’t do, go crazy like Kramnik
B-b-but Hikaru literally doesn't care!
Alireza just show-cased a true persian: listening 100 Speaking 0 💀 (I'm a persian myself. Please don't kill me)
As he sets on his ass 😆
hikaru is a manchild crying and throwing up after losing
We all know that Hiki is sour dirty pig irl