Hikaru Nakamura

World No. 2, streamer

“I think this conflict — is actually a good thing. The reason is, I’m going to be honest, I think that every single player who signed this letter — they aren’t going to bring any more viewership or any more interest to events. For example, if players will play in St. Louis, I don’t think that’s going to affect EWC, because Magnus will play, I will play, Alireza as well — and vice versa.

Additionally, I think that one of the big problems I see with chess currently is that there are a handful of tournaments. I don’t want to call it a cartel or something — but essentially the same Top-15 players receive invitations to all events. And the players between Top-15 and Top-25 are not substantially worse than most the players in the Top-10…

I think having this conflict is actually going to be a good thing. Because it’s going to provide more opportunities for players across the board. We’re not going to be in a situation where you have 10 players just hogging up all the invites and getting all the money.

So, it’s not a big deal. I find it kind of amusing to see players getting bent out of shape when they’re all doing ridiculously well financially from a game of carved wooden pieces…”