Defending world champion D. Gukesh defeated Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round of the ongoing Grand Chess Tournament in Zagreb, Croatia on Thursday. Gukesh was tied for first place with Carlsen on the first day. Now after defeating the world number 1, he has taken the lead with 10 points.This is Gukesh’s second consecutive win over Carlsen. Last month he defeated Carlsen in Norway Chess.Gukesh was defeated by Poland’s Duda in 59 moves in the first match of the tournament. After this Gukesh made a comeback. He defeated France’s Alireza Firouzja and compatriot Praggnanandhaa.
Gukesh defeated Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and USA’s Fabiano Caruana in the fourth and fifth rounds of the tournament to set up a clash with Carlsen. Before the match, world number one Carlsen had called the Indian player weak. He had said, ‘I think Gukesh played very well here last time, but it is yet to be proved that he is one of the best players in this format. We have a very strong field. Gukesh has not done anything to indicate that he is going to do well in such tournaments. I hope he can do better.
I hope he can perform better. But playing him in this tournament, I will look at it as I am playing with one of the weakest players possible.’ On June 25, 9-year-old Aarith Kapil played a draw with world number-1 Magnus Carlsen. Aarith, a resident of Delhi, held Carlsen to a draw in the online chess tournament ‘Early Titled Tuesday’.