Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Cruel Heartbreaking
The tournament Norway Chess takes place in Stavanger (Norway) every year. It consists of two sections: Women and Open. In 2024 they made history as the first super-tournament with an equal prize fund for Women and for the Open section. Same formula repeated in 2025.
The format for that tournament is a double Round-Robin. Players face each opponent twice at classical chess with time control of 120 minutes for 40 moves, with a 10-second increment from move 41.
To encourage competitiveness and reduce the rate of draws, the organizers in Stavanger implemented a mixed format of games. They combine classical and blitz. Opponents play an additional armageddon in case of a draw. For the armageddon White gets 10 minutes and Black 7 minutes with 1-second increment only after move 41.
The method of scoring is also particular. Winners in the standard game receive 3 points. However, if the game is drawn and competitors play the armageddon, the winner gets an overall score of 1.5 points and the loser 1 point.
Running from May 26 to June 7 (2025), the 13th edition in Stavanger saw the first classical meeting between World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju and world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen since Gukesh earned the crown in Singapore the previous year. The remaining pool included four of the world’s top eight ranked players. Two previous winners: GM Hikaru Nakamura who won Norway Chess in 2023, GM Fabiano Caruana who won in 2018. And two young players who made their debut in Norway: Indian star GM Arjun Erigaisi and China’s GM Wei Yi.
Without any doubt, Carlsen and Gukesh were the big stars in Norway. And they faced each other just in the first round. They met last time in the 2023 FIDE World Cup quarterfinal when Carlsen knocked out Gukesh 1,5-0,5.
Apart from that, the event in Stavanger was a rare opportunity for fans to watch again Carlsen in action in a classical tournament. In 2024, he only played 18 classical games, which is his lowest amount since the start of his career. The reason is that Carlsen focused his activity on Freestyle Chess and online blitz competition.
In first round, Carlsen played the white pieces and surprises came early in the opening. In the press conference after the game, Carlsen admitted his decision to play the Jobava London, but it didn’t work because of Gukesh’s response 4…Bg4
Carlsen confessed that he only knew the move after exchanging pawns on d4. Faced with the prospect that his opponent would know the line after 5.f3, Carlsen opted for 5.Be2, recognizing that: “I’m not remotely better.”
The game developed in a balanced way and Gukesh intended to trade queens with 15…Qa6, which Carlsen declined trying to keep the position alive.
After finally trading queens on move 21, Carlsen obtained the kind of endgame that have given him the trademark of “squeezing water from stones”. A balanced game but with chances to keep pressing the opponent.
However, Gukesh kept his composure and held a level position going to a pawn race ending.
The risky moment went when Gukesh sacrificed his knight with 42…h3 while approaching his pawn to promotion. At this moment, Gukesh’s remaining time was 1 minute, while 5 minutes for Carlsen.
After queening both sides on move 46, Gukesh had only seconds to play his move. During the live transmission, the excited commentators vehemently shouted the only move for the world champion (46…Rg2+) to keep the balance. However, in the tension of that moment, Gukesh missed it and played the losing 46…Qh6+??
Unfortunately, 46…Qh6+?? was Gukesh’s only mistake in the game and it gave Carlsen the chance to win. Carlsen showed his fine technique and went on to play superbly the rest of the game despite having only the 10-second increment.
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