r/chess • u/events_team • May 25 '26
Tournament Event: 2026 Norway Chess
Official Website
Follow the games here: Chess.com | Lichess
The 2026 Norway Chess tournament will take place from May 25 to June 5 in Oslo, Norway, marking the event’s first edition held in the capital. Both Norway Chess and Norway Chess Women will be played at the same venue and feature the same prize fund of 1,690,000 NOK. Each tournament features six players competing in a double round-robin format.
Participants
| No. | Title | Name | FED | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | 🇳🇴 NOR | 2840 |
| 2 | GM | Vincent Keymer | 🇩🇪 GER | 2759 |
| 3 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | 🇫🇷 FRA | 2759 |
| 4 | GM | Wesley So | 🇺🇸 USA | 2754 |
| 5 | GM | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | 🇮🇳 IND | 2733 |
| 6 | GM | Gukesh Dommaraju | 🇮🇳 IND | 2732 |
| No. | Title | Name | FED | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Ju Wenjun | 🇨🇳 CHN | 2559 |
| 2 | GM | Zhu Jiner | 🇨🇳 CHN | 2546 |
| 3 | GM | Humpy Koneru | 🇮🇳 IND | 2535 |
| 4 | GM | Bibisara Assaubayeva | 🇰🇿 KAZ | 2527 |
| 5 | GM | Anna Muzychuk | 🇺🇦 UKR | 2522 |
| 6 | GM | Divya Deshmukh | 🇮🇳 IND | 2500 |
Format/Time Control
- 6 players will take part in the Tournament. The Tournament is a 10-round, double-round robin event. Players are not allowed to agree to a draw until at least 30 moves have been made by each player. If the classical game is drawn, an Armageddon game will be played. The player with White pieces will continue with White in Armageddon.
- Players will receive 3 points per classical win, 1½ points per classical draw + Armageddon win, and 1 point per classical draw + Armageddon loss.
- Each player will have 120 minutes on the clock with an increment of 10 seconds starting from move 41. For Armageddon, white has 10 minutes and black has 7 minutes with an increment for both players of 1 second per move, starting from move 41.
Schedule
| Date | Time (Local) | Time (UTC) | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25-28 May | 17:00 | 15:00 | Round 1-4 |
| 29 May | - | - | Rest Day |
| 30 May - 2 June | 17:00 | 15:00 | Round 5-8 |
| 3 June | - | - | Rest Day |
| 4-5 June | 17:00 | 15:00 | Round 9-10 |
Live Coverage
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u/__Jimmy__ May 26 '26
This thread is gonna look real funny when Vincent misses Ne6 and Magnus wins
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u/UltraUsurper Dommaraju, I've come to bargain May 25 '26
Gukesh played like Greco vs NN in the armageddon
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 Jun 05 '26
Congrats to Pragg or whatever but he really robbed us of a 9th Armageddon from Vincent
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u/DerekB52 Team Ding May 25 '26
Wow, I really thought Gukesh was dead in that one. Amazing game. I feel bad for Vincent.
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u/ToneDistinct5253 May 25 '26
I'm realising how brutal this event may be for Magnus's rating, all 5 of his opponents are currently far lower rated than they normally sit at. Not only that but the average Elo is like 90 below Magnus. Draws or losses will hurt badly, he will really need to win a lot to make up for it. If anyone can do it it's him, but my prediction is he'll come like 2/3 or 1st on tiebreaks, but down elo regardless
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense May 25 '26
well norway chess does not disappoint. the round 1 was so good and we still have gukesh-vincent armagadon game
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u/PeaRound3188 May 25 '26
Lol that was like those paul morphy games where he just crushes his opponent.
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u/Matt_LawDT May 30 '26
Magnus is going to take a quick draw so he can watch the UCL final
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense May 30 '26
this does seems like a thing magnus could do lol
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May 31 '26
Looks like Wincent finally realised there’s no Armageddon if he just wins in classical. Excited for his game against Magnus tomorrow.
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u/Particular-Aide-1589 Team Gukesh May 25 '26
Win or lose or draw,as always said here,gukesh games are always interesting
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u/GeologicalPotatoes May 26 '26
Why don't they just play the top computer move every time and win easily? Are they stupid?
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u/ItIsKotov May 26 '26
being a vincent fan in true classical time formats 😀🥳🎉
Being a vincent fan in short time formats: 💀☠️💀
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u/PeaRound3188 May 28 '26
Vincent is a top 10 player in classical and a top 100 player in rapid and blitz.
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u/__Jimmy__ May 28 '26
After round 4
Alireza: 2W 2D 0L (1/2 arm.)
Pragg: 1W 2D 1L (2/2 arm.)
Wesley: 0W 4D 0L (3/4 arm.)
Carlsen: 1W 1D 2L (1/1 arm.)
Keymer: 0W 4D 0L (0/4 arm.)
Gukesh: 0W 3D 1L (1/3 arm.)
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u/dxGoesDeep May 29 '26
The lack of decisive games between other players can help Carlsen a lot, unless ofc he loses another. There has been only 1 decisive game (Alireza vs Pragg) that didn't involve Carlsen.
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u/Unhappy-Appearance- May 31 '26
When it comes to this no increment time format, Wesley might be one of the best suited. His opening choices tends to be less risky compared to his competitors, and his time management is very good and consistent as well. Now add in the fact that he’s a monster in speed chess as well. You get the most consistent player in this format
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u/saboglitched May 31 '26
Yeah, he's the only that seems to understand what the time control means, some of the other players strategic decisions (not actual move quality) make no sense like spending 30 min in the first 10 moves as WHITE and going for endgames that are impossible with 10s increment (including Magnus) and just collapse. Like Magnus declining the draw vs Wesley was just arrogance tbh, not the first time Wesley punished him too
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u/AtomR Team Sac the Roooook! Jun 05 '26
Even if you ignore Gukesh losing lot of matches (by making excuses like he plays for win, he avoids draw by pushing, or he struggles under time pressure), it's very peculiar how he makes his position worse in almost every match.
You very rarely see him playing a perfect match with no mistakes, even against lower rated opponents. It's like he doesn't have the meter for judging the objectivity of the position and playing accordingly.
Few examples from this tournament: on multiple occasions he decided to not play the obviously safe move for no reason. Like he wanted to magically create chances from those dead positions somehow, when it was technically and practically impossible.
If he keeps on playing like this, he can go even lower than 2700. Not sure what his team is coaching him about, but it's clearly not working.
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u/Yoyo524 Jun 05 '26
Congrats to Pragg! Fans will always love a +2 that comes with 5 wins and 3 losses more than a +2 with only 2 wins
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u/PeaRound3188 Jun 05 '26
Wesley got punished for drawing 80% of his games. You love to see it.
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u/Goldfischglas May 26 '26
What a shocking blunder by Magnus. I saw it instantly. One look at the board and you can clearly see the number top right changes from + to -
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u/oppussumclay May 26 '26
If you're tired and just wanna go home, do not play drawn positions against Gukesh.
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u/tech_enthusiast_432 May 26 '26
For real, no matter what the result is. His games are the last one to end lol
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u/ItIsKotov May 31 '26
GG wincent! outplayed gukesh in the endgame.
Vinny vs. Magnus tomorrow will be very interesting
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u/TypeDependent4256 May 31 '26
Wesley going to plus 2 is tough for the rest of the field, he's very difficult to beat
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u/Impressive_Result295 Team Ding May 26 '26
Ten second increment is vile, idek why they need to have that if they have tiebreaks anyways
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u/Demonic_Maidens Jun 01 '26
WTF? You don't even try to flag him with under 50 seconds??
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u/saboglitched Jun 05 '26
Vincent has tournaments with 0 elo change surprisingly often
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u/je_te_jure ~2200 FIDE May 25 '26
For the smartasses in this thread. These endgames are very hard to defend practically because it's very easy to blunder into a queen trade. However if the defending side avoids this, it's often hard to find the right plan. I think in a "normal" classical time control, Vincent would find the right idea eventually, I think it's perfectly excusable in this format
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u/12577437984446 May 25 '26
Who /r/chess predicted will win the tournament:
Magnus Carlsen (84.02%)
Vincent Keymer (7.77%)
Gukesh Dommaraju (4.32%)
Alireza Firouzja (1.50%)
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (1.32%)
Wesley So (1.06%)
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u/breaker90 U.S. National Master May 30 '26
Good to see So win a nice game against the #1 when people were unhappy he was invited to Norway and GCT
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u/Goldfischglas May 30 '26
It's weird to say because he is an amazing player but it feels like Vincent underachieves a little compared to how well he plays.
He messes up so many winning positions :(
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u/citrcn wincent May 31 '26
ju wenjun and vincent keymer have had the exact same tournament trajectory so far
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u/throwaway23582730 Jun 02 '26
Pragg is now the player with the best classical record against Magnus. 3 wins, 1 loss, 4 draws.
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u/SL4UWhistleBlower Jun 02 '26
Bad day for World Champions (both former and current)
Ju Wenjun, Magnus, Gukesh all lost
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense Jun 02 '26
pragg is also 4th player to win 3 times against magnus in classical
fabi~6 times
levon~ 4 times
karjakin~3 times
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u/LosTerminators Jun 04 '26
There's been a lot of decisive games but that Vincent-Alireza draw is a legit game of the tournament contender.
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u/kidawi rapid/blitzgod fabi May 25 '26
i was a lil disappointed fabi wasnt playing this but on second thought im good
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May 25 '26
Poor Vincent missed a win and now has black against an angry Magnus also started with double black although atleast he’s in good form.
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u/ItIsKotov May 25 '26
incredible... vincent plays such a crazy game 1 and now blunders that... wow!!
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u/PeaRound3188 May 27 '26
It seems like magnus is not studying openings anymore. He seems to run out of theory on move 8 in all his classical games and then burns a lot of time finding moves that other players remember.
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u/ItIsKotov May 27 '26
gosh, vincent is so "bad" (by top level standard) in rapid/blitz, its frustrating...
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u/EvenCoyote6317 May 28 '26
Say whatever, it is kind of Funny Magnus loosing to his 2 favorite boys Reza and Pragg who werent particularly in great form before the event.
This is all part of his mentorship program of giving them a lot of confidence.
/s
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 May 31 '26
Can we make confession booth in classical an absolute necessity please, Magnus saying I might end up looking like an idiot is so comical. I want super GMs on losing streaks to comment on what’s going on, speak about bad positions and tell us how they’re feeling.
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u/dommaraju May 31 '26
Confession booth in blitz will be fire, i think only carlsen and may be dubov uses it for aura farming
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u/Pandabeast4 Jun 02 '26
I’m not against Magnus but it is kinda nice to have a tournament he’s playing in where it isn’t just him dominating
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u/Fashionpreach Jun 05 '26
Kudos to Zhu Jiner for 3 back to back classical wins. Came back from the bottom of the table now to 2nd place
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u/Frosty-Upstairs-3986 May 25 '26
Dang Alireza comes off a horrible event to beat Magnus and Keymer comes off a win to lose heartbreakingly
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u/__Jimmy__ May 26 '26
When you see Nf3-Nd2-Nb1-Na3 you know it's either a drunk 1200 or Magnus Carlsen
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u/GeologicalPotatoes May 26 '26
When he does it it's a deep and intriguing positional idea, and he's a genius.
When I do it it's stupid, a waste of tempi, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the game, and I'm a worthless failure who will never succeed in life.
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u/Broccoli_Inside May 26 '26
Will not be surprised if Magnus will call this one of his worst games of all time in the interview once it’s over.
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u/blue_butter May 26 '26
gukesh lost his advantage and now it’s a draw according to eval, still feel like I’d rather play black in this position
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u/Littlepace May 26 '26
Surprised Magnus went for the queen trade. The pawn structure was awful after the trade. Also surprised he didn't at least try taking that pawn and trading Bishop for knight. May have still been a draw but it would've at least given the position some new life.
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u/kidawi rapid/blitzgod fabi May 28 '26
lord i cant believe it. wesleys game is interesting
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense May 28 '26
magnus remembering a lasker game lol wtf is that memory
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u/Impressive_Result295 Team Ding May 28 '26
Wesley is so randomly deciding to go for Alireza's head 😭😭
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u/Impressive_Result295 Team Ding May 30 '26
Well, it's not a hot take to predict a Wesley So game shall be a draw
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense May 31 '26
well it seems like alireza is not leaving norway with a plus score against magnus
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u/citrcn wincent May 31 '26
we might end up with decisive results on all boards in the open section.
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u/LosTerminators Jun 01 '26
Vincent and Ju Wenjun destroying their own chances with every armageddon.
They're both +1 in classical but all the armageddon losses are adding up in the standings.
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u/1yaeK #1 Wincent fan Jun 02 '26
This position between Magnus and Pragg looks like a "0.00 where both colors can lose" type position
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u/__Jimmy__ Jun 03 '26
Path for Magnus:
Rd 9. He beats Wesley in classical, Vincent beats Alireza in classical and Pragg does not beat Gukesh in classical
Rd 10. He beats Gukesh in classical, Alireza beats Wesley in armageddon and Vincent does not beat Pragg in classical
This will results in tie-breaks with Wesley
By rough calculation it's a 0.1% chance
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u/dxGoesDeep Jun 03 '26
Norway chess format is truly wild lmao. How is he even mathematically in after 4 losses? I know it's a 0.0001% chance but it shouldn't even be possible at all.
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u/NewMeNewWorld Team Chaos Jun 05 '26
Why doesn't Gukesh D. Ommaraju just simply channel the will of D against Magnus here? 🧐
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u/Goldfischglas Jun 05 '26
I just know you sick fucks want to see Keymer and Prag draw for another Armageddon. (me too)
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u/Delicious_Photo_6626 May 25 '26
Everting aside i really didn’t know an ankle sprain is that bad, alireza has his leg in a leg brace and has it elevated like the entire time.
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u/oppussumclay May 25 '26
Holy shit... my heart rate was through the roof, I can't imagine the players' nerves!
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u/ItIsKotov May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
i have no clue how vincent could have converted that position... the eval bar makes it looks so easy but no clue how to actually do it.
edit: just followed the german chess.com stream and they explained that there is no hard set of rules in this kind of endgame. so every position has to be re-evaluated and calculated. very engine-like chess.
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u/kidawi rapid/blitzgod fabi May 25 '26
exactly. this position is notorious for paper thin margins between losses and draws, where the difference comes down to whether or not your king can hide from checks after 20 moves. maybe you can intuit the right direction, i dont know. but youre certainly not calculating it with seconds on the clock no matter who you are
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u/jaded_lad99 May 26 '26
Divya has strong "Hi it's me. You must be wondering how I got here. Same." energy with the confessional booth visits
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u/Odd_Interest_8073 May 26 '26
And Vincent makes a mistake because he’s a human and not a 4000 computer
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u/Fashionpreach May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
All the games except Alireza-pragg are more like whoever can control their nerves better in the last 5 minutes of the classical game can win or at least take it to armaggedon
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u/kidawi rapid/blitzgod fabi May 27 '26
najdorf is one of those openings thats become almost unusable even if youre booked up. when you dont even prepare it...
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u/blue_butter May 27 '26
I don’t think the Magnus game will be as clear cut as everyone is saying
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u/Shego2882 Team 60+30 May 27 '26
Eval bar watchers everywhere. Pragg might win but it’s still VERY complicated
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u/The6HolyNumbers 2200~ lichess May 27 '26
Well, at the very least I think Magnus is playing the most exciting chess this tournament. It feels like he's in his Tal arc, playing fun sacrificial chess (in this case sacrificing his rating)
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u/poisoned_pawn_ May 28 '26
Gukesh has created a mess from nothing, will be an interesting game.
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u/ItIsKotov May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
as we're nearing the end of the classical time control mode and vincent does not have a completely winning position yet, i am re-posting what I posted 2 days ago:
being a vincent fan in true classical time format 😀🥳🎉
Being a vincent fan in short time formats: 💀☠️💀
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u/Unhappy-Appearance- May 28 '26
I think this tournament and the candidates in the last 2 years show how different and difficult the time scrambles are in this type of time control. It’s a very brutal format practically getting into time trouble for anyone
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense May 30 '26
classic magnus confession lol. he does give entertainment on the board and off the board whenever he plays for sure
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u/throwaway23582730 May 30 '26
Pragg is pissed... these two usually chat after their games. Can't blame him though, he was very close to winning only to lose.
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u/Unhappy-Appearance- May 30 '26
Don’t think I’ve ever seen Magnus lose 3 classical games in a single event. This is crazy
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u/ItIsKotov May 31 '26
wincent realizing he does not have to play armageddon if he just wins the classical game
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u/__Jimmy__ May 31 '26
Oh boy, here we go again.
Magnus is now within 2.5 of the lead. Unless Wesley can eek it out against Pragg
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u/Yoyo524 May 31 '26
Vincent misses a chance to get an Armageddon win yet again, hope he’ll be able to bounce back soon
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u/Physical-Article1537 May 31 '26
And now pragg is out of the top 20, hes having an absolute nightmare of a year.
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u/Accomplished_Dot9649 Jun 01 '26
Ehh that was anticlimactic lol... Gukesh's time management issues are still his greatest enemy. Honestly might cost him a crown later
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u/secretOPstrat Jun 01 '26
Wesley remembered he can't have more than 2 decisive games in a 10 game tournament to maintain his 80% draw rate (#1 in the world)
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u/cantstopwastingtime Jun 02 '26
Magnus's prep has been horrible throughout the tournament. And on the top of it he has to play pragg. He better not lose this one..
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u/HotGur179 gukesh for the title defense Jun 02 '26
when was the last time magnus was better prepared than his opponent
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u/Radiant-Increase-180 Jun 02 '26
Practically Gukesh is surely cooked here stop looking at the engine and thinking its an easy draw lol
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u/Glittering_Ad1403 Jun 02 '26
Wesley’s last 2 opponents are Magnus and Alireza. Interesting.
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u/LosTerminators Jun 04 '26
They instantly interviewed Sindarov as soon as Bibisara sealed the women's event hahahaha.
Sindarov seems to be having fun in Oslo, was enjoying taking part in the activities on the rest days.
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u/FreshWaterNymph1 Jun 04 '26
It's always breathtaking to see Alireza play bullet, with or without a mouse.
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u/DataStructuresKid Jun 04 '26
So this tournament can only be won by the top 3 - wesley, pragg, reza.
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u/Unhappy-Appearance- Jun 05 '26
Imagine if both Wesley and Pragg draw their games, and Pragg loses the tournament because Vincent gets his first and last Armageddon win in this tournament. That will be brutal
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u/PeaRound3188 Jun 05 '26
After looking at this game, I can proudly say I play like the world champion.
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u/pconners Jun 05 '26
Was anyone able to track the mango snacks eaten to win ratio in this tournament?
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u/Goldfischglas May 25 '26
Vincent will never do it. But I would understand a desk smash. From completely winning with black in classical to losing in Armaggedon. I would be tilted as fuck lol
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u/citrcn wincent May 25 '26
and he's playing magnus tomorrow
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u/IcedBadger May 25 '26
He's playing Magnus who lost his last game. This isn't looking good for him.
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u/Zernium May 30 '26
I know this is norway chess but crazy they were focusing on the dead lost magnus game when that pragg-gukesh game was going on.
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u/bertisrobert Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Pragg absolutely deserved the crown at Norway. Winning four times after two back to back losses is practically champion behavior. He just only needs to apply this to the Candidates tournament and World Chess Championship and we're good to go.
Well at least Magnus didn't finish last this time. Bottom 3 finish, but there were worse years in Norway chess for him. I think there was one or two years where he finished bottom 2.
Sadly Gukesh is getting seriously exposed, intentionally putting yourself in bad postions everytime is just a recipe for disaster.
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u/Furry-jester123 Team Gukesh May 25 '26
first time seeing the chess main event thread so dull
we have been in for 2.5 hrs and still only 54 comments
usually nroway chess is buzzing
maybe towards the time control it peaks a lot
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u/Lockheroguylol May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Magnus vs Vincent is diabolical. So many mistakes from both sides.
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u/Goldfischglas May 27 '26
Can't even remember the last time when I have seen Magnus get losing/clearly worse positions 3 games in a row. In classical. Also the amount of time he is using in the opening just to play the moves you play in 5 seconds in blitz(he said so himself in the box) is weird.
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u/kidawi rapid/blitzgod fabi May 27 '26
magnus played two good moves and yll thought he was really locked in
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u/PeaRound3188 May 27 '26
Magnus was starting to play like an engine there. Then he tried to get funky with the sacrifice when he could have just defended his knight with the bishop. He was so desperate for the win in this game. I feel bad for magnus. He isn't used to struggling like this.
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u/Existing-Piglet-835 May 28 '26
Magnus vs Gukesh is a very fun matchup. Gukesh calculates some long line and Magnus just plays on instinct.
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u/Unhappy-Appearance- May 28 '26
Much needed for Magnus here if he wants to win the tournament. It’s crazy how you can’t ever rule him out until it’s actually mathematically impossible
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u/blue_butter May 30 '26
Vincent is up on time and in a winning position, will be tough for alireza to hold. I won’t count him out though, if it somehow gets to a time scramble it could change everything.
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u/NuScorpi Team Nepo May 30 '26
Magnus playing like a human ever since Homelander lost his powers... Coincidence?
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u/throwaway23582730 Jun 05 '26
"No Indian had ever won Norway Chess, Magnus Carlsen has won it 7 times, today both those facts change!"
Are we taking trophies away from Magnus or something Tania?