Strong performances against Gukesh and Nakamura bring Magnus Carlsen a step ahead in the 2025 Clutch Chess Showdown.

World champion Magnus Carlsen still leads the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown, 2025, as a result of a tense day; it is still day two. Carlsen won key matches with World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju and GM Hikaru Nakamura, yet two matches were lost to GM Fabiano Caruana.

Caruana made an incredible recovery with consecutive victories over Carlsen against last to second place, which earned him the winner of the day award. His tactical brilliance on the chessboard was evident in his key play that also featured a decisive endgame and the clever exchange sacrifice of Berlin.

Carlsen confessed his ambivalent attitude towards his playing, claiming control problems but positive outcomes. Daily leader Gukesh dropped to last after some near misses but frustratingly lost games, whilst Nakamura found it hard to get going again.

With the chess tournament entering its last stages, the battle is not won yet. It gave three points per win and thus had a dramatic twist of players coming from behind on a stage. This is the last day and the battle between the world's best grandmasters of chess is expected to be high stakes.