‘Time to grow up’: Magnus Carlsen gets revenge over Gukesh after year-long wait

Even though Friday was a rest day at the tournament, Gukesh turned 20 in the company of fellow grandmasters, including world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov and Carlsen. The players spent three hours on sailboats racing against each other at Oslofjord in the annual Norway Chess games, where at least twice, impromptu chorus of happy birthday rang out for a grinning Gukesh.

But just before the players were to get on the boats, a video from the social media team from Norway Chess dropped where other participants at this year’s event wished him. Right at the top was Carlsen’s message for him, delivered with a cheeky grin: “Happy birthday, Gukesh. You’re not a teenager anymore. So time to grow up.”

Happy Birthday, World Champion Gukesh! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/f3SnEwwJnf

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) May 29, 2026

Ever since the world no 1 from Norway smashed his fist on the table almost a year ago in reaction to losing at the same tournament to the Indian, the world had been eagerly awaiting another Carlsen-Gukesh battle. Thursday’s game — the first of two installments between the two at Norway Chess in Oslo this year — did not disappoint.

Seats at the Deichman Bjørvika, the stunning public library in Oslo that acts as the playing hall for the 2026 edition of Norway Chess, started to fill up half an hour before the first moves would be made. Fans paying NOK 300 (just over Rs 3,000) had filled out the first two rows of chairs in front of the players. And just in case you had any doubt what the main event of the day was, the chairs in front of the Carlsen-Gukesh board were occupied five rows deep, with fans wanting to watch them battle with their own eyes.

Outside the Deichman, azure blue waters and speckled skies greeted those who were making the most of the sun-kissed evening. Inside the public library, storm clouds were gathering on the chess board where Gukesh and Carlsen were hunched over trying to outwit each other. Coming into the game, both players had undergone unforgiving scrutiny from the chess fraternity.

After Carlsen lost two classical games in the first three rounds of Norway Chess, some of his contemporaries had been wondering out aloud if he still had what it takes. Even by his own track record of having ‘rusty’ starts to tournaments, two losses in the first three rounds was unprecedented. Hikaru Nakamura, in a provocative title for a video on his YouTube handle asked: ‘Will Magnus retire after Norway Chess?’ Arch-enemy Hans Niemann took a pointed potshot about chess needing to penalise players for inactivity. Wesley So, right after beating Alireza Firouzja in the Armageddon, noted on the live broadcast on Thursday: “I think Magnus has made more blunders in this tournament than he’s done in the last two years in classical chess.”

Gukesh’s form, meanwhile, has been scrutinised for the past 18 months since he became the youngest world champion in chess history. Every defeat is held up as proof —unfairly as it may be — that he is not ready to be a world champion with impeccable credentials like Carlsen.

In a game that saw an exchange variation of the queen’s gambit declined, Gukesh, playing with white pieces, played aggressively, catching the world no 1 off-guard at the start.

“Did I miss knight to b5 (Gukesh’s ninth move)? Yes! Was it an unpleasant surprise? Yes,” Carlsen said in an early visit to the confessional booth on Thursday.

After Carlsen was left with doubled pawns on the f file, Gukesh had a small edge according to the eval bar. But Carlsen soon found a way to overturn that small edge.

While the Norwegian has been struggling to keep up with the clock in the unique time control used to Norway Chess so far, today it was Gukesh who found himself fighting time trouble in the middle game, needing to make 12 moves in seven minutes.

By the 30th move, Carlsen was winning after Gukesh’s bishop to e4. By the 39th move, the world champion had to sacrifice his queen in exchange for a rook. Three moves later, he resigned.

At the 2025 Norway Chess tournament, after Carlsen’s first round win over Gukesh, he had posted a quote from The Wire on his X handle: “You come at the king, you best not miss.” (Credit: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess)

After the resignation, the duo sat on the board for a few minutes discussing the intricacies of the game in a way they have rarely done in past encounters.

“It was a huge relief (to win today). After missing a few chances (in previous games) you kind of get little doubts in your mind. What’s it going to take for me to get it done. Feels good to get that monkey off my back,” Carlsen told Take Take Take after his win.

Ghosts of that defeat to Gukesh a year ago — and his loss on Wednesday against R Praggnanandhaa — were still on his mind in today’s game. It made him do a double take at the end when victory was in sight.

“At the end, I was a little bit worried when I allowed him to take a knight with check. I was thinking this happened with Pragg yesterday and with Gukesh last year. I was wondering if I was actually missing something. But if I was, he did not find it either,” smiled Carlsen.

At the 2025 Norway Chess tournament, after Carlsen’s first round win over Gukesh, he had posted a quote from The Wire on his X handle: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

On Thursday, his X account stayed silent. There is another Carlsen-Gukesh game coming next week after all.

(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)