Carlsen stunned in opening round of Norway Chess as Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa register Armageddon wins

Magnus Carlsen was off to a shaky start at the Norway Chess in Oslo on Monday, suffering a first-round defeat at the hands of Alireza Firouzja and finding himself at the bottom of the standings in the 'Open' section as a result.

However, the opening day of the prestigious tournament, which has moved to the Norwegian capital from Stavanger, turned out to be a happy one for reigning world champion D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa as they won their Armageddon face-offs after playing out draws against Vincent Keymer and Wesley So respectively.

Carlsen off to shaky start in home event

Iranian-French Grandmaster Firouzja, who had to withdraw from the Super Chess Classic in Bucharest earlier this month due to a foot injury, defeated Carlsen for the first time in his career as a result of his stellar performance on Monday. Playing with white pieces, their game witnessed a Queen's Gambit Opening that swung decisively in Firouzja's favour after Carlsen committed an error in his 33rd move (Kg8).

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Despite having his Queen on the board along with a rook and a knight, Carlsen resigned in 38 moves under time pressure, with less than 10 seconds left on the clock at the time of raising the white flag of surrender.

The Norwegian chess icon had infamously slammed the table last year when he lost to Gukesh in the sixth round of the tournament, which resulted in the Indian GM beating the five-time world champion for the first time in his career. Like Firouzja on Monday, Gukesh was also playing with white pieces and steered the game in his favour after capitalising on a blunder, although the latter had to claw his way out of a tough position first.

Gukesh showcases fighting spirit against Keymer

And on Monday, Gukesh showcased his intense fighting spirit once again by holding Vincent Keymer to a marathon draw lasting 144 moves. It turned out to be quite the scratchy encounter between Gukesh and Keymer which witnessed an Indian Game opening, with both players committing multiple errors and the reigning world champion committing an outright blunder in the 74th move (e5).

Praggnanandhaa, too, played with white pieces in the opening round but his stalemate with So was nowhere as dramatic as the Gukesh-Keymer encounter, with the two players shaking hands after just 32 moves.

Both Gukesh and Pragg would later add half-a-point to their kitty after winning their respective Armageddon encounters. And though he had staged an escape from a blunder during their Classical encounter, Gukesh was in no mood to allow Keymer to wriggle towards safety after a similar folly, defeating him in just 22 moves.

Like Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, GM Divya Deshmukh also registered an Armageddon victory over Ju Wenjun after playing out a draw against the reigning women's world champion. Much like Gukesh, Divya also found herself in a tough position in the Classical game while playing with black pieces but found a way to steer herself towards safety.

Veteran GM Koneru Humpy, however, began her campaign with a defeat at the hands of Kazakhstan's Bibisara Assaubayeva while playing with black pieces.