Days after calling D Gukesh one of the weaker players in the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia, Magnus Carlsen had a rare moment of praise for the Indian Grandmaster after getting humbled by the latter in Round 6 of the tournament.
Playing with the black pieces, the Indian chess prodigy defeated Magnus, the No. 1 player in the world, on Thursday, July 4. It was his second straight win over Carlsen and took him to the top of the standings as the sole leader with 10 points from six games.
Speaking after the game, Carlsen had a rare moment of praise for the Indian GM and said that he was soundly punished by the 18-year-old in the tournament.
“I have kind of played poorly the whole tournament, and this time I got soundly punished. I think I had a very, very nice position. He took his chances to open up the position with c6, and after that it was a bit like earlier, where I got short of time and I couldn’t really handle it that well, and yeah, he found a lot of really good moves,” Carlsen told Take Take Take.
“Yeah, he did that part very well. I had one last chance at some point to bail out to something very drawish, and then I thought, well, let’s continue playing. A couple of moves later, I was hopelessly lost. It was poor,” the World No. 1 analysed his game.
“It was poor, but all credit to Gukesh; he’s playing well and he’s taking his chances too,” Carlsen stated.
Carlsen’s Comments Backfire
The Norwegian had . Speaking at the pre-tournament press conference, Carlsen had said that Gukesh had shown no signs that he would do well in the rapid and blitz format in Croatia.
“I think Gukesh played quite well here last time,” Carlsen said in the pre-tournament press conference in Zagreb. “But it remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in this format. We have a very, very strong field. Gukesh hasn’t done anything to indicate 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.”
Carlsen was quick to correct himself after his match with Gukesh and praised the player for doing well in the faster formats. He also stated that he was not quite enjoying his game at the moment.
“He’s doing incredibly well now. It’s a long way to go in the tournament, but winning five games in a row is no mean feat,” Carlsen concluded on Gukesh.
“I am not really enjoying playing chess right now. I do not feel any flow at all. I am constantly hesitating, and yeah, it’s just really poor right now,” Carlsen added about his game in his ending remarks.
Gukesh vs Carlsen in Croatia
On Thursday, Gukesh arrived first, took a few quiet moments to himself, and waited. Carlsen opened with the English and seemed to have the upper hand after 18…Nh5 19.Bf2!. But Gukesh, unfazed, seized the initiative with a sharp 26…d5. Carlsen began to slip, and as his position worsened and his clock ticked under a minute, the pressure told. He resigned after 49 moves.
, a reminder that he’s no longer the outsider. He’s playing as an equal among the game’s biggest names.
“Now we can question Magnus’ domination,” said Garry Kasparov on commentary. “This isn’t just another loss. It’s a convincing one. Gukesh didn’t just capitalise on mistakes, he played better.”
The result capped a remarkable day for the teenager. He had started with a loss to Jan-Krzysztof Duda but bounced back strongly, beating Alireza Firouzja and fellow Indian R. Praggnanandhaa before taking down Carlsen. Three wins on the trot to end the day.