Gukesh defeats Magnus Carlsen once again as Garry Kasparov says: ‘Now we can question Magnus’ domination’

“Now we can question Magnus’ domination,” former world champion Garry Kasparov, who was on commentary for the official stream, said. “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.”

Before the start of the tournament, Carlsen had gone as far as saying that he would treat the games against the 19-year-old world champion as ones against one of the “presumably weaker players in the tournament”.

As Carlsen had explained, “Gukesh hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s going to do well (in rapid and blitz). It remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in such a format (rapid and blitz). This is a very, very strong field that we have here. Players like Gukesh have a lot to prove. In the course of 27 rounds, things usually show. I hope for Gukesh’s sake that he can play better.”

Over the course of six games in two days at Zagreb, Gukesh has done much more than “playing better”. After losing the first round clash against his world championship second, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Gukesh had crushed four of the strongest players in the field in a row: Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Fabiano Caruana before his takedown of Carlsen.

The resignation from Carlsen, in 49 moves, came on Thursday with more muted emotions from him, just a simple handshake, no eye contact, just a grimace before walking off the stage.

On Thursday, just like at Norway Chess, Carlsen had a significant advantage from the start of the game. Both players had blitzed out their moves at the start with Carlsen trying to catch his opponent off guard with the English Opening. But on the 23rd move, Carlsen did something inexplicable: he opted to push his b pawn ahead to b4, a move that made former world champion Garry Kasparov gasp. Before that move, Carlsen had a sizeable advantage on the board and a single minute edge on the clock.

But that move had changed the course of the match, felt Kasparov.

“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.”

He repeated “you don’t play b4” many more times. Over and over.

Kasparov had much more generous things to say about Gukesh, even when Carlsen had an advantage on the board.

“Playing Gukesh is like playing a computer. He’s the most resilient player. He has many lives in each game. You have to beat him about five times in each game. You will be winning, but at one point (like at Norway Chess) you lose concentration and you’re lost.”

That’s precisely what’s happened to Carlsen twice now.

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