Magnus Carlsen slamming the table after his loss to D Gukesh in the Norway Chess - a classical format tournament - has become the most talked-about topic in the global chess community. The incident, which took place on June 1, has often overshadowed the players and the actual games in subsequent tournaments. It continues to dominate the social media sphere, with memes and even players imitating Carlsen’s act.

The defeat to reigning world champion Gukesh rattled Carlsen, who later admitted in interviews that he could not focus on anything else. He even had to stop his car on the way to his hotel to regain composure.

Fabiano Caruana, who finished second in the Norway Chess tournament behind Carlsen after his win over Gukesh in the final round, explained why Carlsen resorted to such unusual behaviour during a recent C-Squared Podcast. The American Grandmaster also expressed surprise at how the chess community responded to Carlsen’s fist smash.

"Magnus definitely wanted to win (against Gukesh) to prove a point: the point being that not only is he (Gukesh) not nearly as strong as Magnus but also that he's not as strong as other players. I think that would be his point, that's what he was trying to go for. So I think Magnus wanted to dominate.

And I don't think he cared as much if he were to dominate Arjun (Erigaisi), for example," Caruana stated on the podcast.

Caruana also praised Gukesh for his recent performances. "I don't think for the last two events (Superbet Chess Classic and Norway Chess) you can say that Gukesh is not playing close to his best classical chess. That would be a big stretch - not even a stretch - I think that would just be dishonest."

"But overall, if you look at the last year and a half, then Budapest Chess Olympiad and FIDE Candidates and then Wijk aan Zee twice... Gukesh has had good performances. Obviously, he's been one of the players who is ambitiously fighting for first place in many events," he added.