Gukesh grinds out draw despite being pawn down vs Fabiano Caruana before Armageddon victory at Norway Chess

But what was more important for Gukesh was that his win in Armageddon will go some way to dispel the quickly-strengthening notion that Gukesh struggles in faster time controls.

The win via Armageddon means Gukesh now has 4.5 points, the same as Arjun. Gukesh was fourth in the standings while Carlsen was leading with eight points. After the loss to Gukesh, Caruana, who was leading the standings, slid down a spot to second.

Despite the Indians not doing too well at the moment, Hikaru Nakamura praised the Indian duo in his visit to the confessional room. Nakamura spoke about Gukesh sacrificing a pawn early on (on the 16th move). “Quite interesting what Gukesh did,” he said. Then he spoke about Arjun playing aggressively against Carlsen and “creating a mess on the board”.

Arjun Erigaisi and Magnus Carlsen discuss their game after the world no 1’s win in round 4 of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza via Norway Chess)

“I don’t know if it actually works for Arjun, but it shows that the young Indian players are very aggressive and that they’re here to play,” said Nakamura.

In his previous appearance at Norway Chess in 2023, the reigning world champion had defeated Carlsen in blitz on his birthday.

“As far as I remember, I have always had bad memories of my birthday. Last time when I beat Magnus, it was just one game. I got 2.5 out of 9 so it was not such a great game,” Gukesh said with a smile.

“Probably the draw that you got against Caruana was the best birthday present you could give yourself,” Anand chimed in.

World champion Gukesh Dommaraju faces off against Fabiano Caruana in round 4 of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza via Norway Chess)

“The last two days were pretty good. The first two days I felt like I was playing decent chess but somehow my time management was just horrible. After I improved that, it’s been pretty good. Today in time trouble I managed to save it. And the Armageddon was quite clean,” Gukesh added.

On Thursday, reigning world champion stayed a pawn down for a long time after sacrificing it on Move 16. By move 32, Caruana had a distinct advantage. But Gukesh ground out a draw in 75 moves after making up the pawn deficit on move 44 and making incremental gains on the eval bar.

One of the turning points came right when Gukesh made move 48 — playing 48.Qf4 with barely eight seconds on his clock. It was an error from the teenager, but Caruana opted to trade off queens which helped Gukesh massively.

How Gukesh ground out draw vs Fabiano Caruana

How Gukesh beat Caruana in Armageddon

Koneru Humpy in joint lead

Koneru Humpy stays in joint lead of the Norway Chess women’s event after Vaishali took down Anna Muzychuk in an Armageddon clash by checkmate after they played out a really quick draw in just 14 moves. Humpy herself lost in the Armageddon clash to reigning women’s world champion from China, Ju Wenjun.

Anna Muzychuk walks off after losing to Vaishali in round 4 of Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza via Norway Chess)

Despite her win over the tournament leader, Vaishali is still at the bottom of the women’s standings.

(The writer is in Stavanger at the invitation of Norway Chess)