Overview

Gukesh Dommaraju Beating Magnus Carlsen at Norway Chess 2025 refers to 19-year-old Indian chess Grand Master Gukesh Dommaraju defeating Norwegian Grand Master Magnus Carlsen at a Norway Chess event in early June 2025. Carlsen slammed his fist on the table upon losing the match, resulting in a viral video, which spread on social media sites like Twitter / X, TikTok and Reddit shortly after the event. Dommaraju looked shocked after his victory, seen pacing with his hand over his mouth as Carlsen hurriedly walked out and patted Dommaraju on the back. The awkward exchange produced memes, mostly at the expense of Carlsen, who was believed to be the best chess player in the world.

Background

On June 1st, 2025, Grand Master (GM) Magnus Carlsen played GM Gukesh Dommaraju in round six of Norway Chess 2025, held in Stavanger. According to Chess.com,^[1] Carlsen played the game nearly perfectly, recorded at 98.7 percent accuracy. However, Carlsen made a blunder during a time scramble, and Dommaraju went on to win the match.

A video of Carlsen reacting upon defeat was posted to X^[2] by @NorwayChess on June 1st, showing Carlsen slamming his fist on the table and Dommaraju in shock. The video received over 21.9 million views and 92,000 likes in three days (shown below).

OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲 pic.twitter.com/QSbbrvQFkE

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 1, 2025

Online Reactions

The news quickly spread online over the following days, such as in quote-tweets of @NorwayChess' video. For instance, on June 1st, 2025, X^[3] user @anishgiri quoted the post, writing, "Watch the full clip," gaining over 41,000 likes in three days.

Also on June 1st, X^[4] user @okimstillhungry quote-tweeted Chess.com's post about the match, writing, "Hell yes dude just full on punching the table. Chess fucking rules," gaining over 193,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Posts also surfaced on Reddit, like a quote card from Carlsen that was shared to the /r/chess^[5] subreddit on June 2nd, in which he said, "I don’t know if I should just stop playing chess," gaining over 5,700 upvotes in two days (shown below).

Memes using the moment Gukesh Dommaraju stood up from the table also surfaced online following his victory over Carlsen.

For instance, on June 1st, 2025, X^[6] user @tawnniee captioned the image like a 4chan Greentext Story, reading, "I just beat Magnus," gaining over 5,000 likes in three days (shown below).

On June 2nd, X^[7] user @wllottnwldr posted the image of Gukesh Dommaraju looking shocked, captioning it, "Just won an argument with my GF," receiving over 11,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On June 3rd, 2025, TikToker^[8] @therealdell112 posted a reenactment of the moment Carlsen slammed the table and conceded the game, gaining over 286,900 likes in a day (shown below).

Developments

Wei Yi Defeats Magnus Carlsen at Norway Chess 2025

On June 3rd, 2025, Chinese chess GM Wei Yi defeated GM Magnus Carlsen in a later round of Norway Chess 2025. The clip of Carlsen resigning the match was shared on X^[9] by @chess24com and similarly garnered viral attention.

Resignation from Magnus Carlsen and it's Wei Yi's second armageddon win against the world number-one in #NorwayChess! pic.twitter.com/QVbLLiEmjg

— chess24 (@chess24com) June 3, 2025

Search Interest

External References