STAVANGER: The genius of Magnus Carlsen was in full display as he bested D Gukesh after four hours and change on day one of Norway Chess on Monday.
For all money, it had seemed like the draw was going to be the only result even if the five-time world champion had lobbed several grenades in the opening exchanges. He picked a lesser-spotted variation -- usually played at club according to the commentators -- and slowly but surely started asking questions of the world champion.
To be fair to Gukesh, he had answered most of the questions with a series of precise moves. But when push came to shove, the Norwegian did what he does best. Squeezing water out of stone in a drawn endgame.
The Indian, who prides himself in calculating moves till the end of the line, made an error after queening with his h pawn in the 45th move. Carlsen did likewise his f pawn. The Indian teen, according to the engines, had to start the checks with Rg2. But he instead moved the freshly minted queen to h6. The engines jumped in favour of Carlsen.
He still needed to do one move to kind of consolidate this advantage. He found that move with Kc2. This was the beginning of the end even if Gukesh soldiered on with five more checks in as many moves.
Carlsen, though, allowed his intuition to take over where he married with deadly accuracy with super fast moves (both players had mere seconds on the clock on multiple occasions).
Just as Carlsen was threatening checkmate, Gukesh shook hands knowing that there was no point in continuing to play.
This match kind of showed the distance the Indian has to still travel to beat Carlsen in Classical. This match also kind of showed why the Norwegian five-time champ is continued to be held in such a high regard, even in a format such as this.
The result could once again reignite the talk Surrounding Gukesh's world title from a wide perspective.
Less than an hour after winning the World Championship in Singapore, Gukesh refused to acknowledge the significance of the title in relation to staking his claim to be the best in the world. "This does not mean I'm the best player in the world," he had said in the post-tournament press conference. "Obviously, that's Magnus.
"Would love to test myself against Magnus," the Indian had continued. "I want to reach the level of greatness that Magnus has achieved."
Hours after Gukesh's challenge, the Norwegian simply said 'I'm not part of the circus,' thus closing the door on qualifying for the Candidates and potentially setting up a Championship match.
Given that Carlsen, the current World No. 1 in Classical, will not put himself through the rigours of World Championship cycle, it's safe to say that that tie will never happen.
It's also why there was a strange undercurrent in the immediate aftermath of Gukesh's win over Ding Liren. While GMs around the world congratulated the Indian teen and hailed his achievement, they, at least at a subconscious level, somewhat questioned the legitimacy of his crown. It didn't help that Carlsen, via the TakeTakeTake streams on YouTube, wasn't overly pleased the teen's general play. “If people think I was criticising Gukesh too much (during the Worlds), it’s because I expect so much from him in classical chess," the five-time champion had said recently. Garry Kasparov, a bonafide great of the game, also wasn't all that sold.
This was the prelude to Norway Chess' opener on Monday.
This tournament couldn't have asked for a better set-up to begin proceedings -- "World No. 1 vs. world champion" as Gukesh himself pointed out in one of the pre-tournament interviews to the main stakeholders -- in the country's southwest.
In isolation, this one game between Gukesh and Carlsen wasn't going to move the needle too much. But peel back the layers and there was a lot riding on this for both parties, including the 34-year-old who considers Classical as tedious because of the elaborate prep time and the rather choreographed openings. For Carlsen, this was about maintaining his status. For the Indian, a win could act as a catalyst for shutting down the naysayers.
Gukesh, as he is known to do, entered the playing hall -- situated inside a big bank just off downtown -- roughly 10 minutes before the game. Carlsen? The organisers had to circle back to his board for the ceremonial first move as the Norwegian World No. 1 was late by a few minutes. Just Carlsen things.
Four hours later, the master delivered a masterclass.
