Last year’s edition of the Norway Chess tournament, a 10-player single round-robin, saw Magnus Carlsen scoring 8 draws and 1 loss in classical games. The local hero now continues his winless streak in Stavanger, as he drew his first two classical games in the 2024 edition. Carlsen, however, showed his strength in the ensuing rapid tiebreakers, drawing Ding Liren with black and beating Hikaru Nakamura to collect 3 points on the first two days of action.
Carlsen’s pair of Armageddon wins left him atop the standings, as none of the players who prevailed on Monday managed a repeat Armageddon victory in the second round. Sharing second place a half point behind the Norwegian are Ding, Nakamura, R Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja.
Two out of the three round-2 classical encounters were well-played, hard-fought games, with Carlsen needing precise play to keep the balance against Nakamura and Firouzja failing to make the most of a positional advantage against Caruana.
In the Armageddon deciders, Ding outplayed Pragg in an imbalanced setup; Carlsen grabbed a pawn and showed great technique to convert it into a win; while Firouzja first survived a losing position and then took advantage of a blunder by Caruana to collect his first win of the event.
Pragg v. Carlsen, Caruana v. Ding and Nakamura v. Firouzja are the pairings for round 3.
Alireza Firouzja defeated Fabiano Caruana with white in a rollercoaster Armageddon encounter | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Ding Liren grabbed his first win of the event on Tuesday | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Armageddon tiebreaker
Chess superstars Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Stev Bonhage
| Rk | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts |
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2830 | 3 |
| 2 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2794 | 2.5 |
| Ding Liren | CHN | 2762 | 2.5 | |
| R Praggnanandhaa | IND | 2747 | 2.5 | |
| Alireza Firouzja | FRA | 2737 | 2.5 | |
| 6 | Fabiano Caruana | USA | 2805 | 2 |
