 "Magnus Carlsen called the match against D Gukesh 'boring' and expressed surprise at beating him. Image: Norway Chess")
World No.1 Magnus Carlsen declared himself the “king” of chess after beating world champion D Gukesh in their first classical meeting since the Indian Grandmaster ascended to the top of the chess world. Gukesh had become the youngest chess world champion of all time last December after beating Ding Liren of China. Since then, a match between Gukesh and five-time world champion Carlsen in classical format was highly anticipated and it finally took place on Monday at the Norway Chess 2025 in Stavanger.
In the first match of the tournament, Carlsen had the white pieces advantage, but he opted for a Jobava London System (1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bf4), which surprised one and all.
Calsen pulls off surprise at start
With Carlsen choosing one of the relatively easiest openings, Gukesh found himself with an advantage, but the match moved at snail’s pace.
“I tried to surprise him. But I was surprised myself. I responded with the most squeamish move”, Carlsen said in the confessional box early in the game. He also admitted in the box that the match was “boring”.
Despite enjoying an early edge, Gukesh struggled to control the game and by move 18, Carlsen was ahead on the evaluation bar. Gukesh, who hails from Chennai, however, did well to bring himself back before the end game.
But the time pressure had its say on Gukesh’s game as he blundered on move 46. He opted to check with his queen (46…Qh6+) instead of the more accurate rook check (46…Rg2+).
After move 51, Gukesh had no place to hide. Carlsen’s king and rook coordinated a series of checks, and with no escape in sight, the reigning world champion was forced to resign.
Carlsen celebrates win over Gukesh with famous quote
Carlsen had questioned Gukesh’s world championship win and using the classical format to decide the world champion in December, but he surely enjoyed the victory over the reigning world champion. He was quick to share a post on X, which included a famous quote from an HBO series, The Wire. It read: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”
Talking to Take Take Take after the match, Carlsen said he was happy to come out as a winner after a frantic end game.
“I don’t know if you should call it old school or more new because there were very little theories and by no means better, but I think we both wanted to fight. Eventually, I wasn’t too happy to get into the end game because there’s a little bit of imbalance there, but I think he did well for a while, we got into a position where both have passed pawns and then anything can happen,” Carlsen said.
Discussing Gukesh’s blunder on move 46, he said: “When he played that, I wasn’t sure if he was losing or not, but I thought he needed to give me a check with his rook and have an easier perpetual check."
Carlsen also had a good reason for picking a “random” first move, as he wanted to force Gukesh into trying out something new, away from traditional openings.
“These are no good openings to be played with white these days especially against someone who has prepared for the World Championship match. You just got to play something and that was my choice for today but I was surprised and honestly I just wanted to play a random first move because it’s not going to be better. But this worked out decently well,” Carlsen added.
In an interview with Norwegian TV2, Carlsen also said that he did not expect to win the match and felt it was heading for a draw. Well, it didn’t end in a draw as the world No.1 secured a famous win, highlighting his chess prowess and the need for Gukesh to keep developing his game.