D Gukesh, the world champion, demonstrated his prowess by securing another impressive victory against World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at the Super United Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in Zagreb, Croatia. It is for the second straight time that Gukesh has forced Carlsen to resign. This time, though, there were no animated, table-thumping walk outs.This win against Carlsen on Thursday marked Gukesh’s fifth consecutive victory in the tournament, earning him 10 points out of a possible 12. It put him in sole lead in the tournament.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“Beating Magnus is always special for sure. I think this also gives a bit more confidence… it’s nicer that I could win from two losing positions,” Gukesh told the official broadcaster.Carlsen’s resignation came after 49 moves. The Norwegian conceded he had not been playing well and credited Gukesh for not just beating him, but clinching five wins in a row.“I’ve played poorly the entire tournament and this time I got soundly punished. I had a very, very nice position but he took his chance to open out the position. After that, I didn’t handle it that well. He found a lot of really, really good moves. I had a chance to bail out, a draw, I thought, ‘let’s continue playing’. A couple of moves later, I was playing pretty hopelessly lost,” said Carlsen.“I played poorly but all credit to Gukesh. He’s playing well and he’s taking his chances too.”“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.”
Magnus Carlsen reacts during his game against D Gukesh at the Super United Rapid and Blitz tournament in Zagreb, Croatia. (Image: Grand Chess Tour/X)
With three rounds remaining in the rapid section, Gukesh leads by two points ahead of Poland’s Duda Jan-Krzysztof. Wesley So of the United States holds third place with seven points, one point ahead of Carlsen, Anish Giri of Holland, and local player Ivan Saric.R Praggnanandhaa shares seventh place with American Fabiano Caruana, both at five points. France’s Alireza Firouzja occupies ninth position with four points, while Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov sits in tenth place with three points.Garry Kasparov questions CarlsenPlaying with black pieces, Gukesh secured a memorable win against Carlsen in a format that he supposedly struggles in. Despite the Norwegian great gaining an apparent advantage with his king pawn opening, Gukesh found effective counter moves.The game saw Carlsen exchanging two minor pieces for a rook and two advancing pawns. However, Gukesh maintained his composure and capitalised on Carlsen’s strategic error as time pressure mounted, securing victory after 49 moves.“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.”Earlier that day, Gukesh had also defeated Abdusattorov and Caruana.
