Garry Kasparov explains why playing Gukesh is ‘like playing a computer’: Have to beat him 5 times, has many lives in each game

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Chess legend Garry Kasparov with current world champion Gukesh before the start of the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2025 in Zagreb. (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour via Lennart Ootes)

As Gukesh was turning the screws on Magnus Carlsen, one of his predecessors on the world champion’s throne, in a rapid game at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2025 in Zagreb, another man who has been hailed as the world’s greatest chess player, Garry Kasparov, was doing commentary for the game. Kasparov could not resist admiring Gukesh in commentary, and plenty of his praise came even before Gukesh had managed to turn the game around and put Carlsen under pressure before going on to force the world no 1 to resign.

Kasparov, who famously played some much-publicised games in the 1990s against machines like IBM’s Deep Blue, compared Gukesh to a machine. It must be noted again that Kasparov said this before Gukesh had taken down Carlsen on Thursday. At that stage, Gukesh was playing Carlsen after rebounding from his first round loss to Jan-Krzysztof Duda (one of his seconds for the world championship last year) by defeating four of the best players in the line-up at Zagreb: Alireza Firouzja (talked up by Carlsen himself as one of the pre-tournament favourites), Praggnanandhaa (in the hottest form of his life before this tournament), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (one of Gukesh’s arch-rivals) and Fabiano Caruana (the winner from last year’s event in Zagreb). Gukesh would add Carlsen to that list shortly afterwards.

“He’s a player that’s hard to beat. Gukesh has many lives (in each game). You have to beat him many times. There is some resemblance (to computers). He has a resilience that reminds me of computers. He’s probably the most resilient player. Even Magnus has other advantages. But when it comes to resilience, he’s absolutely amazing. If you look at the infamous game against Magnus (at Norway Chess), I don’t recall Magnus ever losing a game when he had an advantage of +3 or +4. Why he reminds me of computers is that with machines, you lose your concentration and you’re dead. With Gukesh you have to beat him five times,” Kasparov said.

Magnus Carlsen reacts after resigning against Gukesh in a rapid game at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2025 in Zagreb on Thursday. (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour via Lennart Ootes)

While talking about Gukesh’s tournament, Kasparov said: “He had a miserable start. He lost to Duda in the first round convincingly. Then Gukesh won four in a row. In rapid! Look at the players he beat, Alireza, Fabi. Beating four top players… He played well. He’s made mistakes.”

Gukesh has constantly been spoken of as a player whose calculating style suits classical chess rather than the faster formats of rapid and blitz. He tends to think long and hard during games which has constantly led him into trouble on the clock, like at the World Chess Championship. But at Zagreb, though, he’s constantly outmaneuvered opponents on the board and on the clock, having more time on the clock in end games against players like Caruana and Carlsen.

READ MORE | Magnus Carlsen reacts to Gukesh defeat: ‘Poor from me, got soundly punished… but all credit to Gukesh’

Asked if this was a change in style, Kasparov said: “This is not about style. He’s getting more comfortable.”

INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh defeated Magnus Carlsen

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On Thursday, just like at Norway Chess, Carlsen had a significant advantage from the start of the game. But on the 23rd move, Carlsen pushed his b pawn ahead to b4, a move that made former world champion Kasparov gasp. “B4? You don’t play b4, you just don’t play b4,” gasped Kasparov as soon as he saw what Carlsen, his one-time trainee, had done on move 23. Kasparov closed his eyes in horror and looked away from the screen. “This is something wrong.”

You can read our analysis of how Gukesh defeated Magnus Carlsen here.

After the defeat, Kasparov had said: “Now we can question Magnus’ domination. 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.”