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Norway Chess 2025
Chess tournament From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Norway Chess 2025 was the 13th edition of the annual chess tournament held in Stavanger. It was held from 26 May to 6 June 2025. The field of six players featured world number one Magnus Carlsen, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi. It marked the first classical chess encounter between Carlsen and Gukesh since the latter became world champion.[1][2] Norway Chess Women was also held simultaneously, featuring women's world champion Ju Wenjun. Magnus and Ju were the defending champions.
Magnus successfully defended the title. Anna Muzychuk won the Women section and Ju finished 4th.[3][4][5]
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Organization
Both tournaments are six-player, double round-robin tournaments, meaning there are 10 rounds with each player facing the others twice in classical chess. Like in previous editions, Norway Chess features a unique system wherein players play an armageddon game in case the classical game is drawn.[6]
The time control for the classical games is 120 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 10 seconds starting from move 41. For the armageddon games, white gets 10 minutes while black gets 7 minutes but has draw odds. Players get 3 points for a classical win, 1½ points for an armageddon win, 1 point for an armageddon loss and 0 points for a classical loss.[6]
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Final Standings
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Women's Section
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Summary
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 | This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Rounds 9–10 are missing. (June 2025) |
Carlsen–Gukesh, round 1
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |           | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
In this position, Gukesh played the losing 46...Qh6+? with less than thirty seconds on his clock; 46...Rg2+ would have led to a draw. Carlsen's king eventually reached safety on the queenside, before he started a decisive counterattack.
In the first round, Carlsen and Gukesh faced off in their first classical game since the Chess World Cup 2023, where Carlsen won 1.5-0.5 in the quarterfinals.[2][7] After navigating a complex middlegame, Gukesh correctly sacrificed his knight to advance his passed pawn with 42...h3, initiating a pawn race. Both players promoted, and the game remained objectively balanced; however, 46...Qh6+ by Gukesh proved to be the decisive mistake, as Carlsen was able to bring his king to safety before executing his own king hunt.[8][9][10]
Nakamura defeated Caruana with black pieces in the first round, after initially offering his opponent a draw, was rejected. Caruana later got low on time and blundered in the endgame. In the women's event, Humpy capitalized on an unstoppable checkmate threat after her opponent, Vaishali, "overpressed the position", while Lei and Muzychuk defeated Ju and Khadem respectively in armageddon.[11][9]
In the second round, Caruana rebounded with a classical win over Wei Yi, while Gukesh suffered a second loss to Arjun in a hard-fought game where Arjun first built up a winning attack, then Gukesh equalized, before Arjun finally prevailed in the bishop versus knight endgame. Carlsen achieved a positional edge in classical against Nakamura, but couldn't convert it, while Nakamura turned the tables in a dramatic armageddon.[12][13] In the women's event, Muzychuk took the sole lead after defeating Humpy in classical.[13]
Caruana took the sole lead in round 3 with a win over Arjun in a sharp game, while Gukesh, on his 19th birthday, scored his first win of the event against Nakamura. After coming under time pressure in both of his first two games, Gukesh noted that he had managed his time better and got Nakamura into time pressure.[14] Wei defeated Carlsen in armageddon after the latter once again failed to convert an edge in classical game.[15][16] Humpy bounced back with a win over Khadem in the women's event to move into the shared lead with Muzychuk.[15]
Carlsen snatched the sole lead in round 4 with a smooth win over Arjun. Gukesh saved a draw against Caruana in their classical game before winning in the armageddon. Wei also won in armageddon against Nakamura. Humpy and Muzychuk continued to lead the women's event, despite armageddon losses. Khadem won her classical game against Lei after being worse the whole game before her opponent blundered.[17] The tournament resumed after a rest day before round 5. Caruana missed chances against Carlsen in classical, before the latter won in armageddon. Nakamura also missed chances in classical against Arjun, and blundered in a winning position in armageddon.[18] Humpy took the sole lead in the women's event with an armageddon win.[18]
Gukesh–Carlsen, round 6
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
The final position in which Carlsen resigned after Gukesh played 62.Kf4.
Gukesh and Carlsen met again in round 6; this time Gukesh having the white pieces. Carlsen outplayed his opponent for much of the game, but Gukesh defended stubbornly, finding only moves to continue the game.[19][20] Carlsen ultimately faltered in a balanced position with 52...Ne2+??, giving up his knight in the hopes that his passed pawn would decide the game. Gukesh brought his knight back in time to stop the pawn, securing the win.[21][22] Carlsen slammed the table in frustration after Gukesh's last move, before apologizing to his opponent and then promptly leaving the venue, skipping his media duties.[23][19][24][25] Commentator and grandmaster David Howell described the game as the "turnaround of the year".[23] The win was Gukesh's first against Carlsen in classical, and saw him climb to third place in the standings, a point behind Carlsen and Caruana.[20][26][27]
Caruana retook the lead in round 7 with a win over Wei. Arjun, playing black against Gukesh, got a pleasant position out of the opening, but missed a difficult win and ended up on the defensive; Gukesh eventually converted his advantage, albeit after a turbulent endgame.[28][29] Ju took the lead in the women's event with her first classical win, against Khadem. Lei also won her first classical game of the event after defeating Vaishali.[29]
Frontrunners Caruana and Gukesh both lost in round 8 in contrasting fashions. Caruana outplayed Arjun with black to obtain a superior position, but fell behind on the clock early on. Arjun fought on in a seemingly one-sided position and managed to create winning chances; he ultimately exploited a decisive mistake by Caruana and went on to convert the advantage. Nakamura meanwhile won a smooth game after a disastrous positional mistake by Gukesh. Humpy regained the lead in the women's event after beating Khadem.[30][31] Caruana continued to lead, half a point ahead of Carlsen, who lost to Wei in armageddon, and a point ahead of Gukesh and Nakamura.[32][31]
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References
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