Chess grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura responds to 'garbage' cheating accusations

Who knew the world of chess was so full of scandal?

One of the most eye-catching stories of last year saw American grandmaster Hans Niemann accused of using anal beads to trick his way to success against opponents.

He was eventually cleared of the claims, but not before nearly a year of speculation and rumour.

Now, there’s another drama in the chess world, this time surrounding Kick streamer and Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.

Nakamura has been on an incredible run on Chess.com recently, and now another chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik appears to have accused him of cheating in a cryptic post.

He references a number of “interesting” statistics behind his incredible form in setting a new blitz game record of 46 consecutive games on the site, which seems to imply concerns over cheating.

The post was screenshotted and shared by the grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, which has only led to more speculation.

Nakamura has responded in pretty unambiguous fashion, calling the posts “garbage”.

He tweeted, writing: “Vladimir appears to be referencing my record…is he really accusing me of cheating? [Ian Nepomniachtchi] are you jumping on this accusation as well by tweeting this garbage??”

Nakamura has become one of the best-known chess players out there after racking up a Chess.com blitz rating record high of 3336.

However, some clearly aren’t happy with his efforts and are struggling to keep their feelings in check.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings