Carlsen and Firouzja lose to Caruana and Gukesh in Round 1 of Norway Chess 2023
It was a “bloody” day at Norway Chess yesterday as World No.1 and 2, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja, lost the first classical game of the tournament against Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh respectively to sink at the bottom of Round 1 standings. Mamedyarov, Giri, and So won the Armageddon games against Tari, Abdusattorov, and Nakamura respectively to join the winners’ squad.
The Norway Chess Blitz tournament was the forerunner of Round 1 for Magnus Carlsen, as his bad form continued. Finishing 7th in Blitz, the lowest he has been since 2013, Magnus didn’t look like himself at his game against Caruana. For his first classical game since Tata Steel Chess 2023, Magnus chose the French Defence. “I was surprised by it, but I wasn’t surprised that I was surprised” Caruana commented on the opening. In the middle game Magnus’ pieces looked uncomfortable on the queenside with Caruana manifesting some tactics to win the game, and jump at the 4th place of the live ratings.
On the contrary, Gukesh’s unpleasant performance in Blitz didn’t affect him, as he beat World No.2 Alireza Firouzja to join Caruana at the top. It was the second game of these two young prodigies, with Firouzja winning the first one at the 2018 Abu Dhabi Masters. Their game in Round 1 of Norway Chess was a tactical storm, with the French. GM missing an opportunity to gain a serious advantage on move 20. Gukesh seized the opportunity and put fire on the chess board to gain an important positional advantage and win. This win put Gukesh on the 15th place of the live ratings, and Twitter on “party mode”!
The Abdusattorov-Giri, Mamedyarov-Tari, and So-Nakamura games went to the Armageddon, with Nakamura stealing the show once more as his over-the-board speed chess bad performance is not expected!
Giri, Mamedyarov, and So were victorious and grabbed their first 1.5 points, as the players who win the classical get 3 points and those who win draw their classical and win the Armageddon get 1.5 points.
