6/4/2023 – Earlier this year, he drew against the world no.1 at 85th Tata Steel Masters 2023. Yesterday D Gukesh drew his second Classical rated game ever against Magnus Carlsen, but lost the Armageddon. Fabiano Caruana scored the sole Classical victory of the round, with black against Alireza Firouzja. All photos in this article are by Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess unless stated otherwise.
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
€49.90
Four games of Round 4 required Armageddon. Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated D Gukesh, Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Armageddon deciders, while Wesley So drew against Aryan Tari with the black pieces, winning his match. Here is five hours of full live commentary by ChessBase India:
The interactive commentary is provided by Amruta Mokal, who is naturally quite passionate in her coverage of the Gukesh-Carlsen game. Here's an example from the Armageddon game – watch her coverage of the rest of the very dangerous endgame for an impression of truly animated live chess commentary!
Gukesh - Carlsen: 1-1.5
D Gukesh (2732) has played only one Classical rated game against Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2853). It was earlier this year at the 85th Tata Steel Masters 2023 and ended in a draw. This time also the result was same. The game was far from easy. Gukesh had a clear advantage in the middlegame, after which a queen endgame after the 30th move it lasted for another 52 moves of fight, where the players tried to one up each other.
This is the engine evaluation during the game: White was clearly better until move 25, then Carlsen took over and started to press, while Gukesh defended very well for a draw. The intensely fought queen ending lasted more than 50% of the entire game.
Note that in the game below you can click (or tap) on the notation to get a replay board, which you can resize and replace, with full engine access (fan button)
The Armageddon was a chaotic encounter which saw Gukesh sacrificing his queen in a must-win game.
Guess what Gukesh did. He did sacrifice his queen! 27.Qxa2 Qxa2 28.Nxd7 Rd8 29.Nf6+ Kf7 30.e5 Qd2 31.f3 Qxb4 and Black eventually went on to win the game after Gukesh blundered his knight (full game in the replay board below). Nevertheless, it was a thrilling encounter and Gukesh played really well. Once again he showed that he is ready to take Carlsen in any format of the game.
Gukesh played fantastic chess against Magnus Carlsen in both Classical and Armaegeddon
Firouzja - Caruana: 0-1
The last encounter between Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 2785) and Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2764) ended in a draw at Superbet Chess Classic last month. Here is the critical position in their round four Norway Chess game:
With 22...Rb2 Caruana taunted White into capturing the h8-rook via Qa8+ skewer. Firouzja fell for it. 23.Bd2 Rg8 24.Rf1 would have kept White in the game. 23.Qa8+ Kf7 24.Qxh8 Qxc2 25.Bd2 Qe4+ 26.Kf1 Qd3+ and Black went on to win the game by munching a lot of pawns. Full game in the replay board below.
Fabiano Caruana is ´clearly in a great form
On rest day, 11th Norway Chess 2023 participants had a knitting competition. The players were divided to five teams, and had to design knittable sweaters!
Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.