‘D Gukesh should have lost to Magnus Carlsen': Nakamura mocks reigning World Champion in ‘he saw some ghosts' remark

Hindustan Times

a day ago

D Gukesh fell to a defeat against American GM Hikaru Nakamura on Tuesday, in Round 8 of Norway Chess 2025. The World No. 2 thought he would have a boring draw. But Gukesh, after a poor start in the tournament, showcased some stunning chess to stage a comeback in the round-robin format. He began his campaign with back-to-back losses to Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi.
He beat Carlsen and Erigaisi in Round 6 and 7, and looked like he had found a winning formula. But he sustained a heavy defeat against Nakamura.
After the win, Nakamura couldn't help himself, mocking Gukesh for his preparation. Speaking to Take Take Take, he said, 'I played something that was very boring, but luckily Gukesh wasn't ready for it, and he sort of saw some ghosts and went for this whole position with bishop g6 move which I don't know if it's losing but for a human, very very tough to play, so it was a very smooth game, very happy.'
The match turned to Nakamura's side on move 18, when Gukesh opted for an unusual path,skipping the expected move, and opted for 18… Rab8. Then it was followed by 19. Qe4, and with 19… Bg6 forced, 20.Nxg6 followed. Then Gukesh's recapture with the wrong pawn gave Nakamura a huge advantage.
The World No. 2 responded with opposite-coloured bishops in attacking positions, and got the light squares under his contest, with Gukesh's bishop also standing no chance. Nakamura put immense pressure which saw the reigning World Champion crumble in 50 moves.
'I'm not sure what happened, whether Gukesh just didn't know this bishop g6 move, or what exactly it was, but it was very clear to me that, based on the long think, he didn't like the pawn structure at all,' said the American.
Meanwhile, according to PTI, Nakamura also feels that Gukesh should have lost to Carlsen, and labelled his play as horrible. 'It's a very strange term, because his result is very good, but if we're being objective about chess, I think he's played horribly. He should have lost to Magnus… he was completely lost against Arjun (Erigaisi),' he said.
'Other than the first game against me, and maybe the game against Wei Yi, at some point, he was losing; even Fabiano (Caruana), he (Gukesh) was also losing in that game
'So, it's very, very hard to judge what his play is, but when I look at his game, one of the big things that he has, that I would say Arjun and R. Praggnanandhaa don't have, is he's mentally very strong.
'He's a lot less emotional than the other two players, and that has served him very well, especially in this tournament, so it's a mixed bag. I think his defensive skills are very good, like in this game, I thought there were probably three or four moments when I was winning, and then I had to still find more moves to convert, so he's definitely showing very strong strong defensive skills,' he added.