Carlsen concedes Gukesh loss still weighs on him, jokes another defeat could cause ‘existential crisis’: 'I don’t know what to do'

It’s been a while since D Gukesh pulled off a stunning victory over Magnus Carlsen in the Norway Chess, the latter having won multiple events since then including the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown on Thursday. The world No 1, however, admits that the loss continues to play on his mind nearly five months on, adding that he would have been in an “existential crisis” if he had suffered another such loss earlier this week.

Reigning world champion Gukesh had defeated Carlsen for the first time in his career during the sixth round of the prestigious Norway Chess earlier this year, fighting back from a tough position and capitalising on a blunder to defeat the five-time world champion in 62 moves. One victory would lead to another with Gukesh completing back-to-back victories over Carlsen , albeit in different formats, by triumphing over the Norwegian in SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia.

Carlsen and Gukesh’s paths would then meet at Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown – a three-day event in St Louis, USA that featured some of the top players in the world that was played in a double round-robin format in a 10+5 time control.

The two faced off in the very first round, in which Carlsen won the opening game while playing as white before playing out a draw in the second as a black.

The 34-year-old was even more clinical in the next round of games against Gukesh, defeating the 19-year-old reigning world champion in 39 and 33 moves respectively en route to topping the overall standings with 25.5 points – 9 points ahead of runner-up Fabiano Caruana. Such was his dominance that he won the Clutch Chess event with two games to spare.

Carlsen not entirely pleased despite clinical victory in St Louis

Despite the gap between Carlsen and the rest of the pack, the top-ranked player did not think he produced his A-Game at the Saint Louis Chess Club, while adding that the defeat against Gukesh was still on his mind.

“It was very similar to my game against Gukesh in Norway chess and I was thinking if I blow this one, I don’t know what to do. Of course, it feels really good to win those kinds of clean strategic games, especially with those black pieces. It’s much more common that there’s some back and forth and so on, but this one was very very clean and he didn’t really get any real chances,” Carlsen said after winning the event along with $170,000 in prize money, which included $50,000 in bonus cash.

“Yeah, I was a lot happier. 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,” he added.

While Carlsen and Caruana occupied the top two spots, world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh finished third and fourth with 14 and 10 points across three days respectively.

Gukesh will next be seen in action at the FIDE World Cup that gets underway in Goa on Friday, a tournament that his ‘Clutch Chess’ opponents have decided to give a miss for various reasons.