Magnus Carlsen wins seventh Norway Chess title after dramatic final round

Magnus Carlsen secured his seventh Norway Chess title with a remarkable comeback in the final round, drawing the Classical game against Arjun Erigaisi.

The result ensured that his lead remained unassailable, keeping challengers like D Gukesh and Fabiano Caruana at bay, News.Az reports, citing ESPN.

At the start of the final round, Gukesh was half a point behind Carlsen.

For 34 moves of Carlsen's game against Erigaisi, there was unease for the world no.1 and his home crowd in Stavanger. Arjun's tactical nous was showing and he had worked a clearly superior position for himself. Then in the space of six moves, Carlsen turned defence into attack, with his two knights and a rook hunting down Erigaisi's king. It was a stunning display of just coordinating pieces and using every single resource available to first save himself in the position, and then to give himself counter-play as well. Eventually though, Carlsen didn't quite find the right way to proceed for the win, and took the draw with three-fold repetition.

The title would've been decided through two Armageddon games had Gukesh drawn against Caruana in Classical as well. And that was so close to happening. Caruana was winning on mov e47, when he made a blunder with a pawn push. But on move 48, Gukesh made a blunder too. Instead of taking a bishop with his queen, he promoted his pawn for a queen, and eventually walked into a knight fork that would've seen him be down a piece in the endgame.

In the end, in fighting so hard for the title, Gukesh lost second spot too, as that was taken by Caruana.

Norway Chess 2025 Final Standings:

1. Magnus Carlsen - 16

2. Fabiano Caruana - 15.5

3. D Gukesh - 14.5

4. Hikaru Nakamura - 14

5. Arjun Erigaisi - 13

6. Wei Yi - 9.5

News.Az