New Delhi: Defending world champion D Gukesh defeated World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round of the Grand Chess Tour SuperUnited Rapid 2025 in Zagreb, Croatia, on Thursday, July 3.
The Indian Grandmaster finished the opening day as the joint-leader and has now taken sole lead of 10 points after defeating the World No.1. The 18-year-old defeated Carlsen with Black pieces, and it was his second consecutive win against Carlsen.
Gukesh started the second day with a victory against Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the fourth round and then beat American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round. Gukesh forced Carlsen to resign in the sixth round, and there was no angry smash on the table this time.
In their previous clash at the Norway Chess last month, the world champion beat Carlsen, which left him rattled after a rare classical defeat. But this time in Croatia, it was a rapid game-but the outcome of the match was the same.
Earlier in the week, Carlsen referred to Gukesh as one of the presumably weaker players in the tournament, a comment that raised eyebrows. “Now we can question Magnus’ domination. This isn’t just another loss. It’s a convincing one. Gukesh didn’t just capitalise on mistakes-he played better,” said Garry Kasparov on commentary.
This was the first of three meetings between world champion Gukesh and World No.1 Carlsen. Thursday’s match between them was played in the rapid format, but the upcoming matches will be played in the blitz format.
What did Carlsen say about Gukesh?
In an interview before the start of the tournament, Carlsen said that Gukesh played quite well last time in Croatia, but it still remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in this format. The Norwegian further added that they have a very, very strong field and Gukesh hasn’t done anything to show that he’s going to do well in such a tournament.
“I hope, for his sake, that he can do better. But playing him in this tournament, I will approach it as if I’m playing one of the presumably weaker players (in the tournament)” Carlsen added.