‘My B-game is usually enough,’ says Carlsen after winning Grand Chess Tour Croatia

Magnus Carlsen is unstoppable when he is in full flow. It appears he is still the superior player on the planet, especially in long tournaments, even when he is far from his best.

Carlsen made sure to put across the thought after triumphing in the Grand Chess Tour Croatia Rapid & Blitz event in Zagreb, where he struggled to bring out his A-game. "When nobody else has a great performance, my B-game is usually enough. Always striving for more, though," Carlsen posted.

The World No. 1 finished the 27-round event on 22.5 points, while American Wesley So was second on 20, and India's classical World Champion D Gukesh ended up third on 19.5 points in a strong 10-player field.

"It doesn't really feel that I've won the tournament, because the performance was one very decent day, the rest were kind of meh, at best," Carlsen told 'taketaketake'.

The event featured nine rounds of Rapid and 18 rounds of Blitz games, with the total points deciding the winner. Gukesh punched above his weight in the Rapid section to take a convincing 3-point lead, and was the favourite going into the Blitz.

But the 19-year-old played poorly in the Blitz section, which is played on the shortest time control of five minutes per player (with a 2-second increment per move). Gukesh could only win four games and draw as many while losing the other 10 rounds. Carlsen seized the opportunity to dominate the Blitz section, losing just one game, which was against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while winning eight times and drawing the rest.

Gukesh famously beat Carlsen in the Rapid event, scoring his second win over the superstar this year. But Carlsen avenged his loss in the double round-robin Blitz event, beating Gukesh once and playing out a tame draw in the next game.

"I don't know if it's even a relief. I didn't go out and grab it, I just somehow survived, that's how I feel. I shouldn't be too negative, it's nice to win," Carlsen said.