Magnus Carlsen reacts after beating D Gukesh: 'I always have these tricks…'

D Gukesh finished eighth in the standings and lost to Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the round-robin stage.

Reigning World Champion D Gukesh crashed to a defeat against Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the round-robin stage at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour first leg, at the Weissenhaus Resort in Wangels, Germany. Gukesh crumbled under pressure against the World No. 1 and was totally outplayed by Carlsen, who was playing with the black pieces.

D Gukesh lost to Magnus Carlsen on Saturday.(AP)

It was the first meeting between the India No. 1 and the Norwegian, since Gukesh became world champion in December. Speaking to Take Take Take app after his win vs Gukesh, Carlsen analysed his game and felt that he put in a good show against his opponent.

“Yeah, I was... I think the game was very decent for a long time. I was very happy to get in this counterstriking in the center with e4, 35. I thought... I don't know, I thought, like, my queen is controlling the diagonal. I always have these tricks with going rook e8 and then long castling, and it felt like his position was a bit shaky. That I'd... Somehow, I'd seen that he could play d4, but I was, like, one, hoping maybe he wouldn't play it, two, hoping that I would find something and I checked it briefly afterwards actually there is something with Queen e8 and Knight b5, I mean that's really really difficult to find,” he said.

“So after that I was a bit disappointed because then the position was just equal and yeah honestly after that I think it was just a lack of experience on his part because he just took too many chances and then when it was time to be a little bit... He was really brave, and then when it was time to be brave again, he retreated. But by the time he retreated, it was very difficult to hold his position in practice. And at that point, I thought my winning chances were great.”

The game saw Gukesh fall under pressure in the endgame, despite it initially looking like he could take it to a draw. But the Indian GM’s desire to seal a win saw him lose the game. Carlsen was also reminded that he had earlier pointed out that endgames were sometimes Gukesh’s weakness, to which he said, “No, no, I think the endgame itself was completely fine. Of course, I have this protected past pawns, but his pieces are so well placed that he should never really get in trouble. I think it was later, like he didn't... He could have, for instance, exchanged rooks at some point, which is just a dead draw, at a couple of points. And, you know, it's a thing we talked about earlier as well, is that he wasn't really playing by hand. He was trying to do a little bit too much.”

‘He wants to beat you, Magnus’

Then the interviewer pointed out to Carlsen, “He wants to beat you, Magnus. He wants to play.”

He responded, “No, I don't know. I think, honestly, there was not a single point in the game where it was realistic that he could play for a win. That hasn't stopped him from playing for a win in the past, but I think the practical chances were always with me, especially with the time. What generally... happens there is that when things start going downhill, they just collapse because as soon as I get my pieces going, this pawn if not located, it's just unstoppable.”

Gukesh finished eighth in the standings, managing to qualify for the quarterfinals. He will face Fabiano Caruana in the quarters, meanwhile Carlsen will take on Nodirbek Abdusattorov. On the other hand, Alireza Firouzja, who also beat Gukesh, will take on Vincent Keymer and Javokhir Sindarov will face Hikaru Nakamura.