GM Magnus Carlsen won a spectacular king hunt to beat World Champion Gukesh dommaraju in Norway Chess 2025 in their first classical game since Gukesh won the title. The day’s other classical winner was GM Hikaru Nakamurawho ground down GM Fabiano Caruana in his opponent’s perpetual time trouble. GM Arjun Erigaisi beat GM Wei Yi in armageddon in the clash of the Norway Chess newbies.
GM Koneru Humpy was struggling but then pounced on a huge blunder by GM Vaishali rameshbabu to claim the only classical win of Women’s Norway Chess 2025 round one, while GMs Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie won in armageddon against IM Sara khadem and Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun respectively.
This is flash report—come back later for player quotes and analysis!
Round two starts Tuesday, May 27, at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
Norway Chess Round 1 Results
Norway Chess Standings After Round 1
It’s three points for a classical win in Norway Chess. If the game is drawn, the players gain one point each and then play for another half-point in armageddon.
Carlsen’s win over Gukesh was a tense positional battle that exploded into a fantastically dramatic finale.
Magnus Carlsen beats World Champion Gukesh after a stunning king hunt played on the 10-second increment. “Game of the year so far!” says Howell: https://t.co/m4fhuQIw29#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/4aKjJfbYK2
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 26, 2025
A great quote from The Wire pic.twitter.com/z9fBOdbtMd
– Magnus Carlsen (@Magnuscarlsen) May 26, 2025
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao will analyze below:
Norway Chess Women’s Standings After Round 1
Round 2 Pairings
This is flash report—come back later for player quotes and analysis!
Norway Chess 2025 features Open and Women’s six-player tournaments for equal prize funds of 1,690,000 NOK (~$167,000). It runs May 26 to June 6 in Stavanger, with players facing their opponents twice at classical chess (120 minutes/40 moves, with a 10-second increment from move 41). The winner of a classical game gets three points, the loser, zero; after a draw, the players get one point and fight for another half-point in armageddon (10 minutes for White, seven for Black, who has draw odds).
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