Norway Chess: Carlsen overcomes world champion Gukesh’s challenge in thriller

STAVANGER (NORWAY), May 27: World No.1 Magnus Carlsen inflicted a huge blow to reigning World Champion D Gukesh’s chances in the opening round of Norway Chess here, showing his endgame expertise to log three full points.
In what had been touted as the match of the tournament with the five-time world champion playing against an opponent half his age, Gukesh kept the Norwegian defending champion under pressure for most part of the over four-hour-long game of classical chess before the Indian made a losing mistake and lost in 55 moves.
Following the win, Carlsen earned three points and is in joint lead with American Grandmaster and world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura, who beat American GM Fabiano Caruana.
The second Indian in the fray, Arjun Erigaisi defeated China’s No.1 Wei Yi in an exciting Armageddon game after the classical game had ended in a draw.
Erigaisi earned 1.5 points from the win, while Wei secured one. The tournament’s scoring system gives three points to the winner in the Classical format.
If the Classical game is drawn, the players gain one point each and then play for another half-point in Armageddon. Two-time World Rapid champion Koneru Humpy score a decisive win against R. Vaishali in an all-Indian match-up.
Playing with characteristic calm and precision, Humpy capitalised on her opponent’s mistake in the endgame.
The Carlsen-Gukesh match went down to the wire, with the Norwegian, playing with the white pieces, pressuring his opponent to make a mistake in the endgame to accurately finished the game in his favour.
Carlsen, who hasn’t played an individual Classical event in the whole year since winning the Norway Chess 2024 title, was off to a less-promising start, with the Norwegian admitting his decision to play the Jobava London did not work out as planned.
“I just realised I don’t know anything,” said Carlsen. The Norwegian tried to unnerve Gukesh with the rarely-applied opening but realised after only a few moves that he was not going anywhere.
In fact, Gukesh, playing with black pieces, had neutralised his opponent’s white advantage by the 11th move, when he had the Norwegian thinking for more than 15 minutes.
But Carlsen, the five-time world champion who has since moved to shorter formats, such as Rapid and Blitz and, more recently, Freestyle chess, showed he has not lost his touch with the Classical format, winning the contest after 55 engrossing moves.
“I tried to surprise him (with the opening). I responded the way you often do, especially in the first round, in the absolute wussiest way possible,” said the 34-year-old Carlsen.
Gukesh later offered a pawn sacrifice, while Carlsen instead steered toward the kind of endgame on which he’s built his dominance in the chess world.
“It’s still fairly equal, but there’s this small imbalance as his pawn structure is a little bit ruined,” said Carlsen after the match.
He felt that Gukesh “did really, really well for a long time (in the game),” and then, when a pawn race developed, the price of a move had suddenly grown exponentially.
Asked if it meant a lot for him to beat the reigning world champion, Carlsen downplayed the moment, saying, “Not necessarily, but every win in this tournament is hard to come by, so I’m happy with that.” Earlier, Erigaisi impressed in the first round beating his Chinese opponent Wei Yi in Armageddon after the two had agreed to a draw.
Even as the spotlight was firmly on the match between India’s teenage world champion D Gukesh and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, Erigaisi, ranked No.4 in the world, was the first to take the opening points by beating China’s No.1 player Wei in Armageddon after the two had agreed to a draw after 54 moves.
Erigaisi, playing black, played aggressively to take the match to a draw and then beat his opponent on time in Armageddon. Erigaisi will meet Gukesh in the second round on Tuesday.
This year’s Norway Chess lineup features the top-six names in the Open and Women’s categories.
The men’s lineup comprises Gukesh, Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura, Erigaisi, and Wei Yi. In the women’s section, reigning world champion Ju Wenjun is joined by Lei Tingjie, Humpy, Anna Muzychuk, Vaishali, and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh.
Both tournaments follow a six-player double round-robin format with equal prize funds, highlighting a strong commitment to gender equality in chess. Results: (Open) Wei Yi (Chn 1) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (1.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA – 0) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA – 3), Magnus Carlsen (Nor – 3) beat D Gukesh (Ind – 0).(PTI)

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