 "Norway Chess 2025: Birthday boy Gukesh beats Caruana in Armageddon game; Carlsen defeats Arjun to regain lead")
Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju continued his steady progress after a poor start in the 2025 Norway Chess, moving to the joint-fourth spot after beating American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in an Armageddon playoff while world No 1 Magnus Carlsen regained the top spot on the standings after defeating Arjun Erigaisi in Round 4 on Thursday.
Arjun thus suffered his second consecutive defeat after starting the tournament on a positive note. As for the other board in the ‘Open’ section, top-ranked Chinese player Wei Yi defeated Hikaru Nakamura in the Armageddon playoff after holding the world No 2 to a stalemate in the Classical game.
Contrasting run for Gukesh and Arjun
Gukesh and Arjun, ranked third and fourth in the world respectively, have had contrasting campaigns so far in the elite tournament that is taking place in Stavanger, Norway. Gukesh began the tournament with back-to-back defeats followed by a clinical victory over Hikaru on the eve of his 19th birthday on Wednesday and an Armageddon victory over Caruana.
While there was little to separate the two in their Classical game that lasted 75 moves before the players decided to shake hands, Gukesh – who is a lot more comfortable with Standard time controls than he is in the faster formats – managed to put the American under time pressure and eventually beat him in 52 moves.
For compatriot Arjun, it’s been the other way round with the 21-year-old defeating Wei in the Armageddon playoff first up before defeating Gukesh in 62 moves. He had lost to Caruana on Wednesday before resigning in 48 moves while playing with black pieces against Carlsen, who also happens to be the defending champion in the tournament.
Carlsen had lost Armageddon playoffs against Hikaru and Wei on consecutive days after starting his title defence with a thrilling victory over Gukesh, and returned to winning ways on the fourth day of the competition to sit at the top of the standings with 8 points. Caruana and Nakamura currently are second and third with 7 and 5.5 points each while Gukesh went level with Arjun on 4.5 points for the joint-fourth spot.
5 wins in Round 4 of #NorwayChess! ♟️🔥
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) May 29, 2025
Another high-stakes day in Stavanger as the tournament heats up.
♟️ Magnus Carlsen beats Arjun Erigaisi in classical and becomes the sole leader
♟️ Gukesh D defeats Fabiano Caruana in Armageddon
♟️ Wei Yi holds a draw with Black against… pic.twitter.com/SIBonGB8Vl
Humpy remains in joint-lead despite losing Armageddon game
And in the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk and Koneru Humpy remained in the joint-lead with seven points despite losing their Armageddon tie-breakers against Ju Wenjun and R Vaishali respectively after their Classical matches ended in a stalemate.
Sara Khadem was the only player on the fourth day of the competition other than Carlsen to win a Classical game, pulling off a gritty victory China’s Lei Tingjie – the highest-rated player in the ‘Women’ section – in a game lasting 71 moves while playing with black pieces.
Khadem thus moved ahead of Lei to the fourth spot while Vaishali remained at the bottom of the ‘Women’ standings with 3.5 points.
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