A day after his dramatic defeat to D Gukesh in Round 6 of the Norway Chess tournament, Magnus Carlsen acknowledged the world champion's "energy" and "fighting qualities", conceding that on a normal day, he would have won the contest.

Carlsen, 34, had dominated the game in Round 6 for the most part but eventually blundered under time pressure, handing the victory to the 19-year-old Indian on Sunday, June 1. Visibly frustrated , with his fist, causing the pieces to scatter. He later shook hands with Gukesh, reset the board and walked away, patting the youngster.

"I think, like, I remember being that age myself, and sometimes kind of your energy, like fighting qualities, and just the optimism is sometimes, you know, bigger than the quality of your moves," Carlsen said on Monday.

"So, I think, for a long time he (Gukesh) was just more or less blindly pushing. And then, yeah, on a normal day, of course, I win that game, and things look quite differently," Carlsen added.

Carlsen praised Gukesh's resilience and willingness to seize the moment despite being in a difficult position for most of their Round 6 match, which turned out to be an epic endgame.

"What he (Gukesh) does well, as I alluded to, is he really fights very, very well, and he was there to take his chance, so he deserves credit for that. But that's the kind of chance that I really, really have to put away. Otherwise, I have no chance," Carlsen said.

Legendary Susan Polgar called it one of the most painful losses in Carlsen's decorated career and the Norwegian's body language in Round 7 on Monday told the story.

He was more composed after his Round 7 Armageddon tie-break victory over American world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, but the scars from Sunday were evident.

NO MORE CLASSICAL FOR CARLSEN?

Carlsen once again reflected on his future in Classical Chess, saying he would rather endure the pain of losing in a format that he loves.

"I think I'll play the last three games (in Norway Chess), and then I will have to make some decisions about next year here or potential other tournaments later, because, yeah, I just don't enjoy (Classical chess) that much," he said.

When asked directly if he was contemplating stepping back from classical events, Carlsen did not rule it out: "It's possible, yeah. I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not going to play Classical events ever again, but right now it doesn't."

He added: "The thing is that, you know, losses are painful no matter what, but at least if I can lose doing something that I really enjoy (Blitz, Rapid or Freestyle), then that's much easier. It's not that I cannot play (Classical chess), it's just situations like yesterday (loss to Gukesh) I'm just wondering, like, why am I doing this? What's the point?"

In Round 7, Carlsen and American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura agreed to a 21-move draw in classical format before the Norwegian prevailed in the Armageddon tie-break.