World no.1 Magnus Carlsen vs World Champion Gukesh ¦ Norway Chess 2025

This is the absolute big clash at the Norway Chess 2025 round number one. On your screen you have the current world champion Domaraju Gukesh and his opponent the current world number one the man who did not defend his world title back in 2023 Magnus Carlsen and Magnus is not yet here on the screen nor in the venue. He's late as always Magnus arrives late to the game. Let's see when he comes in here but this is the first ever time that Magnus and Gukesh are clashing against each other in classical chess after Gukesh became the world champion and I believe this will be the only time in the year in this tournament at Norway Chess that they will play classical chess. I don't think Magnus is going to play normal standard classical chess again. So this is huge because here Gukesh is playing at his strength. It's not freestyle chess where Gukesh doesn't excel but it is the form of chess where Gukesh beat Ding Liren has really played well in 2024 getting the gold medal at the Olympiad on board number one you know winning the candidates. So this will be very exciting to see also Gukesh will have some tremendous bit of preparation. We have the guest of honor here who has to make the first move and of course she's a bit nervous and there you have Magnus Carlsen in his jeans arriving. Excitement at the peak for me right now. Magnus takes his chair and the guest of honor makes the move knight to c3. Well that's a good move. I'm sure Magnus would like to take that back. Although he might have that move on his mind at some point. He takes it back. He gets his pieces in order here. Writes down the score sheet. A handshake and off we go. The time control of Norway Chess is very interesting guys. Two hours for the entire game but after move 40 you get 10 seconds increment. No additional time but only 10 second increment per move after move 40. So actually this time control is very different and players have to be very careful not to fall really low on time because 10 seconds is not too much that you can calculate. Magnus adjusts all his pieces here gets ready looks at the big screen where the other games are also being shown and opens with one d4. Now Gukesh will draw on his world championship prep. He brings his knight out to f6 and Magnus can go for the London system. He loves playing it c4 the classical main line but knight c3 he goes. Wow and I'm pretty sure Gukesh not going to allow Magnus to go e4 here. So plays his pawn to d5 and now do we have the Jobawa London with bishop f4. Yes we have bishop f4 on the board. This seems like Magnus' preparation for this event. Bishop comes to f4 and Gukesh okay has a few ways to play here. He goes for c5 which is perhaps the most active way to play. You also get your queen out sometimes to put pressure on b2. There's immediate pressure in the center. So e3 seems to be like the main move to play. There's also this gambit line with e4 but Magnus says let's be solid today. Let's put our pawn on e3 and now knight c6 should be one of the main moves here but bishop g4 played by Gukesh. Now this move I'm sure is going to be slightly surprising for Magnus because it hasn't been played much and you can see Magnus has 156 on the clock and when he plays bishop e2 he takes seven minutes for this. f3 definitely looked like the more natural way to continue but I think Magnus doesn't want to go into certain sharp positions where Gukesh is better prepared. After all the man prepared for days and months for his world championship match with Ding and Magnus takes very surprisingly with nce2. Kind of undeveloping or taking one piece back but he wants his other knight to come out to f3 to control the central square which is why he plays this and this position has been played in only one game that by that is by Daniel Naroditsky that too in a title Tuesday. So we are in virgin territory. We are in fresh territory here. Magnus cannot really win this pawn because of e5 and bishop c5 so he gets his knight out to f3 and Gukesh now puts his pawn on e6 and Magnus plays pawn to c3 bolstering his center here. I must say that Gukesh out of the opening does not have any real problems. He's going to go bishop e7. He's going to castle here. He's going to bring his queen out. Rooks are connected. Yes bishop e7. Another question was do you want to trade bishops but I believe that here Gukesh feels his bishop is slightly more superior to the white bishop. Knight comes out to g3. Now this is interesting because the knight on g3 doesn't have too many things to do right on g3 but maybe he's looking at the h5 square. Gukesh quickly castles here and let's see what Magnus comes up with in the opening right now. He plays queen e2. He's 15 minutes behind on the clock. He could have also castled here but I believe Magnus has aggressive intentions in mind. He doesn't want to castle. He wants to keep his king in the center. By the way g5 bishop e5 knight d7 trying to trap the bishop could be one of the plans. Rook d1 played by Magnus. So he's not castling guys. Maybe h4 is on the cards here. G5 bishop e5 knight d7 is met with h4 when white is better. The bishop is trapped but there's a lot of play here. So Gukesh goes queen a5 which is a good move. He's putting pressure here on the a2 pawn also looking in this direction. Magnus comes back and plays his pawn to a3 and saves this pawn. Let's see what Gukesh does next. I think rook fd8 makes a lot of sense. Yes he brings his rook into the center of the board and now white would want to sort of start. Whoa h4 yes he is going on the attack. Magnus doesn't want to castle. He wants to play h5. He wants to rook lift. Queen a4 by Gukesh a beautiful move. This move is looking in this direction but also along the fourth rank and that is very important because whenever white goes knight e5 you take pawn takes the queen will come into action. White does go knight e5 here. Now what Magnus wants? What is his dream scenario? His dream scenario is that after knight takes knight which Gukesh does play. Now taking here not a good idea with the pawn knight d7. Black is doing well. Let's say for example knight h5. I also have queen coming into the center. You will see the usefulness of the queen for defense. So he quickly takes with bishop. The dream scenario for white is get your queen into the zone. Get your knight into the zone. Get your rook into the zone. Your bishop is here. You will have four attackers 97 played by Gukesh attacking this pawn. Now very important to save your bishop I guess. Magnus is going to go bishop f4 and Gukesh has had a good position right out of the opening and he's kept a good pace on the clock. It does feel like a battle of equals right now at this point for sure. Bishop f4. Magnus brings his bishop back. Now let's see what Gukesh does. Gukesh brings his queen to a6. Very interesting move. Queen takes queen. B takes and he's very happy with this end game as black but Magnus says no queen trade. I am going all in Gukesh. Knight h5 rook h3 coming in. Bishop d6. Gukesh wants to trade the bishops. I think makes sense. You're not going to sacrifice right now because the king can run away at the right time. So knight h5 played and now it's time to trade. So bishop takes bishop taken here by Gukesh and Magnus Carlsen now has to take back. Yes he takes with the queen. Guys Gukesh has to be very careful. I'm very scared of this rook lift attacking here and e5 a pawn sacrifice here by Gukesh. He could have also done after taking and playing e5 but e5 is great. Queen g3 by Magnus because he sees that after take here queen g6 his knight is a bit weirdly placed. So he's threatening mate in one but queen takes queen g6. Queen takes queen. F takes g6 and now the position is roundabout even. It's a complex end game. Knight comes to g3. Anything can happen here. Also time wise Gukesh has 26 minutes. Magnus has 31 minutes on the clock. Now pawn takes pawn by Gukesh. He takes it here and I think Magnus is going to take back with the c pawn and if you take back one more time I have rook takes d4 with a small edge as the d5 pawn is weak. So Gukesh pushes his pawn. Gukesh is going all in now. He wants to play b5 a5 b4 knight e2. Magnus is swiveling his knight to c3 b5 played by Gukesh. A nice move by him and if Magnus goes knight c3 which he does he's attacking both the pawns but I believe Gukesh only has to save d5 because knight takes b5 will be met with rook b8. He goes knight f6 here and knight b5 rook b8 is good for black so Magnus goes rook b1. A move that you don't play super happily but I understand the logic behind it. He wants to save this pawn threaten here and also later play the move b3 or b4. f3 played here taking away the e4 square from the knight also getting his central majority rolling. Talking about rolling pawns. Gukesh is rolling his queen side pawns forward b4 by Magnus Carlsen and now maybe the best way is to just take it en passant. c takes b3 seems like a fair idea here fair move. Yes he takes cb3. Rook takes b3 taken b4 now is what black wants to play here. Yes b4 on the board ab4 and you take back rook takes b4 in this position not ab4. Yes yes Gukesh playing well. Guys we are on move 30. The position is equal that just shows how even this game has been until now. Rook a3 but as the time runs low both the players have to be very careful. Rook e8 played by Gukesh another great move attacking here. King d2 by Magnus. He had a choice between f2 and d2. He chooses d2. Can Gukesh give a check? Yes and pick up the g2 pawn. He will. King comes up to d3 and now chop off the pawn on d on g2. Yes takes on g2 and Magnus takes the pawn on a5. Now attacking the pawn on d5. Then he will have these central pawns. Gukesh doesn't really care about saving those pawns. He goes rook g3 attacking f3. Magnus defends this pawn. Very sharp game here and now a very good move again by Gukesh g5. We are at move 35. 8 minutes for Gukesh. 11 minutes for Magnus. Pawn takes pawn taken here and now rook takes pawn. Both sides have their trumps. White has a central majority. Black has a king side pawn that is rushing down the board. Rook to a1 played here by Magnus and now pawn to h5 played by Gukesh. He's pushing his pawn and rook a8 trading one pair of rooks. Gukesh takes the rook. Magnus takes back and king comes to h7 and now you have pawn to e4. The central pawns have begun to roll. Takes. Pawn takes pawn. Oh my god! Which pawn is stronger guys? Is it Magnus' e and d pawns or is it Gukesh's h pawn which is now going ahead. h4. The race is on. The race is on and Magnus now attacks the knight. Gukesh can actually save the knight. He can go knight h5 but he decides to go h3 and look at Magnus. He was surprised there with h3. He takes the knight. h2 played here. You can't come back rook a1 because of rook g1. He pushes his pawn to f7 and now you make a queen or you play rook g3 check. Both are fine. Gukesh shaking his head there. Plays rook g3. He has one minute eight seconds and guys we have crossed 40 moves but now both players down to one minute on the clock. It's only 10 second increment. Magnus unsure. Plays his king to d2. You can make a queen still. It's still a draw and Gukesh gets the queen with 15 seconds on the clock. Makes a queen and Magnus also queens the pawn. How exciting is this? Rook g2 check. Only move. Only move to draw but he comes back. Queen h6. A blunder. The king is going to run away Gukesh and Magnus is going to win this but has Magnus realized that he's winning because he has an extra piece here. There are so many checks. He goes king c2. Of course, Magnus is also worried for his king because while he has his battery lined up against the black king it's black who has the first right to attack with these checks. King b2 and you go check. King a2. Magnus has 20 seconds. Gukesh also same amount of time. He gives a check. King a3. King is almost mated. King a4. You pick up the knight but now it's time for Magnus to go on the attack. Look at Magnus there. His king has got a reprieve for just one move. Of course, you begin with a check. Queen h8 check but is it a mate? Gukesh hasn't seen it yet. Has Magnus seen it? You can see Magnus shaking his head. Place queen h8 check. King comes up to g6. Magnus down to 14 seconds. Gukesh has 37 seconds. Check. King f5. Gukesh confidently rushing his king up. Now only way to win queen f8. He goes king e4 and now another beautiful check. He finds it. Rook e6 and now the problem is if you go king d3 there is queen f3 check. If you go king d5 then there is queen f5 check. The king is getting mated here. Gukesh resigns. Magnus Carlsen wins here. Wow! What a game this was and immediately tells Gukesh that there could have been some other way that he could have continued. What a win here for Magnus and wow! The battle between world number one and world champion ends with the world number one winning here. Magnus showing that he's still the boss of chess and he made a very interesting tweet after the game. He said when you come at the king you better not miss. Well, Gukesh will have one more chance in this tournament with the white pieces when he will get to face Magnus. It will be exciting to see but as of now Magnus has scored a very important win with Gukesh in the first round of Norway Chess 2025. Let's head over to this key moment where Gukesh made a mistake by giving queen h6 check. It's very important to understand how to draw here because it's so difficult. The right way was to start with check rook g2. Now why is this important? Imagine that you start off with some other check with the queen let's say queen g2. Then after knight e2 you have absolutely no checks and the game is drawn. Rook g2 is correct because after let's say you go knight e2, I go queen h6 check now and because the rook is looking at the knight the king can't run to c2. If you go to d1 I have again queen h1 check. If you go to d3 then I have queen h3 check and already going to c4 is dangerous because of queen e6 check and you lose the knight here and already white black is winning here. So the best thing to do is to go back and there's a check and if you come here I go check. If you try to block with the queen I take here and it is a draw. So in a way it was very important to start with rook check and if the knight blocks then give queen h6. Imagine if the king decides to go up. This is the tricky line because now with rook g3 check you start off with this. If the king goes to c4 already queen c6 is bad because c3 is hanging here. So you actually go king c2 and now this rook must always keep an eye on the knight. If you give a check like rook g2 king b3 and white wins. So you start with queen check and then if he goes to b3 you give a check here with the queen because the knight is pinned. Then he goes to b2 again use your queen to give a check. If he goes to a1 use your queen not queen h1 again because of knight b1 and it's winning but actually queen g1 check and after king b2 or a2 you must go queen g2 check. King a3 is impossible because of rook takes c3. This is the key point of keeping the rook here and when the king goes here you give a check and it is a weird perpetual here and it is so difficult to understand this in like one minute on the clock that you need to keep your rook here keep giving checks with the queen that gukesh actually blundered with queen h6 and now you can see the difference is even if gukesh went here to h2 after king b3 his queen cannot come here that's the key point and so he gave a check from here king b2 check king here and finally the checks actually ran out and finally white attacked and it was gukesh who had to resign