Reigning World Champion D Gukesh crashed to a defeat towards Magnus Carlsen within the ultimate spherical of the round-robin stage on the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour first leg, on the Weissenhaus Resort in Wangels, Germany. Gukesh crumbled below stress towards the World No. 1 and was completely outplayed by Carlsen, who was taking part in with the black items.
D Gukesh misplaced to Magnus Carlsen on Saturday.(AP)
It was the primary assembly between the India No. 1 and the Norwegian, since Gukesh grew to become world champion in December. Talking to Take Take Take app after his win vs Gukesh, Carlsen analysed his recreation and felt that he put in a superb present towards his opponent.
“Yeah, I was… I think the game was very decent for a long time. I was very happy to get in this counterstriking in the center with e4, 35. 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. That I’d… 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 Knight b5, I mean that’s really really difficult to find,” he mentioned.
“So after that I was a bit disappointed because then the position was just equal and yeah honestly after that I think it was just a 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 his position in practice. And at that point, I thought my winning chances were great.”
The sport noticed Gukesh fall below stress within the endgame, regardless of it initially wanting like he might take it to a draw. However the Indian GM’s want to seal a win noticed him lose the sport. Carlsen was additionally reminded that he had earlier identified that endgames had been typically Gukesh’s weak spot, to which he mentioned, “No, no, I think the endgame itself was completely fine. Of course, I have this protected past bonds, but his pieces are so well placed that he should never really get in trouble. I think it was later, like he didn’t… He could have, for instance, exchanged rooks at some point, which is just a dead draw, at a couple of points. And, you know, it’s a thing we talked about earlier as well, is that he wasn’t really playing by hand. He was trying to do a little bit too much.”
‘He wants to beat, you Magnus’
Then the interviewer identified to Carlsen, “He wants to beat you, Magnus. He wants to play.”
He responded, “No, I don’t know. 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. 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, it’s just unstoppable.”
Gukesh completed eighth within the standings, managing to qualify for the quarterfinals. He’ll face Fabiano Caruana within the quarters, in the meantime Carlsen will tackle Nodirbek Abdusattorov. However, Alireza Firouzja, who additionally beat Gukesh, will tackle Vincent Keymer and Javokhir Sindarov will face Hikaru Nakamura.