Abhimanyu creates chess history by beating Gukesh, becomes youngest to defeat world champion in classical: ‘I am at par with them’

Indian chess star D Gukesh suffered a historic defeat on Monday as American Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest player ever at the age of 16 to beat a reigning world champion in a game of classical chess. Gukesh’s shock loss to Mishra, the world’s youngest ever grandmaster, came in Round 5 of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Playing with black pieces, the youngest-ever world chess champion, Gukesh, lost the match in 61 moves as Mishra broke a 33-year-old record set by Grandmaster Gata Kamsky of the USA when he was 17 and defeated the then-world champion Garry Kasparov in Dortmund.

Abhimanyu Mishra unimpressed by his world record win over Gukesh

Despite securing a world record win, Abhimanyu Mishra didn’t look overawed as he said he had played better games in the past, and if not for mistakes by Gukesh, he could have lost the Round 5 contest.

“Honestly, I would much prefer the game that I have won before,” Mishra told FIDE after beating Gukesh. “Like my game against Yu Yangyi was so much better than this because even though I won, it doesn’t feel as pleasing as my previous games in the tournament, as I had the winning position and I basically just threw it away. And later he made some mistakes and I got back, but overall, it wasn’t a very clean game.”

This wasn’t the first impressive result for Mishra in the ongoing tournament. In Round 4, he drew a match against another Indian prodigy, R Praggnanandhaa, from a losing position with black.

Mishra added that he doesn’t fear taking on star players like Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa and feels that he has good chances of winning the tournament in Samarkand. This will be a breakthrough victory for the teenager, who has sort of plateaued since becoming the world’s youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days in 2021.

“But the tournament is going better than I could have possibly imagined. If I keep up this form, I have a very real chance of winning the tournament. Yesterday, too, I made some errors against Pragg. But I never felt like I was inferior to these players (Gukesh and Pragg). I think I am at par with them,” Mishra added.

Interactive on how Mishra defeated Gukesh:

Gukesh’s biggest mistake in the match came on the 12th move when he played g4 instead of h4. This put him in a worse position, leading to his eventual loss.

All the moves from Mishra vs Gukesh match:

2. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 a6 7. O-O d6 8. c3 Ba7 9. Nbd2 g5 10. Bg3 Nh7 11. d4 h5
   12. dxe5?! {Inaccuracy. h4 was best}
   12… g4?? {Blunder. h4 was best}
   13. exd6 gxf3 14. dxc7 Qe7 15. Nxf3 Bg4 16. h3 Be6 17. Bd6 Qd7 18. Bxe6 Qxe6 19. e5 Kd7
   20. Nd4?? {Blunder. Kh1 was best}
   20… Bxd4 21. cxd4 Qd5 22. Qxh5 Nf6 23. Qf5+ Qe6 24. Qxe6+ fxe6 25. f4 Nd5 26. f5 exf5 27. Rxf5 Nxd4 28. Rf7+ Ke6 29. Raf1 Rhg8 30. g4 Nb5 31. Rh7
   31…Rg6? {Mistake. Rh8 was best}
   32. Rff7? {Mistake. Rd1 was best}
   32… Rc8 33. Rd7 Rh6 34. Rhg7 Rxh3 35. a4 Nd4 36. Bc5
   36… Ne2+?? {Blunder. Rd3 was best}
   37. Kf1
   37… Nef4? {Mistake. Rxc7 was best}
   38. Bd4 Rf3+ 39. Ke1 Nd3+ 40. Kd2 Nxe5 41. Bxe5 Kxe5 42. Rg5+ Ke6 43. Rgxd5 Rb3 44. R7d6+ Ke7 45. Rd7+ Ke6 46. R5d6+ Ke5 47. Rd3 Rxb2+ 48. Kc1 Rh2 49. g5 Kf5 50. R3d5+ Ke6 51. R5d6+ Ke5 52. Rd2 Rh1+ 53. Kb2 Kf5 54. Rg7 Rhh8 55. Rf2+ Ke5 56. g6 Rh4 57. Rgf7 b5 58. axb5 axb5 59. g7 Rb4+ 60. Kc3 Rc4+ 61. Kb3