Chopping is a manual alternative to divide-and-conquer phacoemulsification for dividing the nucleus into fragments. Hand instruments are used to physically cut or pull apart the nucleus (Chang DF. Phaco chop and advanced phaco techniques: strategies for complicated cataracts, 2nd ed. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003525622 , 2024). A significant advantage of employing chopping methods is that nucleus segmentation relies mainly on manual instrument pressure rather than ultrasonic energy, reducing the energy required for cataract surgery and allowing for preservation of the corneal endothelial cells. Moreover, these techniques can be more time efficient than phaco, as chopping takes a few seconds to perform (DeBry P, Olson RJ, Crandall AS. Comparison of energy required for phaco-chop and divide and conquer phacoemulsification. J Cataract Refract Surg 24(5):689–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0886-3350(98)80267-8 , 1998).