It looked as if the Magnus Carlsen era might finally be over. The Norwegian, 35, had just lost his second game in succession to India’s world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, 19, who was on a streak of five consecutive wins and leading the Zagreb event three points ahead of Carlsen. The game was like their first in Stavanger, where Carlsen had spoiled a winning position and images of his frustrated table thump went round the world. “Now we can question Carlsen’s domination,” said Garry Kasparov.
Except this time the sequel was different. The format changed from rapid to blitz and Carlsen launched his own eight-game unbeaten streak including a win against the Indian teenager using “old man’s chess” with no tactics, while Gukesh tailspun into a catastrophic run of 1.5/9. An alternative description would be that Carlsen reverted to the style of Grind Like a Grandmaster, co-authored with England’s David Howell.
