Historic for India! Praggnanandhaa shocks Magnus Carlsen in Norway; 3rd win for Divya

NEW DELHI: Remember the 2024 Norway Chess? In Round 3 of that edition, an 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa secured his first-ever classical triumph implicit Magnus Carlsen. Since then, plentifulness has changed. Pragg has grown 2 years older, Carlsen is present a father, and Norway Chess has shifted basal to the superior metropolis of Oslo.

But erstwhile the 2 chess titans clashed again connected Wednesday, the Deichman Bjørvika room saw nary alteration successful the script.

Before the commencement of Round 3 connected Wednesday, Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa recovered himself astatine the bottommost of the tally with conscionable 1 point. By his lofty standards, World No. 1 and five-time satellite chess champion Magnus Carlsen did not person an perfect commencement to his location run either, having fallen to Alireza Firouzja successful the opening circular earlier scraping past Vincent Keymer successful Armageddon successful the next.

However, Carlsen getting comprehensively beaten by Praggnanandhaa successful classical chess was thing precise fewer would person anticipated, making the feat incredibly peculiar for the 20-year-old from Chennai.

The young Indian's struggles since mid-2025 person been disposable to the nationalist eye. Yet, it was a wholly unrecognisable, fearless mentation of Praggnanandhaa that showed up against 1 of the top ever to grace the crippled of 64 squares.

Playing with the achromatic pieces, Praggnanandhaa unleashed highly assertive kingside ideas successful the Najdorf variation, utilising aboriginal h4 and f4 thrusts to use contiguous pressure. Carlsen accepted the worldly gains offered but severely underestimated White’s portion coordination and a unsafe passed c-pawn. Pragg’s progressive rooks and tactical knight manoeuvres gradually overwhelmed the location favourite.

Black’s exposed king and advancing g-pawn yet proved futile against precise conversion and sustained positional power successful a tense endgame, resulting successful a memorable 62-move triumph for the Indian youngster.Carlsen's disappointment was wide to spot aft resigning the game; helium spent a mates of seconds looking up and gasping weirdly to show his immense frustration. Fortunately for the organisers, determination was nary table-banging astatine the extremity this time.

With this monolithic win, Praggnanandhaa has catapulted himself to the 2nd spot successful the unfastened conception standings with 4.5 retired of 9 points.

Divya’s imagination debut continues: Third consecutive Armageddon scalp

The time brought much joyousness for Indian chess fans done Divya Deshmukh's 3rd consecutive Armageddon triumph successful the Norway Chess Women tournament.

Making her debut successful the elite field, the 20-year-old from Nagpur remains wholly undefeated. The database of world-class opponents she has taken down is staggering: women's satellite champion Ju Wenjun successful Round 1, India women's No. 1 Koneru Humpy successful Round 2, and present the reigning three-time women's satellite blitz champion, Bibisara Assaubayeva.

Playing with the achromatic pieces, Divya successfully absorbed Bibisara's attacks doubly connected Wednesday, archetypal successful the classical brushwood and past successful the tiebreak.

After securing a coagulated gully successful the classical game, Divya held the intelligence vantage of draw-odds successful the Armageddon decider, requiring lone a gully with Black to unafraid the lucifer victory.In the tiebreak, Bibisara adopted a flexible English setup, but Divya equalised comfortably earlier seizing the inaugural with a crisp cardinal interruption connected determination 25... b4. She past executed a flawless tactical series opening with 26...

Bxe4.

Black’s progressive rook penetration and superior knight coordination wholly dominated the ensuing endgame, repeatedly checking White’s king into passivity. Though Bibisara defended stubbornly, Divya’s relentlessly progressive pieces and precise power ensured determination was nary mode done nether pressure, handing the Indian teen different important lucifer victory.

Elsewhere: Gukesh and Humpy endure Armageddon defeats

Aside from the headliner betwixt Magnus and Pragg, the planetary chess assemblage had its eyes locked connected the conflict betwixt Alireza Firouzja and World Championship challenger D Gukesh.

The reigning satellite champion campaigner was taking connected a rampant tourney person who held a cleanable 6/6 people portion playing done a ft injury.

Gukesh successfully managed to halt the Firouzja juggernaut from scoring a 3rd consecutive classical victory, holding the Frenchman to a draw. However, the Indian could not replicate that stableness successful the tiebreak, faltering with the achromatic pieces arsenic Firouzja claimed the Armageddon win.

On Thursday, Gukesh takes connected Magnus, who present finds himself astatine the bottommost of the table.In different unfastened conception tiebreak, Germany's No. 1 Vincent Keymer, playing with White, fell to American grandmaster Wesley So.

In the women's category, Indian seasoned Koneru Humpy suffered different heartbreaking Armageddon defeat, losing this clip to defending Norway Chess Women champion Anna Muzychuk. With this result, Humpy remains anchored to the bottommost of the array with 2 points retired of a imaginable 9. Meanwhile, successful an all-Chinese Armageddon clash, Zhu Jiner defeated reigning satellite champion Ju Wenjun.ALSO READ: Lost begetter astatine 3, mother's content stayed: Aravindh Chithambaram's emergence to becoming archetypal Indian astatine Esports Chess World Cup 2026