D Gukesh’s silver lining after ending last at Clutch Chess: ‘These guys won’t be there at FIDE World Cup’

5 days ago 10

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Magnus Carlsen takes on world champion D Gukesh in a Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown clash in St Louis. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes/ Saint Louis Chess Club)

Gukesh Dommaraju ended last in the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown exhibition event after topping the standings on day 1. While Magnus Carlsen won the four-player event, Fabiano Caruana ended second and Hikaru Nakamura was third. D Gukesh lost five out of six games to Carlsen over the three-day tournament with the remaining clash ending in a draw.

Asked about his performance at the Clutch Chess event, Gukesh said: “Obviously not great. The first day was quite promising. I started off quite well, but the second and third days were just completely off. At some point, it was very tough to start getting wins, and when it’s like that against this opposition, it usually goes downhill quite fast. But overall, great experience, especially before the FIDE World Cup. I mean, there are no better training partners than these three (Carlsen, Nakamura and Caruana). So the good thing is these three won’t be there in the World Cup. So, I had a better training than what I’ll be facing. So, I hope it helps.”

World champion Gukesh D poses at the St Louis Chess Club during the Clutch Chess exhibition event. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via St Louis Chess Club)

WATCH: Gukesh speaks after ending last in Clutch Chess

When Gukesh was asked if there were any games he was proud of during the tournament, or ones that were the highlight of the exhibition event for him, the world champion said: “There were a lot of interesting games. I guess some game from the first day. I quite liked both the games. I mean the second game against Fabi, it was more of his mistake, but like the first win against Fabi and the win against Naka both were quite nice.”

Despite ending last in the standings, Gukesh said he loved the format. “I loved the format, especially considering the opposition and yeah, it’s a different format. I mean, each day you get more important games. So, I love the format and I would love to play this again in the future.”

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