World champion India's D. Gukesh stunned World No. 1 Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb, Croatia, on Thursday.
Gukesh, who was in a four-way lead after three rounds, has emerged as the sole leader with 10 points.
Before the much anticipated faceoff with Carlsen, the World No. 42 put it across Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and American Fabiano Caruana in the fourth and fifth round respectively.
Interestingly, Carlsen, a five-time world champion, had taken a jibe at his opponent ahead of the game, saying he was coming up against ‘one of the presumably weaker players.’
“I think Gukesh played quite well here last time, but it remains to be proven that he’s one of the best players in this format,” Carlsen had said.
He added, “Gukesh hasn’t done anything to [show] that he’s going to do well in such a tournament. I hope, for his sake, that he can do better. But playing him in this tournament, I will approach it as if I’m playing one of the presumably weaker players.”
Reacting to Gukesh's comfortable win over the top-ranked Carlsen, former world champion Garry Kasparov said, "A very important day. Now we can question Magnus's domination. It's not just a second loss - it's a very convincing loss."
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