Stavanger: The disappointment on the face of Gukesh D was apparent as he rushed out of the hall of a commercial bank in downtown Stavanger that plays host to the Norway Chess tournament.
Moments later Magnus Carlsen burst through the same door. Stopping by for a quick chat with Norwegian channel TV2, he afforded a smile and spoke in Norwegian of feeling “a bit random” about the eventual outcome.
Which was that Carlsen had beaten Gukesh in the opening round of the Norway Chess on Monday after a stunning endgame.
The enigma that he is, Carlsen put out a quote from the popular TV series, The Wire, soon after the clash. It also effectively summed up their first meeting in classical chess since the 18-year-old Indian became the world champion.
“You come at the king, you best not miss”.
Both came for a fight. In the end, though, Carlsen showed why he’s the world No.1, a five-time world champion and, by Gukesh’s own admission after the world championship, the world’s best player. The king, if you may.
Doesn’t matter that he hadn’t played chess’ most demanding format in a year. That he expected to gradually work up his classical rhythm only after a few rounds here. That he spent a part of his matchday morning playing golf.
Theories generally go out of the window when Carlsen plays chess.
There was “very little theory”, as Carlsen put it on Take Take Take, in the way the game panned out. It began with a rather surprising opening move by Carlsen and meandered in the balance for much of the middlegame.
A draw and the subsequent Armageddon lurked until move 46 brought along a shake-up. With the clock ticking, Gukesh delivered a check with his queen (Qh6+) instead of his rook. Carlsen sensed an opening and broke in clinically to attack Gukesh’s king, forcing the Indian to resign after 56 moves.
“I don’t know if you should call it old school, or kind of more new school, because it was like very little theory. I was by no means better. We both wanted to fight,” Carlsen told Take Take Take. “Eventually, I wasn’t too happy to get into the endgame, because there is a little bit of an imbalance there. I think he did great for a while, but then we got into a position where anything can happen.”
The loss extends the reigning world champion’s hunt for a classical win against the world No.1, and an off-colour patch of form since the spark of becoming the world champion. The double round-robin format of this tournament means that Gukesh will have another crack at Carlsen with white pieces on June 1.
The lead-in to the most anticipated act of the opening day across the six boards couldn’t have been more contrasting.
Gukesh arrived 15 minutes before start, scribbling notes, touching every piece on the board and adjusting the lever of his chair to get the height just right. He rested his head back, often with eyes closed.
At the adjacent table Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie, the two Chinese women playing each other, laughed aloud frequently. Gukesh continued sitting deadpan, at one point even staring at the main door.
Carlsen kept everyone waiting — it forced a tweak in the order of the ceremonial first move by guests — and sprinted in two minutes before the clock was to get going. A quick handshake later, Carlsen also kept Gukesh waiting, arranging his pieces and glancing at the giant screen above for a few seconds before making his first move.
The Jobava London System was not the usual, although Carlsen said he had played it at the Champions Chess Tour a few times and it worked out reasonably well. The opening surprise made way for some mundane order in the game, which Carlsen, speaking in the confessional booth where players express their thoughts during matches, reckoned was barely even a game.
“It’s just quite dull, to be honest,” he said.
The dull made way for that dramatic endgame, where Carlsen pushed for the attack after the Gukesh slip-up.
“You come at the king, you best not miss”.
Arjun wins Armageddon, Humpy beats Vaishali
Arjun Erigaisi, the second Indian man in fray, played out a draw with China’s Wei Yi in black pieces before the Indian won the Armageddon game. In the women’s tournament that featured an all-India opening round clash, Koneru Humpy defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu as the only winner in classical on the day.
