Checkmate: USA vs India: Team USA Victory, and Throwing a King

Six days before Checkmate: USA vs India, one of its commentators, GM Harshit Raja, predicted that India would win 3–2 against the USA team, despite the latter getting White on each board. USA swept 5–0. The winning team’s members received TAG Heuer Carrera watches.

A victorious Team USA at the closing ceremony (Photo by Dr. Alexey Root)

Raja’s Prediction

Here is how Raja thought the results would play out. For the winner of the round between the two players under age 16, he chose India’s IM Ethan Vaz over USA’s IM Tanitoluwa Adewumi. On the women’s board, he chose India’s GM Divya Deshmukh over USA’s IM Carissa Yip. In the battle of the streamers, he picked USA’s IM Levy Rozman over IM Sagar Shah of India.

Co-host James Dash with commentators GM Harshit Raja and GM Robert Hess (Photo by Dr. Alexey Root)

In what Raja called the two heavyweight clashes, he picked GM Arjun Erigaisi of India over GM Fabiano Caruana of the United States. But he favored USA’s GM Hikaru Nakamura over India’s GM Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning World Chess Champion.

Rules and Results

On October 4, it was clear that Raja is not a seer. He only predicted two results correctly. Since the USA team won all five rounds, you can probably guess which ones he got right.

Also, the rounds were in a different order than he listed. Round 1 was Caruana – Erigaisi, followed by the junior clash Adewumi – Vaz and Yip – Deshmukh as the midpoint. The final two rounds were Rozman – Shah and, finally, the headliner was Nakamura – Gukesh.

The choice to have the rounds take place one after another was intentional, with the organizers hoping to keep viewers’ attention on a single game and also cultivate more of a sense of camaraderie among teammates.

Each round followed this time control structure:

Regular Game: 10 minutes per player.
If drawn → Overtime Game: five minutes per player
If drawn → Shootout Game: one minute per player
If drawn → Additional one minute per player games until winner emerges
A 1-second increment added when a player drops under one minute. Each game continues until checkmate or a loss on time, with no resignations allowed.

The event’s website stated, “One round per player. Maximum pressure. Relentless tension. No second chances. Home and away colors: Team USA plays White” in every game in Arlington, Texas. In the return match, in India, Team India will play White. Dates and location for this match have not yet been announced.

The first three rounds were decided in the initial 10-minute games, guaranteeing a USA victory before Rozman and Nakamura even played. Annotations by JJ Lang:

In the battle of the streamers in Round 4, Rozman drew his 10-minute game with Shah, but won the five-minute-per-player blitz game.

Finally, Nakamura – Gukesh lived up to its headliner billing, with draws in both the 10-minute and five-minute games. In the bullet game, Nakamura salvaged a worse position, eventually checkmating the World Chess Champion and completing the team’s sweep.

Then, Nakamura tossed Gukesh’s king into the crowd, launching a viral discussion on social media. His gesture was met with disapproval from some people who were not at the venue. But those who were there and knowledgeable, like co-host Julia Schulman (known as JulesGambit professionally), helped provide context. Schulman, who co-hosted the event along with Jason Dash, explained that Nakamura’s king toss was within the etiquette of this particular exhibition.

All games can be reviewed on Chess.com here.

The Fan Zone and Jersey Numbers

Checkmate: USA vs India was held at Esports Stadium Arlington, a facility with 100,000 square feet of total space and the capacity to hold 2,500 seated spectators. Approximately 1,100 spectators attended. Each move and each player’s face was magnified on massive 90-foot LED screens.

Kayode Adewumi, Andy and David Woodward, Sunil Weeramantry, and Asuka Nakamura (Photo by Dr. Alexey Root)

Before the opening ceremony began at 7:00 p.m., chess fans tested the new Haptic Chess Clock, played casual games against each other and against grandmasters Aryan Tari, Andy Woodward, Jeffery Xiong, and Rahul Peddi, and met IM Danny Rensch, who signed copies of his memoir Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life.

At the Merch Shop, fans bought jerseys with their favorite players’ names and numbers. Just like fans of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott buy jerseys with his number 4, chosen to honor the date of his mother’s birth (September 4th), fans of Caruana bought jerseys with his number 7. Caruana explained that 7 is not just a lucky number, it’s also the number of wins he had in a row at the 2014 Sinquefield Cup. Adewumi picked 15 for his jersey, because he just turned 15 years old.

Players in the Fan Zone could purchase jerseys of their favorite players, such as the 18th FIDE World Chess Champion. (Photo by Dr. Alexey Root, WIM)

Rozman chose 10 for his jersey number. He explained, “The best player on the team wears 10.” Prescott was assigned jersey number 10 when he joined the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys play their home games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, about one mile from Esports Stadium Arlington. Both venues are less than a mile from Globe Life Field, where the Texas Rangers baseball team plays. In soccer, known as “football” outside of the United States, the number 10 jersey signifies the most important player.

Proud Fathers and Grandfather

GM Andy Woodward was most recently featured on Chess Life Online for tying for fifth place in the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. His mother Wendy accompanied him to that event and will go with him to the 2025 FIDE World Cup in Goa, India.

Andy’s father David accompanied him to Checkmate: USA vs India, where Andy won all his games, around 30 or 35 of them, in the fan zone. Then Andy and David Woodward cheered for Team USA, alongside Kayode Adewumi, father of IM Tani Adewumi, and FM Sunil Weeramantry, father of GM Hikaru Nakamura and Asuka Nakamura.

Weeramantry is also cheering the early December arrival of his grandson, with Hikaru and his wife WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan as the baby’s expectant parents.

Just the Beginning

Hari Raghavan, whose company Black Diary Investments was a major investor in Checkmate: USA vs India, said this October 4th event was just the beginning. Besides the return match, to be played in India, he envisions a national chess league in the United States, played in person in front of enthusiastic crowds. Whatever comes next, the organizers made clear after the match, you can expect a good time.