On his birthday, May 29, Indian chess grandmaster D Gukesh beat world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in a tense tie-break at Norway Chess 2025. Though Caruana had a pawn edge, Gukesh defended well for over four hours to draw the main game.
The current world chess champion, who turned 19, held Caruana to a draw in the classical game with smart endgame play. Caruana defended hard but couldn’t stop him. After 51 moves, with checkmate coming, Caruana resigned. Gukesh’s sharp tactics and aggression gave him a well-earned win.
Gukesh lost a pawn early and was in a tough spot. The game had strict time rules, with only 10 seconds added per move.
But, the youngest world champion stayed calm under pressure and handled the tricky position well. Gukesh played fearlessly in the Armageddon tie-break, where he had to win as White.
“The Classical game could have easily gone bad, but luckily, I managed to save it in the time scramble, and then Armageddon was very good,” Gukesh said after the win.
What is Armageddon tie-break?
An Armageddon tie-break is a special chess game used to break a tie when players draw a match. In this game, White gets more time (usually 10 minutes), and Black gets less time (usually 7 minutes).
However, Black only needs a draw to win the match. White must win to win the match.
It’s called “Armageddon” because it’s the final, do-or-die game to decide a winner quickly.
Gukesh about playing on his birthday
D Gukesh now has 4.5 points in the tournament, which is led by Magnus Carlsen with 8 points. Gukesh, who earlier defeated world No.2 Nakamura, spoke about playing on his birthday.
“Most of my birthdays I end up losing the game, so glad it did not repeat in the classical. When I was playing, I felt fine, but when I was losing, I was like, ‘ok, not again’,” PTI quoted Gukesh as saying.
Arjun Erigaisi loses to Magnus Carlsen
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated Indian chess grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi in a sharp endgame to earn three full points. Playing with white, Carlsen used the English Opening and outplayed Erigaisi, who suffered his second loss in two days.
The Norwegian champion, though happy with the result, said he had played slowly due to tough choices in an unfamiliar position.
“You get presented with more and more difficult choices and eventually you go wrong,” he said.
Magnus Carlsen remains the defending champion.
Magnus Carlsen vs D Gukesh
Earlier, Magnus Carlsen seemingly called himself the ‘King of Chess’ after beating world champion D Gukesh in the first round of Norway Chess 2025.
Playing with white, Carlsen used his endgame skills well as Gukesh made a key mistake under pressure. Though Gukesh started strong, Carlsen took control by move 18 and didn’t give him a chance to recover.
“I wasn’t too happy to get into the end game because there’s a little bit of imbalance there, but I think he did well for a while, we got into a position where both have passed pawns and then anything can happen,” Carlsen said after the win.
