Norway Chess: Brother-sister Indian duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali suffer defeats, Carlsen leads

Magnus Carlsen defeated the reigning world champion but out-of-form Ding Liren in Round 6 to take the sole lead on 12 points in the Norway Chess tournament on Sunday while the brother-sister Indian duo of R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali suffered defeats in their respective section.

The game between Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw relatively quickly, Caruana had a crucial win in the Armageddon game, a “revenge” for Nakamura’s win in the first Armageddon game in the first half of the tournament.

Pragganandhaa lost to Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon tiebreaker after suffering a bit through the Classical game too.

With four rounds still to come in both sections, Carlsen is now followed by Nakamura on 11 points while Praggnanandhaa is still third on 9.5 points in all.

Alireza is on fourth spot with eight points in all and Caruana follows him with 6.5 points. Surprisingly, China’s Ding Liren seems completely out of sorts with just 2.5 points thus far, needing a miracle to come back in the tournament.

Ju Wenjun topples Vaishali

In the Norway Chess women’s tournament, there have been exciting developments even though all games progressed into the endgame without either side making major mistakes.

Especially the game between Ju Wenjun and Vaishali Rameshbabu was highly anticipated as it could affect the leaderboard. While the game was quite balanced until the endgame, Ju Wenjun secured a win against Vaishali when the latter went into time trouble.

Another important matchup, between Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie, which could affect the leaderboard, ended in a draw. However, Anna Muzychuk won the Armageddon game and has thus overtaken Vaishali in the leaderboard by half a point. Muzychuk is now leading the tournament for the first time in the event.

Koneru Humpy went down in the Armageddon tie-breaker against Pia Cramling in what was a battle of veterans in the Norway Chess Women’s tournament.

Results men: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 12) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) 3-0; Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 11) lost to Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 6.5) 1-1.5; Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 8) beat R Praggnanandhaa (10) 1.5-1.

Women: R Vaishali (Ind, 10) lost to Wenjun Ju (Chn, 10.5) 0-3; K Humpy (Ind, 5) lost to Pia Cramling (Swe, 4.5) 1-1.5; Anna Muzychuk (10.5 beat Tingkie Lei (Chn, 7) 1.5-1).

Round 7 pairings:

Norway Chess mainevent

Hikaru Nakamura vs Magnus Carlsen; Fabiano Caruana vs Alireza Firouzja; Praggnanandhaa R vs Ding Liren

Norway Chess women’s tournament

Koneru Humpy vs Vaishali R; Pia Cramling vs Lei Tingjie; Anna Muzychuk vs Ju Wenjun

With agency inputs