Bengaluru: The Norway Chess tournament is set for an extraordinary final round, where world No.1 Magnus Carlsen will fight to avoid a last-place finish. Carlsen and D Gukesh have had a rough tournament in Oslo, standing at ten and eight points respectively after the penultimate round. They will face each other in Round 10, deciding who finishes at the bottom.
R Praggnanandhaa, playing Black, secured his third classical win in a row against Gukesh in Round 9. His earlier wins came against Alireza Firouzja and Carlsen. Praggnanandhaa improvised with an f5 novelty on move 13, to which Gukesh responded with a losing move – 14.g4, exposing his rook. Though the 20-year-old world champion fought back, opening up the centre, it wasn’t long before White, a piece down, fell apart.
Heading into the final round, Praggnanandhaa is just half a point behind leader Wesley So, who is at 15.5 points. The third player in contention for first place is Firouzja. So won against Carlsen in the Armageddon after their classical game was drawn.
