World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju leads the 2025 Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown with four points out of a possible six on day one. After losing game one against GM Magnus Carlsen, he had the best day, scoring three wins and two draws in his remaining games.
Carlsen started strong, with two wins and two draws, but lost to GM Hikaru Nakamura with White, and finished a half-point behind the world champion. Nakamura is on three points, while Caruana is on 1.5.
Day two, out of three total, is on Tuesday, October 28, starting at 2 p.m. ET / 19:00 CET / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Standings After Day 1
It’s the final event of a busy October for the newly renovated Saint Louis Chess Club, which celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Grand Chess Tour. The month began with the 2025 Grand Chess Tour Finals, followed promptly by the Clutch Chess: Kasparov vs. Anand match, which then segued into the U.S. Championships. We now conclude the month with one last event featuring four top-notch players.
The grandmasters arrived in St. Louis on Saturday and attended the opening ceremony on Sunday. Chess fans also attended a book signing event by IM Danny Rensch. His book, Dark Squares, can be purchased from QBoutique here.
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown is a rapid tournament between four of the best players in the world. There are three double round-robins; that is, all-play-all with both colors on each day. What’s unique about this event is that players gain one point for a win on day one, then two points for a win on day two, and three points for a win on day three. Note that players earn just one point for a draw on both days two and three, meaning that draws are worth even less on the last day.
There is a total prize fund of $412,000 in this event. On top of the regular prizes, bonus prizes award $1,000 per win on day one, $2,000 per win on day two, and $3,000 per win on day three, so the players need no further incentive to play decisive games.
Carlsen had the most convincing first half of the day, but you wouldn’t think so if you only saw his interview. A dejected Carlsen, by the end of the day, said, “I’m feeling like really not good at all, so I will say that I scored like about two more points than I should have probably today, and I am happy with that… my level of play was extremely poor.”
My level of play was extremely poor.
—Magnus Carlsen
Who can ask for a better start than beating the world champion in round one, especially if he caused you to slam a table in a video that’s gone viral? The world number-one surprised his opponent with the tactical 31…Bc5! before taking over with an attack. Curiously, Carlsen’s last move was a mistake that threw away the advantage, if White were to find a brilliant queen sacrifice.
Instead, Gukesh lost on time in a position that indeed looked lost (but wasn’t!).Â
Gukesh wasn’t fazed, he said in his interview, “It started with the loss, but I was still happy with the game.” He admitted he missed Carlsen’s 31…Bc5! and called the 35.Ne3! resource, which could have saved him, “so funny.”
Carlsen went on to “slip away” two times against Caruana. He escaped a much worse endgame in game one with a draw, and escaped from another one in game two with a win. If there’s one standout move, it’s certainly 46…Qa1!, a beautiful move that allowed the queen to show off her full-board wingspan. Carlsen won, finally, in a knight endgame.
But things turned sour in the end. Carlsen miscalculated badly in his first game against Nakamura, perhaps missing that after 27.fxg5 Bxg5! was possible. The missing g-pawn was like an absent Jenga piece, and the tower collapsed.
With the white pieces, Nakamura forced a quick draw in the Berlin endgame. That left Carlsen on 3.5 points, while Nakamura finished on three. The latter’s other win was against Caruana in game two, in a queen and knight endgame.
You can watch Nakamura’s video recap of the event below.
Gukesh, who lost in game one, went on to play the best chess of the day. After a draw against Carlsen in game two, he beat Nakamura in their first game. He methodically suffocated his opponent’s pieces with a “bone in the throat” bishop on d3.
He drew the second game against Nakamura and went on to beat Caruana two times. The highlight of game one was a sacrificial attack, and at one point Gukesh was even down a rook and a piece. It ended not with checkmate but with a long rook endgame, and GM Rafael Leitao presents the analysis for the Game of the Day.
The most beautiful move of game two, against Caruana, was 33.Bf6!!, which sacrificed the bishop for a mating attack.
Gukesh assessed that all of his games were “quite nice” except for the last one, where “I was down on time and I was worse, but Fabi just played f5 and gave me chances.”
Caruana, who’s sitting in last place, won in game one against Nakamura and then didn’t win again. He lost four games and drew one.
It’s a rough start, there’s no skirting the issue. But we’ll see whether the format turns out to assist him in the end. Remember, on day two players will earn two points for every win, so already Caruana is just one win away from catching or passing Nakamura.
Will Gukesh hold onto the lead, or will someone else take over? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown, taking place from October 27-30 in St. Louis, is a rapid event featuring the world’s top-three players and World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. It is a nine-round, 18-game tournament consisting of three double round-robins played with time control of 10+5. Players progressively earn more points in each round-robin; one point for a win in round-robin one, two in round-robin two, and three in round-robin three. The prize fund is $412,000.