American Chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura Praises World Champion Gukesh For Showing Great Resilience Against Anish Giri

Nakamura also spoke on the little amount of time that Gukesh had between arriving in Netherlands and playing his first game.

American chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was all praise for Dommaraju Gukesh following the latter’s win over Anish Giri in the first round of the 2025 Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, on Saturday.

After winning the World Chess Championship title against his opponent Ding Liren in December, it was Gukesh’s first game.

World Champion Gukesh defeated hometown hero Anish Giri, who had handed his 18-year-old opponent a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“It’s really really really a heartbreaker for Anish. On the flip side the coin Gukesh did defend very well,” Nakamura said on his Youtube channel.

“Sure Gukesh blundered with h3, but he did defend resiliently under time pressure. So you have to give him a lot of credit for putting Anish to the test”, grandmaster added.

“Unfortunately for Anish, he wasn’t up to the test. The world champion gets a win in his first classical game since his epic victory over Ding Liren in Singapore a couple of months ago. Exciting start to the tournament,” he further added.

Earlier, Ding Liren had committed a similar blunder in the final game of the World Chess Championship in December that allowed Gukesh to clinch a historic title.

The 18-year-old from Chennai only landed in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee for the tournament on Saturday morning after receiving the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award from President Droupadi Murmu on Friday evening.

Nakamura also spoke on the little amount of time that Gukesh had between arriving in Netherlands and playing his first game. “Gukesh was in India to receive one of the highest civilian awards from the government just yesterday, and today he flew into the game and arrived three hours ahead of the game being played and let’s jump right into the action.”

“Gukesh was probably a little bit tired, probably a little bit jetlag. Now for Anish he is somebody who traditionally has done very well in this tournament, but at times he has struggled outside of this event,” Nakamura stated.

“Gukesh was in India to receive one of the highest civilian awards from the government just yesterday and today he flew into the game and arrived three hours ahead of the game being played and let’s jump right into the action,” said Nakamura.

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