World number one Magnus Carlsen has been one of the top players in Norwegian chess competition in recent years, an elite tournament held annually in Stavanger. From 2019 to 2022, he won four consecutive championships, but suffered a setback in 2023.
Wednesday’s third-round matchup didn’t go as planned. Carlsen not only lost to India’s 18-year-old rising star Prggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, but also comprehensively defeated him in the 1 e4 c5 Sicilian match, where the teenager took control of the game with his concentrated d5 knight.
Praggnanandhaa later said: “I’m experienced enough at this level now to beat the top guys, but I have to give my best for it and that’s what I’m trying to do. That’s the mentality.
Carlsen’s stiff pawn formation allows White to advance f4-f5 and force a weakened…e6-e5, and his passive 13…Qd7? is a critical error. Pragnananda seized this opportunity, cleverly taking advantage of Black’s inability to castle, and finally achieved a breakthrough on the b position. This game is a classic game of clarity that is sure to be in textbooks for decades to come.
Fabiano Caruana caught world champion Ding Liren with a prepared novelty 13 a4! This is one of the Chinese team general managers’ favorite variations of the Italian game. Team D once defended well, but fell behind in time. His mistake was 25…Qc6? (Rg8!) Allows winning sacrifice 26 Nxg7! Afterwards, the Black King was exposed to mortal danger.
The event’s special rules have helped Carlsen, who won in Stavanger just one year out of six starts a decade ago but has won Stavanger four times in a row since 2019 .
The draw is now replayed in a doomsday format where White has 10 minutes left and Black has 7 minutes left, but the draw on the board counts as a victory for Black on the scoreboard.
A Classic win is worth 3 points, a Classic tie and Armageddon win are worth 1.5 points, a Classic tie and Armageddon loss is worth 1 point, and a Classic loss is worth 0 points. Carlsen has developed Armageddon into an art form, with a success rate of nearly 80% in both colors in these games since 2019.
In the first round, Carlsen and Ding Junhui quickly tied their classic match three times. Their Doomsday move looked strange, requiring 65 moves, but Carlsen, playing black, had planned his route to the required draw in advance.
In the blocked position, he regrouped his f6 knight through h7, f8, e6 to d4. Then he eliminated all the bishops and knights, leaving only the king, queen, rook, and eight pieces. Din fell behind on time and had to open the game and simplify it to a queen and pawn ending, with Carlsen forcing a draw via a permanent check.
Job done, 1.5 points from Carlsen, who will surely want to prove his superiority over the world champion’s successor and take on Whyte in Sunday’s second game (kick-off 4pm BST, live on lichess) Ding received a perfect score of 3 points in the game. That should be an opportunity worth watching. By then it should also be clear whether Ding Junhui’s stated ambition for the championship, rather than last place, is too modest.
However, consecutive losses in the third and fourth rounds dropped Ding Junhui to the bottom of the standings, and Stavanger’s development towards the world championship was already ominous.
In Thursday’s fourth round, all three classic matches were decisive. Caruana lost to Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Pragnananda for the title, and Alireza Firouzja defeated Din.
Score after four rounds: Nakamura (USA) 7 points, Firouza (France) 6.5 points, Carlson (Norway) 6 points, Pragnananda (India) 5.5 points, Caruana (USA) 5 points , Ding Junhui (China) 2.5 points.
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Ding Junhui will defend his world title in a 14-game series from November to December against India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, who just celebrated his 18th birthday this week. The 31-year-old will compete in at least two more matches before the tournament, the 180-nation Olympic Games in Budapest in July and the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in August. He will therefore look to start his world title defense in good shape and take advantage of his teenage rivals’ inexperience at the highest level.
Chess Norway also launched a major innovation this year, hosting a six-person elite women’s invitational tournament alongside the Open. Prize money is $160,000 each, meaning the new tournament is the second-highest prize money ever offered in an all-women’s tournament, behind next month’s Cairns Cup in St. Louis with $200,000. Both Stavanger and St. Louis aim to create a viable women’s professional circuit to encourage more full-time female players.
After four rounds of women’s Norwegian chess, Vaishali Rameshbabu leads with 8.5 points, ahead of women’s world champion Ju Wenjun of China (round 6). Praggnanandhaa’s 22-year-old sister has already made a splash at the Toronto Candidates, going from last place to a tie for second place and winning her last five events. In Stavanger, she achieved a landmark victory in the Classics, defeating India’s long-time No. 1 female player Hampi Koneru.
Women’s Norwegian Chess after four rounds: Vaishali (India) 8.5 points, Ju (China) and Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) 6 points; Leitinger (China) 5; Koneru (India) and Pia Cramling (Sweden) 3.
Friday is a rest day for both events.
3922: 1…Qd2+ 2 Ka3 Qc1+ 3 Kxa4 Qa1+ 4 Kb4 Qb1+ 5 Ka5 Qa2+ 6 Kb5 Qxe6 wins.
