Hikaru Nakamura added his comment on the ‘Twitter drama’ with Anish Giri over the EWC and GCT clash of dates conflict. Nakamura notes that Anish is spending time on Twitter instead of preparing for the Candidates, and suggests that Giri doesn’t believe in his chances at the tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World No. 2, streamer

“What surprises me most about this whole situation — is that Anish is spending time and energy talking about these things. It’s more like he doesn’t actually believe in himself in the Сandidates, which is why he does it so regularly.

Honestly, I would expect someone like Anish to basically cut off Twitter, not to do any of this stuff and to focus solely on preparing for the Candidates. If anyone thinks there’s some massive drama here — there really isn’t. There really is no drama. I’m just confused by the whole thing.

It’s not like I hate him or anything. I just don’t understand what he’s doing. It just makes no sense at all.”

Elite world chess players have published an open letter addressed to the organisers of GCT and EWC on February 10. Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa R and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave called on the organisers to consider adjustments or practical solutions that would allow players to participate in both events.

The Esports World Cup is a premier annual international gaming tournament and festival held in Riyadh, with a $1,500,000 prize fund. Grand Chess Tour is an annual circuit of international chess tournaments with a $2,000,000 prize pool across 2 Classical tournaments, 3 Rapid & Blitz events and the Grand Finals.

Credit: Crystal Fuller