 "The video of Magnus Carlsen slamming the table after losing to D Gukesh had become a worldwide rage.")
World chess champion D Gukesh’s famous win over world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and the five-time world champion’s famous table smash after his first-ever Classical-format loss to the Indian at Norway Chess 2025 felt like a seminal moment in chess. It seemed like a proper passing of the baton from Carlsen’s generation, with the Norwegian widely regarded as the greatest chess player of all time, to the NextGen, led by the youngest world champion ever, Gukesh.
The fact that Carlsen himself had never rated Gukesh very highly and picked multiple faults in his game across Classical and Freestyle formats made the Indian chess star’s victory even more profound and Carlsen hitting the table after losing in a time scramble made the incident worldwide popular.
What’s quite amazing is that Gukesh was on the losing end throughout the match, but things changed completely once it entered the time control. The 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster is known for his dogged defence and he applied the same fighting spirit on the board on the fateful day as Carlsen committed a rare blunder to lose to Gukesh for the first time in a classical match.
Gukesh: ‘My heart rate was so high after beating Carlsen’
Reflecting on his biggest win so far, Gukesh said that he was so engrossed in the match and the feeling of winning against Carlsen was so strong that he didn’t even realise that the 34-year-old banged the table after losing.
“I was just trying to calculate the course, and after 60.Nb2, I realised it’s just winning. But it was such a quick shift from losing to draw to completely winning,” Gukesh told Chess Base India in an interview. “My mind was just trying to process what happened in the game.
“I did not pay much attention to him banging the table. My heart rate was so high in those final moments. I don’t even know what I felt exactly. I was just happy to win the game.”
Carlsen, however, was quick to realise his mistake as he congratulated Gukesh, apologised for banging the table and patted the Indian on the back. Gukesh said it was a great gesture by Carlsen to appreciate his opponent despite suffering a bitter loss.
“I was just happy that I won the game. I didn’t realize much what else was happening. But even after losing such a game, to appreciate your opponent, it’s quite nice,” Gukesh added.