Magnus Carlsen gets checkmated but wins Norway Chess after Gukesh’s blunder

World Champion D Gukesh was devastated as he squandered a great chance to deny Magnus Carlsen his seventh title in Norway Chess in Stavanger on Friday.

Carlsen won the tournament with 16 points, half a point more than Fabiano Caruana. Gukesh could have finished on 17.5 points and won the event had he beaten Caruana, but he only managed 14.5 points to end up third.

Just a few seconds after Carlsen completed a great escape against Arjun Erigaisi, turning a losing position into a draw, Gukesh made a big blunder in his final game against Caruana and lost.

Interestingly, despite sealing his victory, Carlsen had to play Armageddon against Erigaisi because, as per Norway Chess rules, every drawn game must be settled by a tie-breaker. Carlsen was already in a party mood and did not play his best chess. But Erigaisi was ruthless in the tie-breaker and checkmated the World No. 1 in the 34th move. The shameful defeat did not bother Carlsen because that result was inconsequential as far as his title was concerned.

However, less than 15 minutes ago, Carlsen had appeared quite nervous when he played his classical game against Erigaisi. He had a rook and two knights against Erigaisi’s queen and a knight. Though Carlsen managed to equalise the position, he was in time trouble and could not find the best moves. He chose to play it safe and repeated checks, allowing Erigaisi to claim a draw by threefold repetition.

Though the draw kept Carlsen in the lead at that moment, his title had not been sealed yet as it depended on the Gukesh-Caruana battle, which was still going on. Just like Carlsen, Gukesh was also in trouble for most of the game and showed immense character to stay alive.

By move 47, Caruana made a bad move, which evened the game out. Gukesh's body language suggested that he could sense a big opportunity to clinch an unlikely victory, which was immense because that would have crowned him champion.

But Gukesh was also under a lot of time pressure. Less than 10 seconds remained on his clock (10-second increment per move), while Caruana had more than a minute to think. Gukesh hastily promoted a queen in the time scramble, but Caruana brought out a knight fork to turn the game in his favour. Gukesh was frozen when he realised he had blundered, and in that brief pause, his time ran out.

On the eve of the tenth round, the Norwegian was unsure of winning the title. He said losing a dramatic game to Gukesh in the sixth round had left him in a bad state. "The dream of playing a really good tournament burst with that game," Carlsen said about the defeat to Gukesh. But after the eventful final day, while Gukesh looked on the verge of tears, Carlsen was thrilled. 

Meanwhile, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine clinched the women's title after defeating Vaishali R in the Armageddon tie-breaker. Lei Tingjie finished second, and Koneru Humpy claimed third place.