Norway Chess: Calm after the storm, Magnus Carlsen praises Gukesh's fighting skills
A day after his dramatic defeat to D Gukesh in Round 6 of the Norway Chess tournament, Magnus Carlsen acknowledged the world champion's 'energy' and 'fighting qualities', conceding that on a normal day, he would have won the contest.Carlsen, 34, had dominated the game in Round 6 for the most part but eventually blundered under time pressure, handing the victory to the 19-year-old Indian on Sunday, June 1. Visibly frustrated, the five-time world champion banged the table with his fist, causing the pieces to scatter. He later shook hands with Gukesh, reset the board and walked away, patting the youngster.advertisement'I think, like, I remember being that age myself, and sometimes kind of your energy, like fighting qualities, and just the optimism is sometimes, you know, bigger than the quality of your moves,' Carlsen said on Monday.
'So, I think, for a long time he (Gukesh) was just more or less blindly pushing. And then, yeah, on a normal day, of course, I win that game, and things look quite differently,' Carlsen added.Carlsen praised Gukesh's resilience and willingness to seize the moment despite being in a difficult position for most of their Round 6 match, which turned out to be an epic endgame.'What he (Gukesh) does well, as I alluded to, is he really fights very, very well, and he was there to take his chance, so he deserves credit for that. But that's the kind of chance that I really, really have to put away. Otherwise, I have no chance,' Carlsen said.advertisementLegendary Susan Polgar called it one of the most painful losses in Carlsen's decorated career and the Norwegian's body language in Round 7 on Monday told the story.He was more composed after his Round 7 Armageddon tie-break victory over American world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, but the scars from Sunday were evident.NO MORE CLASSICAL FOR CARLSEN?Carlsen once again reflected on his future in Classical Chess, saying he would rather endure the pain of losing in a format that he loves.'I think I'll play the last three games (in Norway Chess), and then I will have to make some decisions about next year here or potential other tournaments later, because, yeah, I just don't enjoy (Classical chess) that much,' he said.When asked directly if he was contemplating stepping back from classical events, Carlsen did not rule it out: 'It's possible, yeah. I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not going to play Classical events ever again, but right now it doesn't.'He added: 'The thing is that, you know, losses are painful no matter what, but at least if I can lose doing something that I really enjoy (Blitz, Rapid or Freestyle), then that's much easier. It's not that I cannot play (Classical chess), it's just situations like yesterday (loss to Gukesh) I'm just wondering, like, why am I doing this? What's the point?'In Round 7, Carlsen and American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura agreed to a 21-move draw in classical format before the Norwegian prevailed in the Armageddon tie-break.Tune InTrending Reel
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Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years'
Stavanger: Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand says he likes of compartmentalize the various hats he currently wears. Over the last 10 days in Stavanger, though, he's been a busy man. Amidst his daily commentary gig with Norway Chess, Anand made a quick dash for the 'Clash of Generations' exhibition game in Italy, and was among the speakers at the Norway Summit on Wednesday. Sitting down with members of Indian media here ahead of that, the five-time world champion spoke on a range of issues — from Gukesh's performance in the tournament to Magnus Carlsen's fist bang. On Gukesh's tests of survival in Norway Chess It is nothing that wasn't unknown to me. He is tough, quite tenacious. He copes pretty well with setbacks. Obviously, this is a higher test, a more intense tournament. He seems to be under pressure every day, but several days he came out well. Yesterday (on Tuesday, in the loss against Hikaru Nakamura) he flipped a little bit. Suddenly too much success, perhaps two days of getting lucky — of course, you make your luck — and something was off with him. But, that happens. On whether Gukesh is playing too much It depends on what you want to try. And also, you have to grab opportunities. Maybe, going forward, careers won't be as long. But yes, you have to schedule some tournaments. It's good that after this, he gets some break. He has to enjoy those moments as well. I mean, there's no use if the brain refuses to switch off. On his advice to Indian youngsters in dealing with playing all formats (classical, rapid, freestyle), and the risk of burnout Not only is it difficult to compare, the situation is also not the same. I no longer feel my advice is what's the right mix is necessarily the only one. But I know that you cannot cope by taking in everything. And at some point you have to stop, and say these are things that I'll leave out and these I'll prioritize. Because that's the way we do things. Beyond that, the scenario is changing so much. You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years. A lot of this is decided by public opinion and what they want to watch. On the Gukesh-Grzegorz Gajewski partnership I guess it's a normal relationship. But they've had to deal with such wild swings. I don't think they expected Toronto (Candidates). Obviously without Toronto, you can't expect Singapore (World Championships), and you can't expect this kind of meteoric rise. So they're also adjusting to it. On whether he's seen extreme reactions like Carlsen's fist bang on the table before Yes, enough anger. All this has been around for a while, people screaming and cursing. The only difference is the cameras. The other thing I would say is that this was very intense. Maybe Magnus isn't that excited about classical chess, but he has certainly taken on Gukesh. Or if not that, (to) show that he can fight the youngsters. A lot of stuff (that was) probably going on in his head, and it came out. So those two games (against Gukesh), he took very intensely and seriously. That's kind of partially what brought it on. And that he essentially threw away a carefully nursed game in half a second. On comments by Carlsen and Nakamura in Norway speculating their classical future They've been saying this for some time. Hiraku doesn't play much anyway. He is really quite busy with his other commitments. Same with Magnus, and he's mentioned it many times. You can't ask what the future is every time someone tries to dial it down. I mean, nobody asked me — I had also dialled it down. The sport goes on. There are hundreds of new talents. In this case, we had a lot of warnings. On Nakamura's comments here that chess needs more personalities to sell, and whether that also applies to the current Indians in the elite bunch People are supposed to do what they do best, focus on the best outcomes, and that is supposed to be interesting. You're not supposed to go out there and make being interesting separate from what you do. They (the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi) are all also very young. Hikaru is able to bring his experience over many years into this, and he's been someone who has done things on the online platform and has a good sense of what people react to and like to watch. That's something he has managed to leverage well. They (Indian players) are welcome to take advice from him, but how they implement it is on them.
United News of India
27 minutes ago
- United News of India
BCCI floats RFP for IPL and WPL digital services
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Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich on Magnus Carlsen's fist thump: ‘It was extreme emotion… but emotions make any sport more exciting'
When a frustrated Magnus Carlsen slammed his fist on the table after a blunder against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju during a match at Norway Chess, the sound was heard across the world. While many in the chess fraternity were a little taken aback by that display of emotion, that moment has prompted plenty of people who would otherwise not follow the sport to track the drama keenly. Now FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich has said that what Carlsen did was 'a bit unusual' but 'not disrespectful'. 'I saw a video that showed that Gukesh had also done the same (once). The reaction (from Carlsen) was a bit unusual, yes. It was like extreme emotion. But, people like emotions. Emotions make sport more exciting sometimes,' Dvorkovich told Indian media in Stavanger on Wednesday. OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲 — Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 1, 2025 'Of course, everyone should keep himself respectful. I would not call what Magnus did disrespectful. It was emotional as he was really disappointed. Gukesh fought back in a very tough game. But at the end, Magnus appreciated that Gukesh was really fighting for that (win).' Dvorkovich-led FIDE and Carlsen have recently clashed a few times, especially when the world no.1 was threatened with a forfeiture for wearing jeans at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. In response, Carlsen quit the tournament and butted antlers with the top brass of chess' world governing body. He was later coaxed back to play the World Blitz Championship, the title which he subsequently opted to share with Ian Nepomniachtchi. FIDE then objected to the Freestyle Grand Slam chess tour events, organised by people backed by the Norwegian. In Stavanger, when Dvorkovich was asked whether he thought Carlsen banging his fist on the table would draw in newer audiences to the sport, he said: 'You can always say that in any sport, any scandal creates more excitement. And this was not a big scandal, happily, it was just a short moment.' 'Major channels start following those things, like it was once with the (Hans Niemann) cheating scandal, Jeansgate or whatever. Magnus is a top player, so when he is involved in something like that, of course everyone pays attention. But I have great respect for Magnus and I would not blame him for those things.' Dvorkovich felt that in cases where a player acts out physically during a game, an arbiter should give a soft warning. But 'if there are no complaints (from the other player), it doesn't go anywhere.' Right after the fist thump incident, Carlsen had spoken out about how this year's Norway Chess could be the last classical event he plays. When asked about Carlsen quitting classical chess, Dvorkovich said: 'That would be unfortunate, but I hope that he'll come back to some classical events or some mixed events. Magnus is the best player, but not the only strong player in the world. He's in his mid-thirties already, so it's good that he's doing other things as well.' Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
