 "D Gukesh missed out on a historic Norway Chess triumph after losing to Fabiano Caruana in the 10th and final round on Friday, allowing Magnus Carlsen to retain his title. Image credit: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess")
Gukesh Dommaraju missed out on a historic triumph at the Norway Chess on Friday despite Magnus Carlsen being held to a draw and losing the subsequent Armageddon battle, finishing at the third spot after losing to Fabiano Caruana in the 10th and final round of the elite tournament on Friday. Defending champion Carlsen, collected 1.5 points in the final round after losing the Armageddon battle against Arjun Erigaisi, finished with 16 points out of a possible 30 to win his seventh Norway Chess title in the process.
It was a similar story in the women’s section where reigning world rapid champion Koneru Humpy finished third, behind Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk and China’s Lei Tingjie despite collecting an Armageddon victory in the final round.
Gukesh was half-a-point behind Carlsen at the second spot heading into the final round, having beaten Carlsen, Arjun and Chinese No 1 Wei Yi in three of the last four rounds. And Carlsen’s draw against Arjun put him in pole position for the top spot – the reigning world champion could have taken the tournament into a tie-breaker after finishing level with the world No 1 had he secured at least a draw against world No 5 Caruana and won the Armageddon playoff.
Gukesh stumbles in final hurdle to miss out on historic triumph
Gukesh, however, found himself on the backfoot after Caruana fortified his position with a series of solid moves in the middlegame. He was also trailing his American opponent on the clock and decided to shake hands in 50 moves shortly after committing a blunder (d1=Q).
The victory allowed 2018 champion Caruana, who had been at the top of the standings at one point, to finish at the second spot ahead of the Indian Grandmaster, who had turned 19 during the course of the tournament. World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura finished fourth with 14 points after being held to a draw by Wei (9.5), who was set to finish at the bottom regardless of his final-round result.
Arjun, the other Indian in the ‘Open’ section, finished fifth with 13 points after his Armageddon victory over Carlsen.
As for the women’s section, Humpy could have faced Muzychuk in a tie-breaker for the title had she collected an outright victory Chinese GM Ju Wenjun, the highest-rated female player in the tournament. Muzychuk’s draw in the Classical and the Armageddon games against R Vaishali, which gave her just one point, gave Humpy the opening that she needed to challenge for the title.
Ju, however, put up a solid fight and dragged her Classical game past the 50-move mark to deflate Humpy’s title hopes. The two players had a bishop left on the board, with Humpy having three pawns to Ju’s one. Humpy, however, chose to shake hands with Ju despite having nearly 50 minutes left on the clock.