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Magnus Carlsen says he’s ‘not enjoying playing chess’ after losing to Gukesh

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World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen says he is struggling to enjoy chess after suffering a second consecutive defeat to reigning world champion D Gukesh, whom the Norwegian has described as a “weak” player multiple times.

The 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster once again outplayed the former world champion maverick, this time in the rapid format at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament on Thursday.

The win comes less than a month after Gukesh stunned Carlsen in the classical format at the Norway Chess tournament, a match that ended with the latter visibly frustrated, famously banging the table.

“Honestly, I am not enjoying playing chess at all right now. I just don’t feel any flow at all when I’m playing. I’m constantly hesitating, and it’s just really poor right now,” Carlsen told ‘Take Take Take’ after the loss.

The win against Carlsen marked Gukesh’s fifth consecutive triumph in the tournament as he grabbed the sole lead after six rounds.

“He’s doing incredibly well now (in the format). It’s a long way to go in the tournament, but winning five games in a row is no mean feat,” said Carlsen.

ALSO READ: D. Gukesh beats Magnus Carlsen, wins fifth consecutive game to take sole lead after GCT Day 2

Carlsen has rarely missed an opportunity to voice his doubts over Gukesh’s prowess in the faster formats.

But he now has struggles of his own to worry about, as he has managed just one win so far in the ongoing tournament. He conceded that his overall performance in the match had been sub-par.

“I have played kind of poorly the whole tournament, and this time I got soundly punished,” he said.

He credited Gukesh for capitalising on his chances while admitting that he found himself “hopelessly lost” at one point during the game. Playing with white pieces, Carlsen was forced to resign after 49 moves.

“I had a very, very nice position. He took his chance to open out his position with C6. After that, it was a little bit like earlier, where I got short of time and I couldn’t really handle it that well, and he found a lot of really good moves.” “I had one last chance at some point to bail out to something that was very, very drawish, but I thought, let’s continue playing, and then a couple of moves later I was pretty hopelessly lost.

“It was poor, but all credit to Gukesh. He’s playing well and is taking his chances too,” he said.

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Wimbledon 2025, July 9 schedule: Sinner, Djokovic, and Swiatek gunning for semifinals on Day 10

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The quarterfinals will be completed on Day 10 of The Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London. 

ALSO READ: Wimbledon 2025, July 8 Highlights: Alcaraz too good for Norrie; Sabalenka battles hard to overcome Siegemund; Fritz, Anisimova through to semis

Iga Swiatek will sense the opportunity to secure her best performance at Wimbledon when she takes on Liudmila Samsonova, while the other quarterfinal sees two players with remarkable stories, Mirra Andreeva and Belinda Bencic face off. 

Here’s the full list of quarterfinals (singles only) for day ten of Wimbledon 2025:

Centre court:

Women’s singles – [7] Mirra Andreeva vs Belinda Bencic (SUI)

Men’s singles – [22] Flavio Cobolli (ITA) vs [6] Novak Djokovic (SRB) 

Court 1:

Women’s singles – [8] Iga Swiatek (POL) vs [19] Liudmila Samsonova

Men’s singles – [1] Jannik Sinner (ITA) vs [10] Ben Shelton (USA)

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FIFA Club World Cup 2025: Joao Pedro scores brace as Chelsea beats Fluminense to reach final

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New signing Joao Pedro scored twice on his first start as Chelsea eased to a 2-0 win over Fluminense on Tuesday to seal a spot in the final of FIFA Club World Cup 2025.

The Brazilian striker opened the scoring in lethal fashion in the 18th minute of the last-four clash at the MetLife Stadium and struck again shortly before the hour mark as Chelsea set up a showdown with either Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain in the final on Sunday.

Signed from Brighton and Hove Albion just last week for a reported £60 million ($79 million), the 23-year-old cut short an off-season holiday and made his debut off the bench in the quarterfinal win over Palmeiras.

He was then given his first Chelsea start up front here in place of the suspended Liam Delap.

Joao Pedro refused to celebrate after either goal against the club with whom he started his career and made 36 top-team appearances before moving to England with Watford in 2020.

The result ends Fluminense’s impressive run at the tournament after the 2023 Copa Libertadores winner had held Borussia Dortmund in the group stage, beaten Inter Milan in the last 16 and knocked out Manchester City’s conqueror Al-Hilal in the quarterfinals.

With its exit goes the prospects of a South American winner of the first 32-team edition of the Club World Cup, with Chelsea claiming back-to-back victories against Brazilian opposition to reach the final.

AS IT HAPPENED | FLUMINENSE VS CHELSEA HIGHLIGHTS

As always seemed most likely, the trophy will be claimed by one of Europe’s superpowers, with the final now guaranteed to be between two of the last five winners of the UEFA Champions League.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca was without the suspended Levi Colwill and Delap but midfield lynchpin Moises Caicedo returned after sitting out the win over Palmeiras in Philadelphia due to a ban.

The Premier League side was simply too strong for its opponent in a game watched by 70,556 fans on a hot afternoon just outside New York City.

Chelsea went ahead thanks to a wonderful strike by its new forward, who controlled the ball on the edge of the box after Thiago Silva had cleared a Pedro Neto cross.

Joao Pedro took a touch and curled a shot beyond veteran goalkeeper Fabio into the far corner, before holding up his hands apologetically towards the Fluminense fans massed behind the goal.

The team from Rio de Janeiro was an intermittent threat, and Hercules – match-winner against Al-Hilal in the last eight – almost equalised in the 25th minute.

He played a one-two with German Cano and lifted the ball over goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, but Marc Cucurella got back to clear off the line.

Fluminense was then awarded a penalty 10 minutes before the interval when a set-piece delivery by Rene struck the arm of Trevoh Chalobah in the box.

However, French referee Francois Letexier overturned the decision following a VAR check.

Chelsea got its second on 56 minutes, just after Fluminense had sacrificed one of its three centre-backs to send on an extra attacker.

Enzo Fernandez released Joao Pedro on the break, and the forward who scored 10 goals in the Premier League last season for Brighton produced another clinical finish in off the bar.

There were chances for Chelsea to score further goals after that, but the new boy’s double strike sufficed.

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Wimbledon 2025: Carlos Alcaraz blazes past Cameron Norrie into semifinals

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Carlos Alcaraz said ahead of his Wimbledon quarterfinal against Cameron Norrie that playing the left-handed British player can be a nightmare and for a few minutes it looked as though the defending champion might be in for a fright on Tuesday.

The Spaniard fell 0-40 down in his opening service game against the unseeded Norrie on Centre Court, but quickly snapped out of his slumber to seal a 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 victory that should send shudders down the spine of anyone hoping to de-throne him.

There were hundreds of empty seats at the start as fans sought refreshment after watching women’s top seed Aryna Sablaneka’s protracted last-eight victory.

ALSO READ | Anisimova weathers Pavlyuchenkova fightback to reach Wimbledon semis

By the time most of them returned to cheer on the underdog, Alcaraz was in full flow having blazed through the opening set in 28 minutes with a barrage of brilliance.

The tone was set and although Norrie tried his best to dig in, raising his fist in mock triumph as he held serve late in the third set, Alcaraz mercilessly extended his current match winning streak to 23.

Alcaraz, 22, reached his eighth Grand Slam semifinal and will continue his quest for a third successive Wimbledon title against American Taylor Fritz.

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