All posts tagged: magnus

Praggnanandhaa stuns Magnus Carlsen to script history

Praggnanandhaa stuns Magnus Carlsen to script history

Published by Webster

Round eight of Norway Chess 2026 delivered a pivotal day in Oslo, with two decisive classical games and one Armageddon battle adding fresh tension to the race for first place. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu produced another landmark result, defeating Magnus Carlsen once again at Norway Chess 2026 to tighten the title race. The 20-year-old, who had earlier beaten Carlsen with the white pieces last week, repeated the feat with the black pieces in Round 8, marking two classical wins over Carlsen in the same tournament. With this, Praggnanandhaa becomes only the second player after India’s legend Viswanathan Anand to defeat Carlsen twice in the same tournament, and also joins an elite group of players to have beaten the five-time World Champion three times in classical chess. R. Praggnanandhaa beats Magnus Carlsen in Round 8 of #NorwayChess ♟️🇮🇳 Pragg becomes the first Indian since Viswanathan Anand to defeat Magnus in Classical Chess twice in the same tournament, having beaten him in the 3rd round as well 🙌 pic.twitter.com/VccDbW4DFF — The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) June 3, 2026 Alireza Firouzja scored …

Praggnanandhaa after beating Magnus Carlsen 2nd time in a week at Norway Chess: ‘Magnus still the best’

Praggnanandhaa after beating Magnus Carlsen 2nd time in a week at Norway Chess: ‘Magnus still the best’

Published by Webster

Magnus Carlsen jumped in his chair before leaning so far ahead towards the board that he could have whispered in the ears of his king. Trouble was brewing in the air for the crownless king of chess and his wooden king on the board. In a tense endgame, Carlsen had one move that could have ensured survival: king to e2. The clock had run down to 14 seconds when Carlsen made the 48th move — king to f4 — which lost him the game instead. Because once he had made the move, all his opponent, R Praggnanandhaa, had to do was march Carlsen’s king to its death in seven moves. For the first time since Viswanathan Anand at Linares 2007, a player — of any nationality — defeated Magnus Carlsen twice in the same classical tournament. Praggnanandhaa defeated the world no 1 from Norway for the second time in a week at the Norway Chess tournament being held at Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika. He had also defeated the world no 1 at the 2024 Norway Chess, …

Magnus Carlsen pulls out ‘proper old guy move’ in win over Alireza Firouzja | Chess News

Magnus Carlsen pulls out ‘proper old guy move’ in win over Alireza Firouzja | Chess News

Published by Webster

3 min readOsloJun 1, 2026 07:04 AM IST It’s starting to happen again. That juggernaut called Magnus Carlsen is starting to gather momentum to chase another title at Norway Chess, however absurd it sounds this time around. After all, it was only yesterday that Carlsen was at the bottom of the standings. A notorious slow starter at tournaments these days, it would have felt like Carlsen had left it too late to power another title challenge. Despite experiencing an unprecedented three losses in five games — to Alireza Firouzja, R Praggnanandhaa and Wesley So — so far at the tournament in Oslo, Carlsen is just four points behind tournament leader Wesley So after he took down the French-Iranian Firouzja in a classical game by playing “old man chess”. Walking into the game on Sunday, Carlsen was asked to rate from 1 to 10 how much of a mood he was in to fight. “1.5,” Carlsen had shrugged before walking away. But on the board, he had opted for an old-school opening trick to try and …

Magnus Carlsen gets revenge over Gukesh after year-long wait

Magnus Carlsen gets revenge over Gukesh after year-long wait

Published by Webster

On his last day as a teenager — and then again on his first day as a 20-year-old — world champion D Gukesh was reminded that there is still some growing up for him to do. On Thursday, a day before he turned 20, the world champion from India picked up a fight on the board against world no 1 Magnus Carlsen. And lost. “Gukesh sometimes plays a bit too ambitiously. He wanted to prove a serious advantage today, which I’m not sure there was,” Carlsen said about his quarry later. “Eventually, he played himself into some trouble. And I took over more and more.” Even though Friday was a rest day at the tournament, Gukesh turned 20 in the company of fellow grandmasters, including world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov and Carlsen. The players spent three hours on sailboats racing against each other at Oslofjord in the annual Norway Chess games, where at least twice, impromptu chorus of happy birthday rang out for a grinning Gukesh. But just before the players were to get on …

Magnus Carlsen defeats World Champion Gukesh in Norway Chess 2026 clash

Magnus Carlsen defeats World Champion Gukesh in Norway Chess 2026 clash

Published by Webster

Magnus Carlsen emerged victorious in the marquee matchup of Round 4 at Norway Chess 2026, defeating reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in a closely fought classical game in Oslo on Thursday. Playing with the black pieces, Carlsen gradually gained the upper hand in a position that remained balanced for much of the contest. The turning point came in the middlegame, where the world No. 1 capitalised on his opportunities and increased the pressure on Gukesh. Facing a difficult position and mounting time trouble, the Indian grandmaster was unable to recover as Carlsen converted his advantage into a valuable victory. The result boosted Carlsen’s standing in the tournament after a relatively slow start and kept him firmly in contention for the title. Praggnanandhaa wins Armageddon as Firouzja stays on top The other two games in the open section ended in draws before being decided through Armageddon tiebreaks. Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja shared the point in their classical encounter, but So prevailed in Armageddon to secure the bonus point. Meanwhile, R Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer drew …

‘You come at king…’: Magnus Carlsen gets revenge over Gukesh after year-long wait | Chess News

‘You come at king…’: Magnus Carlsen gets revenge over Gukesh after year-long wait | Chess News

Published by Webster

On his last day as a teenager, world champion D Gukesh was reminded that there is still some growing up for him to do to stake a claim to being the best in the business. A day before he turned 20, the world champion from India picked up a fight on the board against world no 1 Magnus Carlsen. And lost. “Gukesh sometimes plays a bit too ambitiously. He wanted to prove a serious advantage today, which I’m not sure there was,” Carlsen said about his quarry later. “Eventually, he played himself into some trouble. And I took over more and more.” Ever since the world no 1 from Norway smashed his fist on the table almost a year ago in reaction to losing at the same tournament to the Indian, the world had been eagerly awaiting another Carlsen-Gukesh battle. Thursday’s game — the first of two installments between the two at Norway Chess in Oslo this year — did not disappoint. Seats at the Deichman Bjørvika, the stunning public library in Oslo that acts …

Gukesh revisits Magnus Carlsen’s table slam one year later

Gukesh revisits Magnus Carlsen’s table slam one year later

Published by Webster

3 min readMay 28, 2026 10:32 PM IST Almost a year since the now-viral smash of the table by Magnus Carlsen after losing to world champion D Gukesh at the Norway Chess 2025, the Indian has said that it was a “nice thing” that the Carlsen moment got a “lot of attention.” Gukesh’s comments came on a day he was facing Carlsen at Norway Chess 2026 in an interview he had done with the tournament organisers before the event started. When asked about Carlsen’s table slam, Gukesh said: “In most sports, it’s the bare minimum the players would do. I mean players in other sports get into physical fights. But in chess, people are generally composed even though obviously there’s a lot of things going on inside. We are not taught generally not to (react). We play in these suits and it’s a gentleman’s game. So I guess I understand why the reaction was so viral. But I feel like everybody has this emotion inside when they are playing a game. And it’s nice to …

Praggnanandhaa after defeating Magnus Carlsen (again!) at Norway Chess

Praggnanandhaa after defeating Magnus Carlsen (again!) at Norway Chess

Published by Webster

Another edition of Norway Chess saw another triumph for a member of India’s golden generation over the world’s greatest chess player of the current era. Wednesday saw R Praggnanandhaa hand one more defeat to Magnus Carlsen at what is the Norwegian’s home tournament. The third round victory came two years after Pragg had beaten the world no 1 at the same tournament in what was his first classical victory over Carlsen. At last year’s Norway Chess, world champion Gukesh had earned his first Carlsen scalp in classical chess. Carlsen does not dabble in too much classical chess these days. Norway Chess, in fact, is the one of those rare times in a year that he makes an exception to his aversion to playing the longest format of the sport. But even then, a victory in classical chess over Carlsen, who has been uninterrupted world no 1 since July 2011, is cause for celebration no matter how it arrives. Pragg disagreed. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s such a big win,” shrugged Praggnanandhaa in a conversation with …

‘Like a cow ashamed of its body’: Magnus Carlsen invents phrase to critique himself | Chess News

‘Like a cow ashamed of its body’: Magnus Carlsen invents phrase to critique himself | Chess News

Published by Webster

4 min readMay 27, 2026 07:55 AM IST In the middle of his second round clash at Norway Chess against Vincent Keymer, Magnus Carlsen walked in the confessional booth for what was his second pitstop of the day. Over the years, the confessional booth — an innovation seen only at this tournament — has delivered multiple moments of virality. Carlsen, looking thoroughly displeased with himself today, delivered one more moment of social media virality. So disappointed was Carlsen with himself that he invented a phrase on the spot to express what he was feeling. Carlsen thought his game against Keymer “felt like a cow that was ashamed of its body”. He then called it an “udder embarrassment”. The world no 1 felt like every move he was making felt like a “positional mistake”. A few hours later, the game ended in a draw, but not before it saw multiple mistakes from both players, none more glaring than Carlsen missing a checkmating opportunity. So dejected was Carlsen at not winning the classical game on Tuesday, that …

Inside the Oslo chess pub where Magnus Carlsen can hide in plain sight

Inside the Oslo chess pub where Magnus Carlsen can hide in plain sight

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Occasionally on a Thursday, when he feels up for it, Magnus Carlsen waltzes into The Good Knight pub in Oslo for their fortnightly contests. He walks past the bar at the entrance, where a beer tap shaped like a knight and another one shaped like a rook welcome visitors. He walks past the stacks of chess books lined up on corners of the pub, and past the many black and white portraits of chess players deep in thought mounted on the walls. He takes his place on any of the 37 tables, each of which has a chessboard inscribed on it. Those Thursday evenings usually end with the world no 1 player winning the fortnightly competitions. Ordinarily, the world’s greatest chess player of the current era winning a game night at his local chess pub would not be news. But Carlsen’s Thursday jaunts are not to play chess. It’s the weekly trivia nights he’s made a habit of winning. “Magnus is a pretty clever guy, not just in chess. There are in fact no chess …