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The marquee clash of Round One at Norway Chess 2025 lived up to expectations as Magnus Carlsen launched a classic king hunt to defeat reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in a thrilling encounter. This was their first classical match since Gukesh won the world title, and it also marked Carlsen's return to individual classical chess after nearly a year.
Despite being away from classical tournaments for 12 months, Carlsen showed no signs of rust in his comeback. "He's also an ambitious player," Carlsen said of Gukesh on live commentary after the game, as quoted from Chess.com. "So I thought we're not necessarily going to get a totally flat game just because he's at least equalised from the opening," he added. When asked if the victory carried extra weight, given it came against the current world champion, Carlsen remained nonchalant. "Not necessarily, but every win in this tournament is hard to come by, so I'm happy with that," he said, as quoted from Chess.com. In another classical game of the day, Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura outlasted Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in a long and intense battle. Nakamura took advantage of Caruana's frequent time trouble to secure the win. Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi had a memorable debut at Norway Chess, beating fellow first-timer Grandmaster Wei Yi in the armageddon round. In the women's tournament, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy recorded the only classical win of the round. She took full advantage of a key mistake by Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu. Although Vaishali defended well for most of the game, she cracked under pressure, allowing Humpy to seize the victory. The remaining women's games were decided in armageddon. Grandmaster Anna Muzychuk outplayed International Master Sara Khadem, while Grandmaster Lei Tingjie defeated Women's World Champion Grandmaster Ju Wenjun. (ANI)
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