India, Aug. 15 -- Controversy broke out on the final day of the Chess final at the Esports World Cup when American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was awarded the third-place match on Saturday. Nakamura was leading Alireza Firouzja 3-1 when a technical glitch brought the game to a lengthy pause. The screens of both competitors went blank, and after minutes of trying to fix the issue, Nakamura and Firouzja were left clueless with no solution in sight. In an ideal scenario, the competitors would have stayed on and waited, but the frustrated Firouzja forfeited the match, got up and left the arena. Nakamura, meanwhile, had no idea what transpired and sat alone for a good 20 minutes before the final verdict was delivered.

After the match was awar...