A 19-year-old Indian chess Gukesh achieved a victory by defeating Magnus Carlsen, one of the greatest chess players of all time, in a classical match at Norway Chess 2025. This was Gukesh’s first classical victory against Carlsen, and it has now positioned him as one of the top players in the world.
Carlsen controlled most of the match and looked strong from the beginning. However, under pressure, he made a rare mistake that changed everything. Gukesh saw the opportunity and quickly turned the game in his favor.
The crowd and online viewers were stunned when Carlsen, frustrated with his mistake, slammed the table in anger. The video of that moment went viral and showed just how intense and emotional the match had become.
After the game, Gukesh spoke calmly and with confidence. He said, “It’s great to go against Magnus. I’m happy with the game that I played today. Tomorrow, hopefully I will play a good game. The result, we’ll see later.” His words showed maturity beyond his age and confidence in his ability to face one of the toughest opponents in chess.
Magnus Carlsen, who was the world champion for many years and is still ranked world number one, admitted that the loss had a big impact on him. Speaking to Chess24 after the tournament, Carlsen said, “Honestly, it could have meant a lot to me if I had finished off the game against Gukesh and then played a really good tournament.
Now like regardless of what happens it would kind of be like a bit of stumbling into a win. Like there is a very good chance that I don’t win the tournament, but it honestly wouldn’t make that big of a difference to me. The dream of playing a really good tournament burst with that game.”
When asked if winning the tournament could be a way to recover from the loss, Carlsen added, “I know that I can play. I mean there is no there is no doubt about that. I just wanted a score that reflects the fact that I think I’m still significantly better at chess and since I couldn’t achieve that then potentially winning the tournament would not would not mean as much.”
He further said, “It was nice to win (against Caruana). But it was not very inspiring.” Carlsen also said he felt “more tired mentally than physically.”
Before this match, Carlsen had beaten Fabiano Caruana and taken the lead in the tournament with 15 points. Gukesh followed closely with 14.5 points after defeating Wei Yi. American player Hikaru Nakamura was just behind them with 13 points, keeping the race for the title very close.
Carlsen’s next and final opponent is Arjun Erigaisi, while Gukesh will face Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen talked about his upcoming match and said, “Arjun will always want to fight. So I am prepared for a fight for sure.” He added, “Playing Arjun is a little bit like playing (Vasyl) Ivanchuk back in the day.
It’s just somebody who doesn’t really play for a lot of draws. He is just is out to get you. So playing black, I’m sure we’ll get some sort of complicated game and I’ll try and do my best from there.”
Carlsen also spoke emotionally about the game against Gukesh. After the match, he had slammed his fist on the table and sighed, “Oh my God.” Later, he said, “I don’t think that (the game against Gukesh, not the incident) was fun.
I have to consider how to avoid it… maybe I should totally stop playing classical chess. It was not fun for me at all. In general I feel I have played well in the tournament but I don’t feel it is fun playing. I am not worried about my level.”
