Stavanger: World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen inflicted a huge blow to reigning World Champion D Gukesh’s chances in the opening round of the 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. Two-time World Rapid champion Koneru Humpy scored a decisive win against R Vaishali in an
all-Indian match-up. agencies
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 a year, was off to a poor start. He said his decision to play the Jobava London did not work out as planned.