Norway Chess: Carlsen beats world champion Gukesh in Round 1 thriller

World No.1 Magnus Carlsen inflicted a huge blow to reigning World Champion D Gukesh’s chances in the opening round of Norway Chess here, showing his endgame expertise to log three full points.

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In what had been touted as the match of the tournament with the five-time world champion playing against an opponent half his age, Gukesh kept the Norwegian defending champion under pressure for most part of the over four-hour-long game of classical chess before the Indian made a losing mistake and lost in 5 moves.

Following the win, Carlsen earned three points and is in joint lead with American Grandmaster and world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura, who beat American GM Fabiano Caruana.

The second Indian in the fray, Arjun Erigaisi defeated China's No.1 Wei Yi in an exciting Armageddon game after the classical game had ended in a draw.

Erigaisi earned 1.5 points from the win, while Wei secured one. The tournament's scoring system gives three points to the winner in the Classical format.