On That Crazy Gukesh-Carlsen Ending

Introduction

The 2025 Norway Chess recently concluded on the 6th of June, with Carlsen winning the tournament by half a point behind runner up Caruana. The tournament was filled with memorable events, but I think for many, the most memorable event would be the dramatic ending to a game in Round 6 of the tournament, featuring the World Champion Gukesh and the World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen. Both players agreed to this in the closing ceremony as well.

Being a double round robin event, the two have already played each other in the opening round, with Carlsen claiming the win in a drawn endgame after a fatal blunder by Gukesh. 5 rounds later, Gukesh, with the white pieces, was not only looking for revenge. He was looking for his first ever win against Carlsen in a classical game.

Leading to the Pivotal Moment

The opening was a relatively quiet, closed Berlin Defense, with Gukesh opting to play d3 on the fourth move. A series of inaccuracies by Gukesh saw Magnus winning with a -4.1 evaluation, according to Stockfish 17.1. Magnus did not convert in the cleanest way --- a rare blunder on move 44 saw Gukesh only slightly worse, yet he had a position that was difficult to defend.

I want to direct your attention to the position after Gukesh's 52nd move, Nd7, hitting the black rook.

While the computer calls this position dead equal, I do not believe this is the case from a human standpoint. The black centre is very strong, and having the two connected passers makes black preferable. It is also important to note the time situation --- Magnus has 47 seconds while Gukesh only has 21, and they are playing on 10 seconds of increment only, rather than the traditional 30.

The Blunder

Magnus spends 35 seconds in this position to play a horrific blunder, Ne2+??

This move at first glance seems to just be losing the knight, and what's somewhat ironic is that Gukesh is forced to take this knight. Otherwise, Rxf2 just wins a clean rook and Gukesh can resign.

So, Gukesh accepts the free knight, and after the trade Gukesh takes on f8, followed by Magnus pushing the pawn to d4.

Magnus was banking on these two pawns, and thought that the white knight cannot stop promotion. Note that the black king seems to be placed well, shouldering the white king away from the pawn. Ironically, it's this square that will cause Magnus's downfall.

What Gukesh noticed, and was able to see in a short timespan, was that he cannot stop the pawn directly. However, he noticed that once the black pawn queens, if Nc3+ is a possibility, that would be equally good enough. Hence Gukesh directed his knight to the key e4 square via e6 and c5, as shown below.

Now it is hopeless to try d2 as Ne4 wins by force. White will either sac the knight for the passer on the next turn or play Nc3+ upon promotion followed by the sacrifice. The king will easily stop the e pawn, and the white pawns will decide the game. However, Magnus was not ready to go down yet --- he tested Gukesh with Ke3, asking him what his plan was.

The Finale

I'd recommend pausing here for now and trying to find the winning continuation for Gukesh. There is only one winning move for him, and he had only 32 seconds during the game by the way. Here's the position for reference.

Congratulations if you found the only winning move, Na4!! The idea is to redirect the knight via b2, and we will see this play out in the game. Magnus tried to play e4, pushing the pawns together, but now Gukesh counterstrikes with h5, pushing his own passed pawn. A trade occurs on h5, and Magnus plays Kd2. Can you find the finish for the World Champion?

I have mentioned the idea before, and here we see it play out. Gukesh plays Nb2! understanding that c4 is the critical square. We will go over a few replies by black and analyse why they all lose.

Option 1 - Moving the King to the c file

After Nb2, moving the king to either c2, c3, or c1 results in the same story. White will play Nc4, and will be able to play Ne3 next move. This will ensure that the d pawn is stopped, and because the King will be on d1 when the black pawn queens, White's Kf3! will be the final nail in the coffin.

Option 2 - Moving the King to the e file

This is worse for Black, and this only blocks the path for the e pawn. The knight on b2 stops the promotion of the d pawn, and so Gukesh can continue to advance his own pawn with h6! He would only be two moves away from promotion, and his extra b pawn would force resignation.

Option 3 - Playing e3 as in the game

This is what Magnus chose to do, but it also loses.

Gukesh now plays Nc4+, forking the King and the e pawn. If the king moves to anywhere but e2, Nxe3 will follow, and the Knight will cover the d1 promotion square. The king will always be able to guard the knight if needed, and White's passed pawn will decide the game.

After Ke2, Gukesh instantly plays Kf4!

The e pawn is now a goner, and upon Nxe3 the d pawn will also be stopped.

After realizing this, Magnus was forced to resign in this position, handing Gukesh 3 points and a good number of rating points as well, but more importantly, Gukesh's first ever classical win against Carlsen.

Postgame Thoughts and Conclusion

Carlsen was visibly upset upon being forced to resign, and understandably so. He was in a completely winning position, -4 at some point, and even before the Ne2 blunder he would have at least made a draw. Gukesh's Kf4 saw Magnus extremely angry to the point where he banged the table and stormed out of the playing hall. Many videos and shorts on YouTube have shown the end of the game, including the reaction by Magnus, if you're interested in that. What's symbolic is that when Magnus banged the table, the Black king fell over but the white king remained standing on f4.

This loss really upset Magnus, and he even stated how it has negatively affected him. Postgame interviews in the following days have shown his disappointment, mainly in the manner that he lost. Nevertheless, he still managed to pull himself together in order to win the tournament yet again, and Gukesh settled for third place.

This is a recap of how Gukesh won potentially a very important game in his career.