Magnus Carlsen destroys Gukesh’s comeback hopes with dominant win at Clutch Chess Champions Showdown: ‘It’s not a shock’

There was no match for world No 1 Magnus Carlsen as he won the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown 2025 with a massive lead on Wednesday, while world champion D Gukesh finished last in the four-player tournament. Every win on the final day of the competition at the Saint Louis Chess Club was worth three points, thrice as many as on the opening day.

The concept behind the innovative idea was to help those behind in the standings to spring a surprise, but Carlsen threw the theory out of the window with a dominating run.

Carlsen crushes Gukesh's hopes of a comeback

He started Day 3 as the leader and won the contest with two games to spare as he defeated Gukesh twice in the seventh round and world No 3 Fabiano Caruana back-to-back in the penultimate round to earn 12 points and clinch an unassailable lead.

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“That’s, of course, unfortunate in terms of excitement. But when you win 10 out of your first 16 games, it’s not a shock for you,” Carlsen said about his dominating run after American Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, the brainchild behind the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown, playfully accused him of ruining the whole fun.

In the final round, Carlsen played out two draws against world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura, but by then the results were merely a formality.

Caruana finished second in the tournament, followed by Nakamura and Gukesh at the last. Carlsen earned $120,000 in prize money for finishing first, besides $50,000 in bonus for all his victories.

The Norwegian chess mastermind also expressed happiness at how things transpired on the final day after claiming on Day 2 that he was far from his best.

“Yeah, I was a lot happier," Carlsen said on winning the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown. "There are still things here that I am not super happy about, but I felt I was kind of more on top of things, not missing many tricks. Today was a lot better and that feels really good to end on a high note and to actually be able to win."

Gukesh gets overwhelmed at Clutch Chess Champions Showdown

India's Gukesh, who was already fourth at the end of Day 2, had his hopes of a comeback destroyed by Carlsen as he suffered consecutive losses in the opening on the final day. In the final four games, Gukesh lost one and drew one against Nakamura before playing out two draws against Caruana.

"Obviously not great," the 19-year-old Gukesh said about his overall campaign. "The first day was quite promising. I started off well but second and third days, I was completely off.

"At some point, it was very difficult to get wins and when it’s against this opposition, it usually goes downhill quite fast, but overall great experience, especially before the World Cup. There’s no better training than these three. The good thing is that these three won’t be there in the World Cup, so I had better training than what I would be facing."

The FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 will take place in Goa, India, from 31 October to 27 November.