Magnus Carlsen reacts after beating world champion Gukesh: 'He was trying to do a little bit too much'

On Saturday, 18-year-old Indian grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh faced off against World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany. This was their first meeting since Gukesh’s historic triumph against China’s Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship last year. However, the highly anticipated clash against Carlsen ended in disappointment for the young Indian as the Norwegian Grandmaster emerged victorious.

Gukesh, the only Indian competing in the tournament, had a difficult run in the round-robin stage. Despite an underwhelming start, he qualified for the quarter-finals after finishing eighth in the standings with 3.5 points. Only Vladimir Fedoseev (2.5/9) and Levon Aronian (1.5/9) finished below Gukesh. T he encounter with Carlsen, however, exposed the youngster’s struggles in the endgame.

Carlsen believes Gukesh’s inexperience played a role in his win

Reflecting on the match, Carlsen stated, “I think the game was very decent for a long time. I was very happy to get in this counter strike in the centre with e4, e5. I thought, I don’t know, I thought like my queen is controlling the diagonal, I always have these tricks with going rook e8 and then long castling and it felt like his position was a bit shaky”

“Somehow I’d seen that he could play d4 but I was like one, hoping maybe he wouldn’t play it, two, hoping that I would find something and I checked it briefly afterwards, actually there is something with queen e8 and ip5, I mean that’s really difficult to find.

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The former world champion further added that Gukesh’s inexperience played a role in the outcome.

“So after that I was a bit disappointed because then the position was just equal and honestly after that I think it was just lack of experience on his part because he just took too many chances and then when it was time to be a little bit, he was really brave and then when it was time to be brave again he retreated but by the time he retreated it was very difficult to hold this position in practise and at that point I thought my winning chances were great.”

The game saw Gukesh under pressure in the endgame, despite initially seeming capable of forcing a draw. His ambition to push for victory, however, proved costly. Carlsen, when reminded that he had previously noted endgames as Gukesh’s weakness, responded, “No, no, I think the endgame itself was completely fine, of course I have this protected pass bonds but his pieces are so well placed that he should never really get in trouble.”

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“I think it was later, he could have for instance exchanged rooks at some point which is just a dead draw at a couple of points and it’s a thing we talked about earlier as well, he wasn’t really playing by hand, he was trying to do a little bit too much.”

Carlsen was asked about Gukesh’s aggressive approach against him, to which he responded, “I think honestly there was not a single point in the game where it was realistic that he could play for a win, that hasn’t stopped him from playing for a win in the past but I think the practical chances were always with me, especially with the time and what generally happens there is that when things start going downhill they just collapse because as soon as I get my pieces going this pawn, if not located, is just unstoppable.”

Gukesh will now face Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals, while Carlsen is set to battle Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Other quarter-final clashes include Alireza Firouzja vs. Vincent Keymer and Javokhir Sindarov vs. Hikaru Nakamura. As the knockout stage unfolds, Gukesh will be keen to make amends and prove his mettle against the world’s best.