Magnus Carlsen sends message after beating Gukesh at Norway Chess: ‘You come at the king, you best not miss’

“You come at the king, you best not miss”

That was the message Magnus Carlsen, who abdicated the world champion’s throne two years back, posted on his X account after he forced the reigning world champion Gukesh to resign in 55 moves on Monday in the first round of the Norway Chess tournament. Carlsen’s quote — invoking the memorable fictional character Omar Little (played by the actor Michael Kenneth Williams) on the HBO show The Wire — was an unsubtle message for the Indian teenager who currently wears the world champion’s crown. The game had seen Gukesh’s queen and his rook try and ambush Carlsen’s king for a few moves before a single-move blunder from Gukesh had turned the tables. When it was Carlsen’s turn to have a go at Gukesh’s king, he did not miss.

It was one of the most keenly anticipated clashes of the year — the first time world champion Gukesh was playing world no 1 Carlsen in classical chess after his ascent to the throne. And it ended as a win for the Norwegian, who rarely plays classical chess these days. Carlsen has spoken about how classical chess and the rigours it demands from players are a turnoff for him now. So it was not surprising that he spent a part of Monday morning playing a round of golf with his long-time trainer Peter Heine Nielsen.

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It was a spicy culmination to a day that started with Carlsen trying to catch Gukesh off guard more than once right at the start. For one, the game started with a ‘Magnus Gambit’ from the Norwegian. It’s an informal name given to Carlsen’s tactic to play mind games with the opponent by occasionally turning up late for his games. It’s a maneuver that Garry Kasparov once tried against Carlsen when the Norwegian was just 13 — and not even a grandmaster. On Monday, the former world champion from Norway power walked his way a little later than he should have into the playing hall. In fact, while all of the other five games had already had their ceremonial first moves from guests, Carlsen was still getting wanded by the tournament’s fairplay team. Then, when he did make it to the board and the clock was started by Gukesh, Carlsen again took a minute adjusting his pieces, taking a swig of water, and scribbling on the scoresheet.

#MagnusCarlsen walks in for the clash against #Gukesh at #NorwayChess, *just* after all the ceremonial first moves are made. Then, he takes his time to adjust pieces, drink water, scribble on his sheet. The Magnus Gambit 💀💀 employed vs Gukesh. Extended cut. pic.twitter.com/41z6Ij7zXx — Amit Kamath (@jestalt) May 27, 2025

Gukesh, in sharp contrast to his opponent, was the first player to take his seat on the board on Monday among the 12 players in the open and the women’s sections. After some Nadal-esque tinkering by millimetres of the paraphernalia in front of him — the chess pieces, his accreditation card, and with the scoresheet — Gukesh sat there for a long time, his stare transfixed on the board. The gathered audience jostled for photos of the world champion at the board. Players sauntered past him and took their spots. Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie were overcome with a bout of very audible giggles as both their chairs comically plummeted while they fiddled with their adjustment levers. Amidst all this, Gukesh sat there, his facade as wooden as the pieces he was staring at.

Magnus Carlsen takes on Gukesh in the first round of the Norway Chess tournament at Stavanger on Monday. (Norway Chess via Michal Walusza) Magnus Carlsen takes on Gukesh in the first round of the Norway Chess tournament at Stavanger on Monday. (Norway Chess via Michal Walusza)

Carlsen wasn’t done trying to catch Gukesh off guard though. He pulled out the aggressive Jobava London System (1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bf4) against his young quarry.

“I’m a bit surprised to see him play it in classical format, but Magnus can play anything,” said Arjun Erigaisi in the confessional room where players can share their unfiltered thoughts in the middle of a game. “It has become quite famous, but not necessarily in classical chess.”

“These are no good openings to be played with white these days,” Carlsen later said while explaining his opening choice in an interview with Take Take Take app after the win, “…especially against someone who has prepared for the World Championship match. You might as well play a random first move because it’s not going to be better. But this worked out decently well.”

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In the middle of the game, Carlsen made a pit-stop into the confessional booth to declare that the game had been “quite dull”. But by the end, the action had significantly un-dulled itself. The end came right after there was a frantic race between Carlsen’s f pawn and Gukesh’s h pawn to promote to queens. There were critical game-saving moves to be made with the time trickling down to 10 seconds at times. In the end, the game swung with a blunder from Gukesh on move 46. By the 43rd move, Gukesh was down a knight but he still had the game under control. But on move 46, with just 10 seconds left on his clock, he blundered by delivering a check with his queen rather than his rook (playing 46… Qh6+ rather than 46… Rg2+).

“When he played that, I wasn’t sure if he was losing or not, but I thought he needed to give me a check with his rook and have an easier perpetual check (when you keep endlessly giving checks to your opponent’s king),” Carlsen added.

By the 51st move, checkmate was unavoidable for Gukesh. Carlsen’s king and his rook took turns to harass Gukesh’s king with checks for a few moves before the reigning world champion threw in the towel.

Carlsen admitted that it “felt a bit random” that he won the game.

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Talking to TV2 in Norwegian after his win, Carlsen said something to the effect of, “I don’t know how I won this game. At some point I thought it was going to be a draw”.

READ MORE: Before Magnus Carlsen, Norway had Simen Agdestein who played Kasparov and Anand in chess and battled Maldini on football pitch

For Gukesh, it’s been a long five months since he became the youngest world champion in the history of chess. There has been plenty of admiration about the 18-year-old rising to be a world champion. But there have also been the comments from some of his predecessors like Carlsen and Kasparov about how the world champion is not really the best player in the world.

Before Norway Chess, Carlsen was asked in an interview by Take Take Take if Gukesh was a worthy world chess champion in his opinion. Carlsen said: “He won the Candidates ahead of a field of world-beaters and he’s done incredibly well in classical chess over the last couple of years including giving one of the all-time best performances at the Olympiad. Is he the best player in the world? Remains to be seen! But is he a worthy world champion? By what they measure that by I think he certainly is!”

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Even Garry Kasparov had weighed in on who was the best player in the world: the teenage world champion from India or the world no 1 from Norway. Kasparov has remarked that Carlsen is “widely considered, by all metrics, as a better player” than the reigning world champion from India.

Gukesh’s army on the chess board will have another shot at Carlsen’s king on June 1. This time Gukesh will have white pieces at his disposal. He best not miss.

(The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess)

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