Norway Chess 2025: Arjun Erigaisi defeats D Gukesh in Round 2 after capitalising on world champion’s blunder

Arjun Erigaisi pulled off a stunning victory over D Gukesh in Round 2 of Norway Chess on Tuesday to move into the joint-lead alongside Hikaru Nakamura, who defeated Magnus Carlsen an Armageddon playoff after the two top-ranked players in the world played out a stalemate.

Reigning world champion Gukesh thus suffered his second defeat in as many days, having lost to world No 1 Carlsen on the opening day of the event that is taking place in Stavanger, Norway. Not only is Gukesh ranked the lowest among six players in the ‘Open’ section, he is also the only player to not collect a single point so far in the tournament.

Arjun, meanwhile, finds himself at the opposite end of the table, currently level on 4.5 points with Hikaru following his draw against China’s Wei Yi on Monday – in which the 21-year-old Indian GM won the Armageddon tie-breaker – and his victory over Gukesh the next day.

The other board in the open section witnessed Fabiano Caruana bounce back from his defeat against Hikaru on the opening day of the event with an emphatic victory over Wei, forcing the Chinese GM to resign in just 28 moves while playing with black pieces.

How Arjun bested Gukesh once again

After losing against Carlsen in 55 moves on Monday in his first Classical game against the world No 1 since being crowned world champion, Gukesh developed a Nimzo-Indian Defense after Arjun opted for a Queen’s Pawn Opening . Gukesh, who turns 19 on Thursday, also castled and initiated the first set of exchanges inside the first 10 moves.

A rook blunder by Gukesh in the 26th move (Rb6), however, changed the course of the game and Arjun, who held a slight advantage until then, quickly pounced on the opportunity and seized control of the game. Arjun nearly offered Gukesh an opening with a pawn exchange in the 40th move, which was followed by a series of checks by his opponent, but recovered in time to ultimately corner his opponent, who was down to a bishop and a pawn besides his king at the time of his resignation.

Compared to his performance against Carlsen, Gukesh produced an even more error-strewn game against Arjun, with his accuracy dropping under 90 (89.2). Arjun also managed to build pressure on his opponent with time pressure, having a minute left on the clock compared to just 20 seconds for Gukesh at the time of the latter’s resignation.

It was the second time Arjun defeated Gukesh in as many Classical meetings this year, having previously beaten him at the Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands to prevent him from winning the tournament outright. Gukesh would go on to finish runner-up after losing to R Praggnanandhaa in the tie-breaks.

Gukesh faces Hikaru in Round 3 on Wednesday while Arjun will be up against Caruana.

Humpy loses to Muzychuk, Vaishali holds Lei to a draw

Meanwhile in the women’s section, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy lost to Anna Muzychuk while playing with black pieces in a battle that lasted 72 moves, ultimately ending with the Ukrainian GM offering the Indian a check with her queen, which was brought back on the board after her ‘b’ pawn reached the last rank.

Humpy had begun her campaign with a victory over fellow Indian GM R Vaishali on Monday, and currently is joint-second in the standings with China’s Lei Tingjie with three points. Tingjie was held to a 30-move draw by Vaishali in Round 2, with the two also remaining on level terms in the Armageddon tie-breaker that followed, giving the Chinese GM half-a-point as she was playing with black pieces.

Norway Chess 2025: Standings after Round 2

Norway Chess Women 2025: Standings after Round 2