D Gukesh gives hilarious shout out to 'upset' cousin after win over Magnus Carlsen

India Today

11 hours ago

Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh gave a hilarious shoutout to one of his cousins after beating Magnus Carlsen in the Grand Chess Tour Zagreb. Speaking after his final rapid match in the tournament, which essentially sealed his rapid title at the event, Gukesh said that one of his cousins was confident that he would win over Magnus, and wanted a shoutout in case it happened.advertisementGukesh beat Magnus on July 3 at the event but forgot to mention this incident in the post-match interview. Gukesh revealed that his cousin was quite upset at the development and wanted a shoutout because a deal was a deal."It is a bit funny. Before I came into this tournament, one of my cousins told me that I was going to beat Magnus. So we made a deal that if I do beat Magnus, I will give him a shoutout in my interview. I completely forgot yesterday, and he was quite upset about that," Gukesh laughed.
The Indian Grandmaster underlined his growing stature on the global stage, clinching the rapid title at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament, part of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, in Zagreb, Croatia, on Friday.Speaking about his form and the blitz format, which he is yet to play in the tournament, Gukesh said that he would like to continue in the way that he is playing."I think so far I have been playing good chess, so strategy will be to play good chess with good time management and I hope that everything will work out," Gukesh said.Gukesh gives a shoutout to his cousin, who'd predicted he'd beat Magnus and asked for a shoutout if he did! #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/0mbKaf5fxJ— chess24 (@chess24com) July 4, 2025Gukesh showed incredible domination after losing his first match in the tournament at Zagreb. After a first-round defeat to Jan-Krzysztof Duda, he sparked a remarkable turnaround. Gukesh responded with five consecutive victories, including a clinical dismantling of World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in Round 4, a result that firmly placed him in control of the leaderboard.He capped off the rapid section with a signature win over Wesley So of the United States in the final round, a composed 36-move performance that exploited a tactical oversight to convert a material edge into two full points. It was a fitting end to a run that included six wins, two draws, and a solitary loss.advertisementDay 3 began with a quiet draw against Dutch GM Anish Giri, as the players reached a near-locked middlegame and shook hands. The second game of the day, against Croatia's Ivan Aric, was a lengthy contest where Gukesh employed the Marshall Gambit. The 87-move encounter eventually ended in a draw but showed Gukesh's readiness to fight for every inch.GUKESH PLAYS DOWN HIGH PRAISELegendary Garry Kasparov was high in praise of Gukesh after he beat Magnus Carlsen and argued that perhaps the Magnus Carlsen era in chess was over.'Now we can question Magnus' domination,' Kasparov said in the commentary.'This is not just his second loss to Gukesh, it's a convincing loss. It's not a miracle or that Gukesh just kept benefitting from Magnus' terrible mistakes. It was a game that was a big fight. And Magnus lost.'Gukesh himself played down Kasparov's comments but said that the high praise did feel nice."That's very nice to hear but I prefer not to think in those terms. I still see myself as a player who is working hard to improve every day. Just taking one game at a time, one tournament at a time. But it is nice of Garry to say that," Gukesh concluded the interview.- EndsTrending Reel