Oslo: Alireza Firouzja – his right leg propped up on a chair, his lower body turned away from the table – made for a curious sight at the board. He managed to make it work, handing world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen a Round 1 defeat at the Norway Chess tournament.
The 22-year-old Iranian-French Grandmaster, who only days ago withdrew midway through the Grand Chess Tour Romania after playing two rounds from his hotel bed with an injured ankle, went on to find his first classical victory over Carlsen.
Day one of play inside the hushed, book-lined halls of Deichman Bjorvika, Oslo’s public library and the venue for Norway Chess – turned out to be rewarding for other Gen Z stars too. Three out of four Indians – Divya Deshmukh, Praggnanandhaa and reigning world champion Gukesh – won their first-round encounters. Divya, making her first invitation to the elite Norway Chess field count, took down reigning women’s world champion Ju Wenjun after getting away from a lost position in the classical game.
Carlsen had an escape route too. It would have involved sacrificing a queen. But with only about two and a half minutes left, it was hard to spot.
“He gave me a lot of tests and in the end, I failed,” the five-time world champion said of his opponent and his second classical loss this month. It’s also only his second classical tournament appearance in a year. He climbed to the world No. 1 spot in 2011, and since then it’s been an uninterrupted run.
When asked if he hopes to challenge former world champion Garry Kasparov’s twenty-one-year record at the top, Carlsen quickly dismissed the idea.
“I think the one time I talked about getting a record, it was 2900 Elo, and that didn’t go very well. I’ve kind of given up that hope. I don’t play a ton of classical chess, but it seems that ever since Qatar Masters in 2013, all of my performances have been in the same range. So, there is at least some data to suggest that the rating that I have now is fairly reasonable. I don’t think I’m particularly better or worse than that and I hope to maintain that level the times that I play classical. It’s kind of up to the others to make a run and go and get that first place in the world rankings. It’s not one of my priorities. I generally prefer faster formats.”
Close to an hour after Carlsen’s game ended, Gukesh paced outside the playing area, away from the huddle of reporters and autograph-hunting fans, with his coach Gregorz Gajewski. He had 20 minutes ahead of his Armageddon. They took refuge in a narrow corridor in a far corner of the hall, to stay out of sight.
Gukesh, with the White pieces, had managed to split points in his classical game with Vincent Keymer after surviving a wrong draw claim and a couple of wild swings in the time scramble of the marathon 144-move game. It was then down to the Armageddon – where White has 10 minutes and Black has seven minutes and the players’ nervous system is teetering on the edge.
The spectators’ area was thinning out by then, five hours into the day’s play. Armageddon, conceptualised by Norway Chess, is at once both a brutal and beautiful way to decide games.
Players are led from the nerve-jangling time scramble of two hours for 40 moves in classical right into the high-octane madness of the Armageddon where all bets are off. Gukesh survived the Armageddon against Keymer well enough. He should be pleased with himself. In a year where he defends his world title after what’s been a fairly rough run, every tiny piece of self-belief that he gathers from a game, should serve as valuable stash.
Ju Wenjun came close to winning before Divya escaped and they ended up repeating moves in the classical. At one point, Divya wondered aloud in the confessional booth if she could dig into a packet of dried mango that was placed on her table since she was hungry. Divya made good of the Armageddon that followed and Ju Wenjun was perhaps left ruing a queen blunder.
Koneru Humpy was the only Indian who didn’t finish day one with a point. She ran into a defeat against Bibisara Assaubayeva, who is accompanied by the World Championship challenger, Javokhir Sindarov. The Uzbek GM flew into the Norwegian capital from Bucharest after the GCT Super Chess Classic, to be by the Kazakh GM’s side for this tournament. The reigning world champion and challenger at the same tournament: one a participant, the other perhaps doubling up as emotional anchor and super second.
Things are only getting started here at Norway Chess. Carlsen will play Gukesh in Round 4 before the tournament heads into its first rest day. If precedent holds, there could well be a storm brewing.
