A gruelling 27 games over five days that had more ebbs and flows than a theme park roller-coaster ended with 19-year-old Classical World Champion D. Gukesh vanquishing his past struggles in speed chess, securing a creditable third-place finish at the Grand Chess Tour SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia in Zagreb on Sunday.
After dominating the Rapid event as the sole leader with a comfortable three-point lead over Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Gukesh’s campaign nearly derailed in the Blitz segment, where he lost seven out of nine rounds, including five consecutive defeats on Saturday.
When Wesley So and Nodirbek Abdusattorov handed him two more losses to start his final day, Gukesh’s tilt seemed just unstoppable, until he faced Duda. The salvation came from an unlikely source, his own World Championship Second, and the in-form Polish Grandmaster Duda.
Duda, who led 2-0 from their Rapid and first Blitz encounter, seemed poised to deliver the knockout blow. He knew Gukesh’s game inside out, having played over 300 training blitz games with him during World Championship preparations at the request of Gukesh’s main trainer and fellow Polish player Grzegorz Gajewski. Duda looked ready to bury Gukesh’s hopes for good.
But the Indian, stripped of his lead and pushed out of the top three spots by then, had no time to dwell on past collapses. Gukesh, playing purely on merit, dismantled Duda in just 28 moves, which, in a way, reignited his campaign and paved the way for his eventual podium finish.
Then came the marquee clash against Magnus Carlsen. For two fighters like Gukesh and Carlsen, a draw is never an option. History stands witness to their shared refusal to draw offers, whether Gukesh declining the threefold repetition against Ding Liren en route to his World Championship triumph, or Carlsen’s legendary endgame grinds.
Yet Sunday demanded different calculations. With podium contention at stake, the Indian needed stability, while the Norwegian, comfortably leading the field, sought to preserve his advantage. What followed was the unlikeliest of games from Gukesh, an antithesis to his aggressive nature.
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Gukesh opted for pragmatism and went for a ‘Grandmaster’s draw’ with white pieces, finishing the game in just 14 moves and under a minute. Gukesh went on to beat Ivan Saric and Fabiano Caruana, making a strong case for a second-place finish.
The final round was full of drama. Gukesh, Duda and Wesley So were all tied at 19 points, fighting for second place. Duda lost to Anish Giri, which helped Gukesh’s chances. At the same time, Wesley So was losing to Caruana but won after Caruana missed a winning move in the all-American clash. Gukesh could only draw against Praggnanandhaa, resulting in So placing ahead of him in the end.
Nonetheless, Gukesh pocketed eight GCT points and $25,000 while Praggnanandhaa saw a freefall, losing six rounds and going winless on the last day to finish ninth.
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Carlsen champion
Playing what Carlsen himself described as “survival” chess using an “old man’s chess” approach, he did considerably well to outscore a formidable field for his 10th Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz title out of 12 appearances.
Carlsen finished with 22.5 points, a 2.5-point lead over runner-up So and won with a round to spare. Yet for a player of his stature, this win brought unexpected indifference.
Magnus Carlsen takes on Gukesh in a game at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in Zagreb. (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour via Lennart Ootes)
“It does not really feel like I won, it feels like I just came here, played alright and nobody really did anything special in the end and I ended up winning,” Carlsen told broadcasters.
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He finished third in the Rapid events and was four points behind Gukesh ahead of the Blitz event. Attributing his win to a single strong performance, Carlsen said, “I had one good day really which was yesterday and that turned out to be enough which was a little bit lucky but it speaks the fact that it’s a fairly even tournament overall where nobody could really break away from the pack.”
Chess legend Garry Kasparov couldn’t resist a playful jab at Carlsen’s self-described “old man chess,” tweeting: “Not bad for ‘old man chess!’”
Carlsen, meanwhile, in his signature cryptic style, posted a GIF of a pin dropping with the simple caption: “Haters.”
