Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2025 - Games and Results

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The Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown took place in Saint Louis Mon 27th Oct to Wed 29th Oct 2025. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and World Champion Gukesh played three days of fast rapid chess (10m+5spm), a double round robin each day, eventually adding up to 18 rounds. Play started at midday local time (5pm GMT). Clutch Chess is a concept invented by Maurice Ashley and the key is its scoring system which increases over the course of the event. On day one there is the standard scoring system of one, half and zero, day two doubles that, day three trebles the standard score. The event is described as "a comeback-friendly format that cultivates increased tension and fan excitement into the very last round" (ymmv). Magnus Carlsen was the runaway winner, mostly due to his domination of Gukesh who made huge errors in these games and only managed one draw, there has to be a psychological component to these mistakes. Fabiano Caruana finished second, Nakamura third and Gukesh last. The scoring system didn't change the finishing order of the players in any way.

Source: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/ev ... wdown-2025