3 min readAug 20, 2026 07:59 PM IST
American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has claimed that every top chess player in the circuit carries an ego. He argued that a bit of arrogance and passion is essential to make it big, and denying that would be lying to oneself. According to Nakamura, even Indian players, who are generally perceived as soft-spoken, respectful, and focused on their own game, are not exempt.
“The reality is that every top player is very arrogant. Some are just better at keeping their emotions and their feelings inside as opposed to others,” Nakamura said on his YouTube stream.
“But anybody who wants to pretend that other players are somehow very calm, they aren’t arrogant, or they don’t have a big ego – you’re just lying to yourself, basically. Because all of them do. And of course, I am too. Everybody’s arrogant. Everybody has an ego. Because you have to have that in order to be a very, very strong chess player. You have to have it. It’s just the reality. There are certain players who are better at keeping it inside, but every top player has an ego. Even the Indian players,” he added.
American GM Wesley So is often considered an exception, known for his calm demeanour and friendly approach. When asked about So, Nakamura offered a nuanced take.
He said, “What I would say about Wesley is, if you look at the Wesley of years ago, I would have said he had more than he does now. Because, I think, Wesley now is generally very happy to play the game of maximising his financial situation more so than taking huge risks to try to win games. So, it might not be as much now.”
Wesley recently defeated India’s R Praggnanandhaa in tiebreaks to win his third Sinquefield Cup.
Another calm personality in chess is five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand. The Chennai GM has carried himself with grace, rarely losing his composure over the board. But Nakamura pointed to a book that reportedly mentioned Anand throwing a chair after a loss, calling it “psychotic behaviour.”
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“Does Vishy have no ego? There was a book on Vishy some years ago that came out. There was something in that book about Vishy where basically the whole night he wasn’t sleeping or threw a chair or something like that. I’m sorry, but just because Vishy… that’s still psychotic behaviour. Let’s be real. And that still shows that he has a lot of passion, a lot of ego, and he wants to always win,” Nakamura said.
“It’s nice to pretend, but come on… Everybody’s like that. I’m sorry, but that’s just the reality,” he added.
