There was no angry fist smash on the table this time. Or an exasperated sigh of “Oh my God” that would be heard around the world. There probably won’t be a million reels on social media either. On Thursday, for the second straight time while facing world champion Gukesh, Magnus Carlsen was forced to throw in the towel and resign. After his loss in the classical format against the Indian teenager at Norway Chess a few weeks back, this time the defeat for the Norwegian came in a rapid game at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2025 in Zagreb.
After the victory, Gukesh heads into the final day of the three-day rapid section as the sole leader with 10 points, while Carlsen is miles behind on six points. With three more games remaining, Gukesh is two points ahead of Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the closest challenger at the moment. The resignation from Carlsen came in 49 moves on Thursday, but with more muted emotions than at Stavanger: just a simple handshake to signal resignation, no eye contact, a disappointed grimace before he walked off the stage.
There is a case to be made that this result is even more significant than the one at Norway Chess: after all, Carlsen was playing with white pieces and in a format that Gukesh supposedly struggles in, as compared to classical chess. Both Carlsen and Gukesh had suggested this before the tournament started.
“Now we can question Magnus’ domination,” former world champion Garry Kasparov, who was on commentary for the official stream, said. “This is not just his second loss to Gukesh, it’s a convincing loss. It’s not a miracle… or that Gukesh just kept benefitting from Magnus’ terrible mistakes. It was a game that was a big fight. And Magnus lost.”
Gukesh is a player who relies on calculation, which requires time. This makes his game click in classical chess, where there is plenty of time to burn thinking about lines. But in rapid and blitz, given the paucity of time from the start, Gukesh has not been able to match his performances in classical chess, where he rose to become the youngest world champion in chess history last year. At Zagreb though, he has constantly been ahead on the clock in end games, like in games against Caruana and Carlsen.
Before the start of the tournament, Carlsen had not just questioned Gukesh’s credentials in rapid and blitz. He had gone as far as saying that he would treat the games against Gukesh (one in rapid and two in blitz over the weekend) as ones against one of the “presumably weaker players in the tournament”.
As Carlsen had explained, “Gukesh hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s going to do well (in rapid and blitz). It remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in such a format. This is a very, very strong field that we have here. Players like Gukesh have a lot to prove. In the course of 27 rounds, things usually show. I hope for Gukesh’s sake that he can play better.”
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Throughout six games in two days at Zagreb, Gukesh has done much more than “playing better”. After losing the first round clash against his world championship second, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Gukesh had crushed four of the strongest players in the field in a row: Alireza Firouzja, R Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Fabiano Caruana before his takedown of Carlsen.
How Gukesh defeated Magnus Carlsen
On Thursday, just like at Norway Chess, Carlsen had a significant advantage from the start of the game. Both players had blitzed out their moves at the start, with Carlsen trying to catch his opponent off guard with the English Opening. But on the 23rd move, Carlsen did something inexplicable: he opted to push his b pawn ahead to b4, a move that made Kasparov gasp. Before that, Carlsen had a sizeable advantage on the board and a single-minute edge on the clock.
“B4? You don’t play b4, you just don’t play b4,” gasped Kasparov as soon as he saw what Carlsen, his one-time protege, had done. Kasparov closed his eyes in horror and looked away from the screen. “This is something wrong.” He repeated “you don’t play b4” many more times. Over and over.
Kasparov had much more generous things to say about Gukesh, even when Carlsen had an advantage on the board.
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“Playing Gukesh is like playing a computer. He’s the most resilient player. He has many lives in each game. You have to beat him about five times in each game. You will be winning, but at one point (like at Norway Chess) you lose concentration and you’re lost.”
That’s precisely what’s happened to Carlsen twice now.
Carlsen praised his young quarry after the defeat.
“Gukesh is doing incredible well. It’s a long way to go in the tournament but winning five games in a row is no mean feat,” Carlsen told Take Take Take after the defeat.
Talking about the game, the world no 1 said: “It was poor (from me) but all credit to Gukesh. He’s playing well and taking his chances,” Carlsen told Take Take Take after the defeat. “I’ve played kind of poorly the whole tournament. This time I got soundly punished. I think I had a very nice position. He took his chance to open up the position, after that it was a little bit like earlier when I got short of time and I could not handle it that well. And Gukesh found a lot of really good moves.”
