'Beating Magnus is always special': Gukesh reflects on crushing Carlsen at Grand Chess Tour 2025

Indian chess star Dommaraju Gukesh was all smiles after a successful outing at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament, where he registered two draws, one loss, and six wins to finish at the top of the standings. Speaking to the organisers of the Grand Chess Tour after Day 2, the current world champion said it felt great to finish the day on a perfect note.

Gukesh won the rapid title of the tournament in Zagreb on Friday, ending the event with 14 out of 18 points. He defeated American Grandmaster Wesley So in the final round to end the rapid tournament on a positive note. Before that, Gukesh defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, American GM Fabiano Caruana, and Uzbek player Nodirbek Abdusattorov on Day 2.

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"Yeah, for sure. Three wins in a day feels quite good. First game was pretty good, second and third were not great but in rapid, you can’t really have good positions all the time. I’m glad I managed to make most of them," Gukesh said after Day 2 of the tournament on Thursday.

Gukesh on defeating Carlsen

After defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh admitted that his position wasn’t great in that game, but he still managed to turn things around. Gukesh said that it's nice he could win against Carlsen despite making a really bad move earlier in the game.

"Beating Magnus is always special for sure and I think this also gives bit more confidence. Because I just had a horrible position from the opening. I mixed up something really bad and then it’s nice that I could win against Magnus from two losing positions in a row," Gukesh said.

“It’s not always easy. But you make the most of ‘don’t lose from this point’. Also against Fabiano, I had a pretty bad position. But atleast he was taking too much time so it was not really that big a practical disadvantage. Just one move at a time. Stay in the game,” he added.

Gukesh lost just one match in the tournament, which came against Jan-Kryzsztof Duda of Poland on the opening day. The draws came against Anish Giri of the Netherlands and then against Ivan Saric of Croatia on the final day. The bitz event is scheduled to begin on 5 July.