R Praggnanandhaa continued his strong run at the Norway Chess tournament in Oslo. After defeating Magnus Carlsen in a monumental win in Round 3, he secured a crucial bonus half-point in Round 4 against Vincent Keymer to climb to second place in the overall standings. With the top-placed Alireza Firouzja losing his first game of the tournament, Praggnanandhaa has closed the gap with him with this win.
Following a 46-move stalemate in their Classical encounter, the Indian Grandmaster defeated Keymer in their Armageddon face-off while playing with the black pieces. This victory boosts Praggnanandhaa's tally to 6 points, placing him squarely behind the tournament leader.
WhileR Praggnanandhaaadvanced, his compatriot and reigning world champion D Gukesh suffered a setback. Playing with the white pieces, Gukesh fell to world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in 42 moves, marking his first Classical defeat of the ongoing tournament. Carlsen thus bounced back after a crushing defeat in Round 3 against Praggnanandhaa.
The highly anticipated clash began with a Queen's Gambit Opening. The evaluation bar gradually tilted in Carlsen's favour during the middlegame, but the Norwegian did not gain a decisive advantage until Gukesh found himself in severe time trouble. With less than a minute remaining on his clock compared to Carlsen's eight, Gukesh ultimately succumbed to the pressure and resigned.
The result provided much-needed redemption for Carlsen, who avenged his loss to the young Indian Grandmaster at the same event in 2025 in a 62-move defeat that famously led to Carlsen angrily banging his fist on the table. Carlsen, chasing a record-extending eighth Norway Chess title, desperately needed this win after a difficult start to his title defense that included defeats to Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja.
For Gukesh, who previously pulled off grueling 100-plus move draws against Keymer and Wesley So, the defeat comes just ahead of his 20th birthday on the tournament's first rest day. D Gukesh now drops to the bottom of the six-man standings with 3.5 points
In the women’s section, all three Classical games ended in a draw for the third consecutive round. Indian Grandmasters Koneru Humpy andDivya Deshmukhboth lost their respective Armageddon games against Zhu Jiner and Anna Muzychuk.
Divya currently shares the second spot alongside Muzychuk and Jiner with 5.5 points, while Humpy sits at the bottom of the table with 3 points.
Shaunak Ghosh is a Senior Sports Correspondent at Timesnownews with over seven years of experience in print and digital journalism. He holds a postgra...View More
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