D Gukesh Stuns Magnus Carlsen Again, Beats World No.1 at Grand Chess Tour 2025 in Croatia

World champion D Gukesh has shocked chess legend Magnus Carlsen for the second time. He beat the Norwegian chess grandmaster in the sixth round of Grand Chess Tour SuperUnited Rapid 2025 in Zagreb, Croatia on Thursday. With the win, Gukesh moved to the top individually at the current tournament. Indian grand master tied for the lead at the end of play on Day 1 and he went great guns on the second day too.

D Gukesh opened the second day by beating Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round four and then beat American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in round five.

Five Straight Wins for  D Gukesh, Including Carlsen Upset

This was followed by his game against Carlsen and D Gukesh won that too with the black pieces. This was the fifth consecutive win for Gukesh in the tournament. Coincidentally, this win followed Carlsen’s description of Gukesh as ‘one of the weaker players’ in the tournament.

Carlsen’s Pre-Tournament Comments on Gukesh Resurface

“Gukesh hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s going to do well in such a tournament,” Carlsen had said in an interview before the tournament.

“Gukesh actually played quite well here last time. But it remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in such a format. This is a very, very strong field that we have here. Players like Gukesh and Anish Giri… they have a lot to prove because there aren’t a lot of players you can feast on. In the course of 27 rounds, things usually show. I hope for Gukesh’s sake that he can play better, but playing him in this tournament I will sort of approach it as I’m playing one of the presumably weaker players in the tournament actually,” he had added.

Gukesh Recovers from Early Loss, Dominates Second Day

Beginning the tournament with a defeat to Duda, Gukesh dominated a reckless France’s Alireza Firouzja before beating compatriot R Praggnanandhaa to move to four points out of a possible six.

Carlsen defeated Wesley So and drew his other two against hometown favorite Ivan Saric and Duda to tie Gukesh on points, as Wesley alone from the others took part in all the decisive games, aside from Gukesh, as he put over his US compatriot Fabiano Caruana and Holland’s Anish Giri.

In-form Praggnanandhaa had a miserable day at the office on day one as he drew with Firouzja and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the expense of the defeat to Gukesh that proved very costly to him.