Norway Chess 2026 Round 4: Magnus Carlsen Defeats World Champion D Gukesh, Avenging 2025 Loss

Norway Chess Round 4: Magnus Carlsen has finally won classical chess against reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in Round 4 of Norway Chess in Oslo on Thursday.

Contents

Playing with the black pieces, the world No. 1 outplayed the Indian Grandmaster in 42 moves to register his first classical victory of this year’s tournament.

The win carried an added importance for Magnus Carlsen, as he lost to the Indian Grandmaster at the same event last year, which also led to the well-known ‘table slam’ moment.

Although for Gukesh, this loss was a bit too heartbreaking as it came on his Birthday eve.

Magnus Carlsen is back in form after setbacks

As defending champion, Magnus Carlsen has always been known for performing well at home and exhibiting great consistency in tournaments.

But his start in this tournament was not that good. In the opening round, he lost to Alireza Firouzja, followed by an extremely close win against Vincent Keymer in Armageddon, and then again a loss to R Praggnanandhaa in round 3 in classical chess.

So, in Norway Chess round 4, Magnus Carlsen showed an improved sense of confidence and composure against D Gukesh.

World Champion D Gukesh lost under severe time pressure

The game started as a Queen’s Gambit opening, with both players having relatively equal chances in the beginning rounds of play.

However, during the middle phase of play, Magnus Carlsen began to develop his position more favourably than Gukesh’s and forced Gukesh into doing a lot more calculation.

As the game progressed through the middle phase, the evaluation of the board went more in Carlsen’s favour.

However, the final outcome of the match was ultimately decided by Gukesh’s clock.

During the middle game, it was Gukesh’s turn to play, and he had approximately less than 1 minute left to make his moves compared to Carlsen, who had approximately 8 minutes remaining to play.

Gukesh attempted to try and hold his position, but as time pressure peaked, his position began to deteriorate rapidly.

However, Magnus Carlsen converted that time advantage, and Gukesh lost the match on move 42, marking his third straight loss of the tournament.

Carlsen- Gukesh Rivalry

Thursday’s clash carried extra attention because of what happened between the two players in last year’s Norway Chess.

In Round 6 of the 2025 edition, Gukesh had defeated Carlsen for the first time in classical chess. The Indian won in 62 moves while playing with the white pieces, just months after becoming the youngest world champion in chess history.

The defeat visibly frustrated Carlsen, who slammed his fist on the table immediately after resigning.

OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲 pic.twitter.com/QSbbrvQFkE

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 1, 2025

This moment quickly went viral across social media and became one of the most discussed images from the tournament.

But this time, Magnus Carlsen ensured not to repeat it.

Alireza Firouzja’s first loss in Norway Chess

In the open section, Alireza Firouzja had his first loss at the tournament. This was in contrast to the scores of all of the other participants, as the number of points awarded for each player is slightly different.

Since running out of time in the final round of the Armageddon tiebreaker against Wesley So, the Iranian-French Grandmaster still has an impressive 8.5 points and remains ahead of everyone else.

Additionally, R Praggnanandhaa scored an impressive result and made a meaningful contribution to his already impressive performance. After a tied classical match with Vincent Keymer, the Indian beat the German GM in the Armageddon tiebreak while playing with the black pieces, and received a 1.5 point bonus for the Armageddon win.

Praggnanandhaa now has 6 points and is in second place after four rounds played so far.

Divya Deshmukh lost in the Norway Chess Women’s Section

The women’s section once again saw all three classical games ending in draws, continuing a trend that has now stretched for three consecutive rounds. However, the Armageddon tiebreaks proved difficult for the Indian contingent.

Divya Deshmukh lost her tiebreak game against Anna Muzychuk, ending her impressive streak of consecutive Armageddon victories.

Koneru Humpy also suffered another setback after losing to Zhu Jiner in Armageddon.

Despite the loss, Divya remains joint second in the standings alongside Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner with 5.5 points. Humpy continues to remain at the bottom of the table with three points.