Magnus Carlsen defeated World Champion D Gukesh in the opening round of Norway Chess on Monday, securing three full points in a Classical format game that lasted over four hours and 56 moves. Carlsen employed the rarely-used Jobava London opening move to challenge Gukesh, who was playing his first Classical game against the Norwegian since winning the world title in Singapore last year.Gukesh, playing with black pieces, successfully neutralised white’s advantage by the 11th move and briefly had Carlsen in a difficult position. However, the five-time world champion Carlsen, who now primarily focuses on shorter formats like Rapid, Blitz, and Freestyle chess, demonstrated his enduring mastery of the Classical format.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Following the win, Carlsen said, “He’s also an ambitious player, so I thought we’re not necessarily going to get a totally flat game just because he’s at least equalised from the opening.”“It felt a little bit risky for me as well, since his pawns were quite fast, but I couldn’t keep myself from keeping the game going there, and then towards the end, I just wanted to make sure when he was queening the pawn, I was calculating everything. I know that he calculates these things so well, so I’m always a little bit worried that I’d missed something, but I managed to use a few minutes, assure myself that I’m not losing, and then go for it!”When asked if it meant more to beat the reigning World Champion, Carlsen commented, “Not necessarily, but every win in this tournament is hard to come by, so I’m happy with that.”However, his social media post made things clearer. On X, Carlsen shared a meme with text from popular US TV series The Wire reading, “When you come for the king, you best not miss.”In another significant match of the six-player round-robin Open category, Indian player Arjun Erigaisi, ranked No.4 in the world, secured victory against Chinese opponent Wei Yi in Armageddon after their initial game ended in a draw after 54 moves.Erigaisi, playing with black pieces, maintained an aggressive approach to force the draw before winning on time in the Armageddon format. Despite having only seven minutes compared to Wei’s ten minutes in Armageddon, Erigaisi managed to overcome this time disadvantage.
The opening round results placed Erigaisi at 1.5 points, while Wei earned one point. Under Norway Chess rules, players receive three points for a Classical format win, one point each for a draw, and the Armageddon winner gains an additional 0.5 points.The tournament’s spotlight remained focused on the matchup between teenage world champion Gukesh and world No.1 Carlsen, though Erigaisi’s performance against China’s top player proved equally noteworthy.
