A big celebration at the Rameshbabu household. The son, Praggnanandhaa, wins the very prestigious and tough Norway Chess in Oslo two months after his sister, Vaishali, triumphed in the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus. Both he and the Kazakh Bibisara Assaubáyeva, winner of the women’s tournament since the penultimate round, will receive 700,000 Norwegian kroner (64,214 euros), with a total prize pool of about 310,000 euros for the twelve participants. This edition will go down in history as one of the great failures of the number one and local idol, Magnus Carlsen, despite his easy victory on the closing day over the depressed world champion, also Indian Dommaraju Gukesh.
The final round was very high tension in the three games of the men’s tournament. In two of them, Firouzja-So and Praggnanandhaa-Keymer, the first prize was at stake. The other pitted two stars in a major crisis against each other to avoid last place: the number one, Carlsen, in one of the worst moments of his career, after losing 21 points in the world ranking; and the reigning world champion, Gukesh, who has been suffering from a difficult-to-explain slump since winning the crown in 2024, at 18 years old, and had fallen in this tournament to 23rd place in the ranking with only five months left until he defends the title against the Uzbek Yavojir Sindárov, 4th at 20, the brand new winner of the Candidates Tournament in April.
Although it is clear that Carlsen now processes disappointments much better – he has not stopped smiling and talking to the press, even on his worst days – and claims to be a very happy father for eight months now, an objective fact is that his only comparable failure to the present until this Friday was in the 2015 Norway Chess, where he finished 7th out of ten participants. Furthermore, winning the toughest tournament of the year for the 8th time would have been a magnificent argument to justify that he plays few classical events, but remains the number one, until now undisputed, from today not so much.
Even so, beating Gukesh, the current occupant of the throne that the Norwegian renounced in 2021, is always very stimulating for the Norwegian, whose table-pounding a year ago after losing to the Indian went around the world. Although last week, in the first round of Norway Chess, Carlsen already got his revenge for that disappointment, beating him again when the Asian is in very poor form was still important for the Scandinavian.
The mental combat was more of a probing, without hand-to-hand struggle, during the first rounds. But with a curious nuance: Carlsen, who until a few years ago exhibited a memory little short of photographic, admitted in the confessional (booth with camera and microphone where players reveal their feelings live to internet viewers) that he did not accurately remember a game of his from 2009 in the Wijk aan Zee tournament (the Roland Garros of chess) against the Dutchman Jan Smeets; but he did not deviate from it until the 17th move.
Only seven moves later, Carlsen completely dried up the position by exchanging queens and thus taking the game to uncomfortable territory for his opponent, who moves like a fish in water in great complications, where exact calculation weighs much more than strategic depth. Meanwhile, the super-conservative So – who had said upon entering the room that he hoped Praggnanandhaa and Keymer would draw in the slow game – tried to lock down possible attacks from the aggressive Firouzja, whose tendency to run out of time was seen once again.
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Barely half an hour after the queen exchange, Gukesh was already starting to melt like a sugar cube. Carlsen won with hardly any effort to finish 4th out of six a year after winning the tournament for the 7th time. The big unknown now is what his tournament planning will be, whether he will continue to limit classical events to a minimum to prioritize rapid and blitz, in-person or online.
While Carlsen was doing his technical work, Firouzja could not break down So’s wall, who also did not make the slightest attempt to win (although he later did win in the sudden death). But this time his excessive conservatism cost him dearly because, contrary to his prediction, Praggnanandhaa managed to transform his pressure for four hours into an undeniable victory that proves Carlsen and other top stars right, such as former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who saw in Pragg the most talented of the very talented Indian stars, now in their twenties (besides Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin).
The winner, who has won the last four classical games, explained his feelings during the game: “For a while I was glancing at Firouzja and So’s game, but then I thought it didn’t matter and decided to focus only on winning mine, since I had an advantage.” And he evaluated his victory thus: “I have won other very important tournaments, like Wijk aan Zee, but this one is special, because of its enormous toughness. I believe this victory will make my family and coaches, who have done so much for me, very happy.” Upon learning of his victory, Carlsen did not spare praise: “He is an incredible fighter. Without a doubt, he is a rightful winner.”
Results of the 10th round (final): Firouzja – So, draw, black wins; Carlsen – Gukesh, white wins; Praggnanandhaa – Keymer, white wins. Women’s: Jiner Zhu – Koneru, white wins; Wenjun Ju – Assaubáyeva, white wins; Anna Muzychuk – Desmukh, white wins.
Final Standings: 1st Praggnanandhaa 18; 2nd So 17 points; 2nd; 3rd Firouzja 15.5; 4th Carlsen 13; 5th Keymer 11; 6th Gukesh 8. Women’s Tournament: 1st Assaubáyeva 16.5; 2nd Jiner Zhu 16; 3rd Anna Muzychuk 15; 4th Wenjun Ju 13.5; 5th Desmukh 10; 6th Koneru 8.
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