Norway Chess will see a Gukesh vs Magnus Carlsen battle once again! The reigning world champion from India and the world no 1 from Norway will battle for the top spot at Norway Chess tournament in the final game on Friday after both players won their classical games on Thursday. While Carlsen took down previous leader Fabiano Caruana to pocket three points, Gukesh stayed within half a point of new leader Carlsen after defeating Wei Yi.
Carlsen though shrugged off the significance of winning the Norway Chess title.
How Gukesh beat Wei Yi
“The dream of playing a really good tournament burst with that (Gukesh) game. Of course I want to win but I don’t know, it’s not that important. I wanted a score that reflects the fact I think I’m still significantly better at chess and since I couldn’t achieve that, a potential win of the tournament would not mean as much,” Carlsen said on Chess24.
How Magnus Carlsen beat Caruana
Right on the heels of Carlsen (15 points) and Gukesh (14.5 points) is Hikaru Nakamura (13 points), who drew against Arjun Erigaisi and then defeated him in the Armageddon battle. Carlsen takes on Arjun in the final game while Gukesh will face Caruana.
A frustrated Carlsen had smashed his balled fist on the table — a moment that had gone viral — after his error against Gukesh led to him lose for the first time in classical chess against the reigning world champion. Carlsen had banged his fist on the board and let out an exasperated sigh of: “Oh my God.”
Later on that day, while talking to the media, Carlsen had said: “I don’t think that (the game against Gukesh, not the incident) was fun. I have to consider how to avoid it… maybe I should totally stop playing classical chess. It was not fun for me at all. In general I feel I have played well in the tournament but I don’t feel it is fun playing. I am not worried about my level.”
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