By Faham Uddin
World No.1 chess player Magnus Carlsen took a sharp dig at reigning world champion D Gukesh in the SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz 2025. After Day 1, Gukesh finds himself in a joint lead with four points along with Carlsen, Wesley So, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Gukesh lost the first game to Duda, but bounced back to beat GMs Alireza Firouzja and R. Praggnanandhaa, while Carlsen made two draws and picked up a brilliant win over So. Speaking to Take Take Take, Carlsen was all in praise of R. Praggnanandhaa, however, he took a dig at Gukesh and said he is yet to impress him. “Pragg has done very, very well for a while now,” said Carlsen. “I mean, he’s won three classical super tournaments this year, which is extremely impressive. The other kids, they have their ups and downs. Normally, you would think in such a format, Alireza would be very strong. He probably has not had the best start, but I’m sure he’ll be there. “Gukesh is showing signs of improvement as well. It’s very hard to say who’s going to do well. But in terms of impressing me, that’s yet to be seen,” he added. Carlsen and Gukesh will face off thrice in the tournament, between July 3 and 6, once in rapid and twice in blitz. Gukesh beat Magnus in Norway Chess recently, but the top-ranked player played down the threat and said that he will approach the game as he is playing against one of the weaker players. 鈥淚 think Gukesh played quite well here last time, but it remains to be proven that he鈥檚 one of the best players in this format,鈥 Carlsen said. 鈥淲e have a very, very strong field鈥ukesh hasn鈥檛 done anything to indicate that he鈥檚 going to do well in such a tournament. I hope, for his sake, that he can do better. But playing him in this tournament, I will approach it as if I鈥檓 playing one of the presumably weaker players (in the tournament).鈥