Reigning World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh endured a bitter birthday loss at the hands of world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in a classical tie of Round 4 of Norway Chess 2026 that concluded in Oslo.
Grandmaster Gukesh, born in Chennai, turned 20 years old this Thursday and had dreams of gifting himself victory against the five-time world champion in a dominant style. However, Carlsen presented a masterful exhibition with black pieces in Ragozin Defence and defeated Gukesh in 42 moves.
Gukesh played a strong white opening at the Deichman Bjrvika library. Gradually, the control over the pieces was taken by Carlsen due to powerful piece play and a rook charge into the b-file. Finally, the passed pawn for Norway’s chess ace helped him convert the edge into the first classical win of the tournament.
This win was a perfect comeback for Carlsen, who was defeated by another Indian prodigy, R Praggnanandhaa, in classical chess a few days ago.
In other games, Praggnanandhaa had defeated German GM Vincent Keymer with Armageddon, while Anna Muzychuk secured the win against Divya Deshmukh with Armageddon after their classical encounter ended in a draw. Although he lost to Wesley So, French-Iranian GM Alireza Firouzja remained at the top of the leaderboard, with Gukesh at the bottom with 3.5 points after 4 rounds.
