Magnus Carlsen called himself the ‘king of chess’ in a cryptic social media post after defeating world champion D Gukesh in the first round of the Norway Chess 2025 on Monday in front of a packed audience at the Sparebank 1 Sør-Norge headquarters.
The face-off between World No. 1, Carlsen and Gukesh, lived up to the billing with the game going down to the wire. The Norwegian, playing with the white pieces, showed his endgame expertise, thanks to an under-pressure Gukesh, who made a losing mistake.
Despite an early advantage, Gukesh struggled to control the game. Carlsen, who had featured in all editions of Norway Chess, went ahead by move 18 and did not let the Indian come back in the game.
Celebrating the win, Carlsen posted a famous quote from a HBO series that read, “You come at the king, you best not miss.” The 34-year-old also admitted he wasn’t to happy to get into the end game.
“I don’t know if you should call it old school or more new because there were very little theories and by no means better, but I think we both wanted to fight. Eventually, 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 told Take Take Take after the win.
Carlsen discusses Gukesh’s blunder
One of the turning points in the game came when Gukesh made a huge blunder on move 46. Instead of a more accurate rook check (46…Rg2+), the India opted for a check with his queen (46…Qh6+).
Thereafter, post move 51, Gukesh had no place to hide as Carlsen’s king and rook coordinated a series of checks. Gukesh was forced to resign. Discussing his opponent’s blunder, Carlsen said, “When he played that, I wasn’t sure if he was losing or not, but I thought he needed to give me a check with his rook and have an easier perpetual check.”
Carlsen had also called the match against Gukesh boring after choosing one of the relatively easiest openings. “I tried to surprise him. But I was surprised myself. I responded with the most squeamish move”, said Carlsen in the confessional box before adding the match “boring”.
