Carlsen’s outburst

On Sunday, five-time world champion Carlsen seemed to have the upper hand almost throughout the four-hour-long contest, but a critical mistake in time trouble allowed Gukesh to turn the tables on the Norwegian and secure a remarkable win.

Also read: Gukesh rises to career-best No. 3; Praggnanandhaa re-enters top 10

Carlsen realised his mistake, but by then it was too late. The Norwegian star vented his frustration by banging on the table, which threw the chess pieces into disarray. His disbelief and frustration, however, didn’t stop him from shaking Gukesh’s hands, placing all the pieces on the board, and walking away,y patting the winner on the back.

‘Not the way I expected…’

The win propelled 19-year-old Gukesh to third position with 8.5 points and he is just one point shy of joint leaders Carlsen and American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana.

The magnitude of the achievement saw Gukesh close his eyes for a moment and then soak in the feeling of fulfilment. The victory had come after a crushing Round 1 loss to the Norwegian world No.1, which had cast a shadow on whether Gukesh would be able to overcome Carlsen’s challenge in the reverse game. Carlsen, playing with black pieces, had earlier outplayed Gukesh with near-perfect precision. But the Indian kept prolonging the game by finding the right moves to survive.

“There wasn’t much I could do. It was just clearly lost… luckily he (Carlsen) got into a time scramble,” Gukesh said.

Gukesh told reporters after the match that, “99 out of 100 times I would lose… just a lucky day.” Carlsen dropped his knight, and Gukesh pounced on his opponent’s error to go for the kill. “First Classical win over Magnus, not the way I expected (or) wanted it to be but I will take it. I was just trying to make moves (today) which kind of were tricky for him and, luckily, he got into a time scramble,” he said.

Also read: Freestyle chess: Nakamura points out Gukesh’s ‘biggest weakness’

‘Banged a lot of tables in my career’

Reacting to Carlsen’s angry outburst, Gukesh, as reported by Chess.comsaid he understands his rival’s frustration and took it in a sporting manner. “I have also banged a lot of tables in my career,” he was quoted as saying.

Speaking about Gukesh’s victory, his coach, Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, attributed it to the teen’s resilience and resolve to fight against odds.

“We have to give a lot of credit to Gukesh for his stubbornness and his resourcefulness because I think he was aware that he was dead lost for so long, yet he kept kicking, he kept kicking, and the time went lower, the more chances he had to actually do something with the position.