Gukesh beat King Magnus Carlsen in all 3 chess categories

In round 6 of the Grand Chess Tour Rapid Chess Tournament in Zagreb, 19-year-old world champion Gukesh Dommaraju turned the tables to defeat Magnus Carlsen.

Gukesh defeated Carlsen in all three categories of standard chess, rapid chess and blitz chess - Photo: chess.com

After losing the first set to Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Gukesh went on an impressive five-set winning streak.

Notably, he won all three matches on the second day, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana and especially Carlsen.

With this destructive form, the Indian representative is alone at the top of the table with 10 points after 6 rounds. He is 2 points ahead of the second-placed Duda. Meanwhile, Carlsen has only 6 points and is ranked 4th.

Gukesh’s most important victory came against Carlsen in round 6, when he played black. The Norwegian had a huge advantage in the opening, but struggled in the middle game. With his top-notch calculation, the 19-year-old gradually turned the tables on a complex formation and won in 49 dramatic moves.

Gukesh (holding black) excellently defeated Carlsen after 49 moves - Photo: chess.com

Chess legend Garry Kasparov commented that the 3-7 competition day is very important, not only for the tournament but also for the world chess community.

"We can now doubt Carlsen's dominance. This is not only Carlsen's second consecutive defeat to Gukesh, but also a completely convincing defeat," said the 62-year-old.

In his most recent defeat to Gukesh at the Norwegian Super Standard, Carlsen slammed the table in frustration. However, this time the 34-year-old calmly accepted the defeat and even praised his opponent: "Gukesh is playing well and taking advantage of opportunities. The tournament is still long, but winning 5 games in a row is not a simple matter. He deserves all the praise."

However, the world's number one chess player for 14 consecutive years also admitted that he does not feel happy playing chess at the moment. "I do not feel comfortable at all when competing. I always hesitate and my decisions become poor. But life is not so bad even though I am playing poorly," Carlsen said.

Before this tournament, Carlsen had underestimated Gukesh when he said that he would "approach games with Gukesh as if he were facing the weakest player in the tournament". It is worth mentioning that Gukesh's rapid chess Elo is only 2,654, ranking 42nd in the world. He is even behind Vietnam's number 1 player, Le Quang Liem. Meanwhile, Carlsen is in the lead with an Elo of 2,819 and is the number 1 seed in Zagreb. Gukesh is only the second to last seed.

For his part, Gukesh simply said: "Winning two games in a row from a losing position against Carlsen was beautiful."

Ranking after yesterday's competition - Photo: chess.com

This was Gukesh's first win over Carlsen in rapid chess, in their third meeting. This meant the 19-year-old had beaten Carlsen in all three formats (standard, rapid, blitz).

In terms of head-to-head scores across all categories, Carlsen is still leading Gukesh with 7 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses. But with the young Chess King's remarkable progress, this gap can be completely closed.

The two players will meet again in two more blitz games on July 5 and 6. Before that, they will play three more rapid games today, July 4, with Gukesh facing Anish Giri, Ivan Saric and Wesley So. Carlsen will play Caruana, Abdusattorov and Giri.

TUAN LONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/gukesh-thang-vua-co-magnus-carlsen-o-ca-3-the-loai-co-20250704075215203.htm