World Chess Champion D Gukesh once again proved that the real answer is not given by words, but by his game. On the first day of the ‘Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown’ tournament being played in St. Louis (America), Gukesh has achieved the lead by performing brilliantly.

Four big players of the world – Gukesh, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana are participating in this tournament. In the first round, Gukesh lost 1.5-0.5 against Carlsen, but after that he made a strong comeback. In the second round he defeated Nakamura 1.5–0.5 and then in the third round he defeated Caruana 2–0 and reached the top with 4 out of 6 points at the end of the first day.

When Gukesh gave a befitting reply to Nakamura

Some time ago, in an exhibition match, Hikaru Nakamura threw Gukesh’s king piece towards the audience after winning. That video made a lot of headlines on social media and displeasure was expressed by calling it against the spirit of the game. However, Nakamura later clarified this act and said that it was a funny act and there was no intention to insult anyone.

At that time Gukesh had also not reacted to this action, but now without saying anything he responded by defeating the same opponent on the board. Fans are praising his victory against Nakamura by calling it “revenge without speaking”. The clip of the match is going viral on social media, in which Gukesh’s calmness and confidence is clearly visible.

Tournament format and prize money

‘Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown’ is a short rapid tournament held at the St. Louis Chess Club from October 25 to 30. There will be a total of nine rounds (18 games), which will be in three double round-robin formats. The points and prize money will increase with each day’s competition. Double points will be given in the matches played on the second day.

The total prize money of the tournament is $4,12,000 (approximately Rs 3.63 crore). Out of this, the top 4 players will be given awards of $1,20,000 (Rs 1.06 crore), $90,000 (Rs 79 lakh), $70,000 (Rs 62 lakh) and $60,000 (Rs 53 lakh) respectively. Apart from this, bonus reward is also fixed for winning in every round.

Gukesh is currently leading the table and from his performance it is clear that India has got a world champion who knows how to write history while remaining calm.

The current world champion Gukesh Domaraju (D Gukesh Chess) is currently struggling with a very poor form. He did not get defeat in his recent match, but the compatriot Divya Deshmukh has created a sensation by stopping him at the draw (Gukesh vs Divya Deshmukh). In December 2024, Gukesh became the world’s youngest world champion in the chess world, but has failed to perform well after that. His match lasted for 6 hours on Friday, where in the end Gukesh and Divya joined hands for a draw. After this draw, Divya Deshmukh is trending fiercely on social media.

D Gukesh has suffered a loss in the ranking due to playing a draw against Divya, due to which she has been out of the top-10. Divya is being highly appreciated for this performance.

Who is Divya Deshmukh?

Divya Deshmukh also came into discussion in July this year, when she became the first Women Fide World Champion in history. According to Dainik Jagran, he was born on 9 December 2005 in Nagpur, Maharashtra. His father’s name is Jitendra and mother’s name is Namrata, both are doctors by profession. Divya began to be interested in sports when her elder sister started earning a name in badminton. But at the age of five, she felt a different attachment to chess and proceeded in it.

In 2012, he won the Under-7 National Championship and captured the Under-10 World Youth Championship in 2014. In this memorable journey, he got the status of Grandmaster in the year 2021. Talking about his studies, he has studied school from Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir in Nagpur. She had become a national champion by the age of year. His focus is now on moving forward in Chase Career, but at the same time he has special interest in sports psychology, performance science and chase data analytics. She is also doing further studies.

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Grand Chess Tournament: D. Gukesh, the young star of Indian chess, once again proved that he can also beat the veterans with his game. In the sixth round of the ongoing Grand Chase tournament in Jagreb, Croatia, Gukesh has defeated the world’s number 1 player Magnus Carlson. Interestingly, before the match, Carlson made fun of Gukesh as a weak player, but Gukesh has responded to his joke not with words but with his tricks.

Jokes before match, beat in chase

Speaking to the media, Magnus had said, “I will take this match just as I am playing with a weak player. Gukesh has not done anything so far that he can be counted among the best players in this format.”

Carlson’s comment was an attempt to take Gukesh lightly, but Gukesh did not make any statement on this, but has shattered his pride by defeating him in a straight chess match.

Karlson defeated for the second consecutive time

This is not the first time Gukesh has defeated Carlson. Earlier, in the Norway Chess tournament, he shocked everyone by defeating Carlson. With that victory, he joined a few selected Indians who defeated Carlson in classical format. Before him, R. of India Pragyananda has also tasted the defeat to Carlson. Now in the Grand Chase tournament, Gukesh registered a second consecutive win and showed that his success is not a coincidence, but the result of hard work and talent.

Gukesh’s performance so far

On the first day of the Grand Chess tournament, Gukesh started well by winning two out of three matches. After this, in the fourth round, he defeated Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdoustorov and defeated America’s Fabiano Karuana in the fifth round. Now he has reached the top position with 10 marks in the tournament by defeating Carlson in the sixth round.

Gary Kasparov tightened up on Carlson

Former world champion Gary Kasparov, describing Gukesh’s victory as special, taunted Carlson’s defeat, saying, “This is not just the second defeat of Magnus, this is a very big defeat for him. Now we should question Carlson’s supremacy.”

Gary’s statement has also been shared by the World Chase Federation on its social media, which makes this victory even more special.

There are still two matches left

The match was part of the series of three matches. Its first match was played in the rapid format. Now the remaining two matches will be in Blitz format, so it will be interesting to see if Karlson will be able to return to this series or Gukesh will remain dominated.