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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
Categories
Archives
- October 2025 (8)
- September 2025 (27)
- August 2025 (29)
- July 2025 (43)
- June 2025 (25)
- May 2025 (24)
- April 2025 (29)
- March 2025 (29)
- February 2025 (20)
- January 2025 (24)
- December 2024 (34)
- November 2024 (18)
- October 2024 (35)
- September 2024 (23)
- August 2024 (27)
- July 2024 (44)
- June 2024 (27)
- May 2024 (31)
- April 2024 (51)
- March 2024 (34)
- February 2024 (25)
- January 2024 (26)
- December 2023 (29)
- November 2023 (26)
- October 2023 (37)
- September 2023 (27)
- August 2023 (37)
- July 2023 (47)
- June 2023 (33)
- May 2023 (37)
- April 2023 (45)
- March 2023 (37)
- February 2023 (28)
- January 2023 (31)
- December 2022 (23)
- November 2022 (32)
- October 2022 (31)
- September 2022 (19)
- August 2022 (39)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (35)
- May 2022 (21)
- April 2022 (31)
- March 2022 (33)
- February 2022 (21)
- January 2022 (27)
- December 2021 (36)
- November 2021 (34)
- October 2021 (25)
- September 2021 (25)
- August 2021 (41)
- July 2021 (36)
- June 2021 (29)
- May 2021 (29)
- April 2021 (31)
- March 2021 (33)
- February 2021 (28)
- January 2021 (29)
- December 2020 (38)
- November 2020 (40)
- October 2020 (41)
- September 2020 (35)
- August 2020 (38)
- July 2020 (36)
- June 2020 (46)
- May 2020 (42)
- April 2020 (37)
- March 2020 (60)
- February 2020 (38)
- January 2020 (45)
- December 2019 (34)
- November 2019 (35)
- October 2019 (42)
- September 2019 (45)
- August 2019 (56)
- July 2019 (44)
- June 2019 (35)
- May 2019 (40)
- April 2019 (48)
- March 2019 (61)
- February 2019 (39)
- January 2019 (30)
- December 2018 (29)
- November 2018 (51)
- October 2018 (45)
- September 2018 (29)
- August 2018 (49)
- July 2018 (35)
- June 2018 (31)
- May 2018 (39)
- April 2018 (31)
- March 2018 (26)
- February 2018 (33)
- January 2018 (30)
- December 2017 (26)
- November 2017 (24)
- October 2017 (30)
- September 2017 (30)
- August 2017 (32)
- July 2017 (27)
- June 2017 (32)
- May 2017 (26)
- April 2017 (37)
- March 2017 (28)
- February 2017 (30)
- January 2017 (27)
- December 2016 (29)
- November 2016 (24)
- October 2016 (32)
- September 2016 (31)
- August 2016 (27)
- July 2016 (24)
- June 2016 (26)
- May 2016 (19)
- April 2016 (30)
- March 2016 (37)
- February 2016 (27)
- January 2016 (33)
- December 2015 (25)
- November 2015 (23)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (28)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- October 1991 (1)
- August 1989 (1)
- January 1988 (1)
- December 1983 (1)