New Delhi: The highly anticipated individual showdown between World Champion Gukesh and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia concluded abruptly with a 14-move draw, lasting barely over a minute.
Even Carlsen expressed surprise at the swift end to their final personal encounter.
This quick draw stands in stark contrast to their initial clash in the Zagreb tournament's rapid format, where Gukesh defied expectations by defeating the five-time World Champion.
That victory propelled the youngest classical World Champion to the top of the leaderboard after the rapid section.
Gukesh's dominant rapid play even drew high praise from former World Champion Garry Kasparov, who remarked that "playing Gukesh was like playing a computer because you needed to beat him five times in each game."
However, the blitz portion of the event, which began on Saturday, has seen Gukesh face a series of defeats, including an earlier loss to Carlsen in their first blitz game.
Their Sunday draw in Round 13 of the blitz segment was remarkably swift, lasting just one minute and four seconds.
At the time of the draw agreement, Gukesh remarkably had more time on his clock (5:10) than when he started, while Carlsen had 4:45.