It was the fist heard around the world of chess.
Two of the chess titans, one, the promising champion versus possible the best player of all time, faced during the weekend in a game that has caught the attention not only for their result but by the reaction after the game.
Magnus Carlsen, the best chess player in the world, lost for the first time in the classic format (think of long and complex games) with Gukesh Dommaraju, the current world champion who at age 19 is seen among the brightest young stars of the game.
The game, which came as part of the Norway Chess 2025 tournament, swayed after Carlsen lost a gentleman, which led to a frantic ending in which each player only had seconds left in his watches.
With Gukesh in a clearly winning position, Carlsen expressed his frustration in a way related to most people who have played chess: with a fist at the table.
Carlsen then offered a renunciation handshake before standing and offer another identifiable exasperation: “Oh my God”, along with an apology.
While the game would probably have not made the same waves without the Carlsen reaction, the loss offers a growing sense of Gukesh’s increase. But it also offers a certain feeling of how dominant Carlsen follows at the age of 34.
In an interview immediately after the game, Gukesh detailed his surprise by winning the game, which at one time seemed desperate for him.
“There was not much I could do,” he said. “I was clearly lost, so I was just trying to make movements that were difficult for him, and fortunately he got over time.”
“99 of 100 times would lose,” Gukesh added.
Others in the chess community offered a little more support for the performance of Gukesh.
According to the reports, Gukesh also told Chess.com that he could relate to Carlsen’s reaction: “I have also hit many tables in my career!”
Carlsen retains his title as the best classified player by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), which calculates the qualifications based on actions in sanctioned tournaments. Carlsen is also a five -time world chess champion, a title awarded to win the most provisions of the game (the candidate tournament) and overcome the current world champion (or with the current champion beating the winner of the candidates).
Carlsen refused to defend the title in 2022, with Ding Liren from China taking first place only to be defeated by Gukesh in 2024. Then, only 18, Gukesh became the youngest world champion in history.
That has meant a kind of natural laugh between the two.
Carlsen has previously praised the Indian phenomenon, recently pointing to an appearance in the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience that Gukesh “works all the time”, but it is not as strong as some of the shortest time formats that have gained popularity and prestige in recent years.
Together with the adoption of shorter time formats, chess has increased online, with a boom in coverage and content creators who analyze games in real time and offer many comments.
And with Carlsen, with much, the main star of the game, an error and loss, and reaction, such as Gukesh, has caused his own compilations of reactions.
