D Gukesh chose to remain modest after winning his first classical match against world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, in stark contrast to how the five-time world champion responded after defeating the Indian Grandmaster last week. Carlsen declared himself the “king” of chess in a daring social media post after beating world champion Gukesh in the opening round of Norway Chess 2025 last week.
Gukesh, on the other hand, did nothing of the sort after defeating the opponent, who had previously criticized the 19-year-old’s play during his World Chess Championship victory last year. Even though Carlsen had the black pieces, Gukesh was under pressure the entire time, and it appeared like he would lose again.
Gukesh: After defeating Carlsen, “I’m still kind of shaken.”
However, by using his most reliable abilities—making the correct calculations and persevering in a battle—the Indian chess star was able to postpone what appeared to be an obvious outcome until the match descended into a time scramble, in which Carlsen ultimately made a mistake and lost to Gukesh after 62 moves.
“I don’t know, I’m still kind of shaken from that game,” Gukesh told Norway Chess broadcasters TV2. “I don’t know what happened. There wasn’t much I could do; it was lost. I was trying to make moves, which kind of was tricky for him, and luckily, he got into a time scramble. One thing I learned from this tournament was time scrambles can go out of control.”
Gukesh stated that he intended to offer some counterplay with Ng5, but even that proved ineffective. However, Carlsen’s small error on move 52 (Ne2+) allowed Gukesh to write a victorious comeback from the losing position.
The chess player from Chennai accepted that he was “lucky” to defeat Carlsen, but he accepted the win without hesitation.
“In this endgame, I was trying to get some Ng5. And luckily, after Kf6 and h4 (the 39th Carlsen move and Gukesh’s 40th move)… he was probably winning, and I had some spite checks (when opponents delay inevitable checkmates). 99 out of 100 times, I would lose… just a lucky day. First Classical win over Magnus, not the way I expected (or) wanted it to be, but I will take it.”
It should be mentioned that Gukesh had declared Carlsen to be the greatest player in the world even after winning the world championship the previous year, so it was not surprising to see the Indian become very emotional after defeating his idol. Meanwhile, the 34-year-old was upset and slammed the table after losing.
After six rounds, Gukesh is in second place with one point fewer than Carlsen, who is still ahead of Fabiano Caruana at Norway Chess 2025 with 9.5 points.
