Carlsen avenges Round 1 loss against Firouzja as Gukesh and other Indians endure forgettable day at Norway Chess

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen returning to winning ways at the Norway Chess in Oslo as reigning world champion D Gukesh suffered a setback right after collecting his first Classical win of the ongoing tournament. It turned out to be a forgettable day for other Indians at the tournament as well with R Praggnanandhaa also losing his sixth-round clash and Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy losing their Classical and Armageddon games in the women's section.

Carlsen avenged his stunning first-round loss at the hands of Alireza Firouzja by defeating the Iranian-French Grandmaster in 55 moves while playing as white, collecting his second Classical win of the tournament after beating Gukesh in Round 4.

After developing a Ruy Lopez Opening, Carlsen gained a slight advantage over his opponent in the middle game after the 20-move mark. The defending champion would then have his Queen on the charge by Move 23 and later capitalised on a series of errors by his opponent to defeat his opponent in 55 moves, having cornered the black King with his queen.

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Firouzja also crumbled under time pressure, having just 11 seconds left on the clock at the time of his resignation compared to three-and-a-half minutes for his celebrated opponent.

Gukesh loses right after collecting first Classical victory

Gukesh and Keymer had played out a draw in the opening round last week. On Sunday, however, it was the German GM who triumphed over the world champion, winning in 52 moves – also playing with white pieces. The board witnessed an 'Indian Game' opening after Keymer gained a slight advantage over Gukesh on the eval bar for a majority of the middle game.

And neither player had a perfect game, Gukesh was guilty of committing more errors, especially when moving his rook forward along the g-file in the 36th move. The German then pushed one of his rooks along the left flank to challenge Gukesh's king, which proved to be a decisive move and, combined with the time pressure on the Indian, ultimately led to his victory.

Pragg, meanwhile, has now suffered back-to-back losses in Classical games after losing to Filipino-American GM Wesley So, who also won with white pieces like Carlsen and Keymer, in 63 moves.

Divya loses top-spot to Bibisara

The sixth round thus turned out to be the first one to not have an Armageddon tie-breaker, with all three Classical games ending on a decisive note. That, however, was not the case in the women's section, with Divya being the only player in either category on Sunday to lose a Classical game.

The 2025 Women's World Cup winner, however, fought the hardest of all the Indians in action on the day, going down fighting in 69 moves while playing with white pieces against women's World Cup No 3 Ju Wenjun.

Humpy and her opponent Bibisara Assaubayeva, interestingly shook hands after just 15 moves during their Classical game, in which the latter played as white and the Indian GM had over an hour left on the clock. The veteran Indian GM, however, missed out on adding half-a-point to her tally after losing the subsequent Armageddon face-off.

Assaubayeva (9.5) thus moved ahead of Divya (8.5) by a full point to the top of the women's standings after Sunday's results while Humpy remained rooted to the bottom with just 5.5 points.

As for the 'Open' category, Firouzja lost the top spot to So after his defeat at the hands of Carlsen, who is eyeing a record-extending eighth title at his home event. Gukesh and Pragg, meanwhile, find themselves at the bottom of the six-player standings with four rounds to go.