Erigaisi upsets Gukesh to keep World Champion winless in Norway Chess

World Champion D Gukesh suffered a second defeat in Norway Chess to be pushed to the bottom of the points table after two rounds in Stavanger.

After opening the event with a defeat to World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh lost to compatriot Arjun Erigaisi on Tuesday. Playing with black pieces for the second game in a row, Gukesh found himself in a difficult position by move 26 when he blundered with a rook move before bouncing back as Arjun could not capitalise.

However, just like against Carlsen in round 1, Gukesh could not play the optimum moves in a bishop-knight end game and resigned after 62 moves.

Meanwhile, Carlsen lost to his fierce opponent Hikaru Nakamura in an armageddon tie-breaker after their classical game ended in a draw. Fabiano Caruana defeated Wei Yi in the other game in the men's category.

Nakamura and Erigaisi lead the points table with 4.5 points, followed by Carlsen on 4 points. In round three to be played later today, Erigaisi will play black against Caruana, while Carlsen plays Yi and Gukesh has his first game with white against Nakamura.

In the women's category, India's Koneru Humpy lost to Anna Muzychuk in round 2, while Lei Tingjie and Ju Wenjun got the better of R Vaishali and Sara Khadem respectively in armageddon.