For chess grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh, beating the world No. 1 and five-time world winner must be one of the best birthday gifts ever.
The young Indian chess star beat Magnus Carlsen in the speed event before the Norway Chess tournament, which was on his 17th birthday.
After that, the hosts gave Gukesh a cake to celebrate both his birthday and the win.
He said, when asked if he would consume a lot of cake in order to get ready for the matches the next day, “Hopefully.”
The purpose of the blitz competition, in which Gukesh defeated Carlsen on Monday, was to identify the seeds of each player for the ensuing classical competition.
Ten competitors square off in a single round-robin tournament at the event, which takes place in Stavanger, Norway.
Around $68,400 will be awarded to the winner, while $36,500 will go to the runner-up.
Other top players competing are Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana. Gukesh and Carlsen are just two of the many top players taking part.
Gukesh, who has played in three games of the official competition, is now fourth in the standings with one victory, one defeat, and one draw.
Carlsen has two draws and one loss to his belt and is currently in ninth place. Standings leader Caruana is in first place.
The world champion, who had previously held the title for ten years, Carlsen, won his first event last week.
Upon winning the Superbet Rapid & Blitz competition in Poland, he remarked, “It’s nice to show that my retirement only lasted a couple of days.”
Since bursting onto the scene as a young player, Gukesh has advanced quickly through the chess ranks.
By gaining the title at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days—just a few weeks older than the Russian Sergey Karjakin—he came close to becoming the game’s youngest grandmaster ever, missing the record by 17 days. Since that time, at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days, Abhimanyu Mishra has broken the record and taken the title of youngest grandmaster in chess.
