GM Magnus Carlsen’s seventh Norway Chess win is one of his most memorable yet, partly for the dramatic finale but mainly for the rivalry with World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Carlsen won their round-one clash, but in round six Gukesh beat his great predecessor for the first time in classical chess in a game that won’t be forgotten in a hurry after the world number-one slammed the table in rage at letting a winning position collapse.

Carlsen was joined in a successful tournament by world number-two Nakamura as well as Caruana, who is back to world number-three after overtaking Arjun in Stavanger. Caruana had a wild ride of a tournament (four wins, three losses) and came remarkably close to winning it all on the final day—all that was lacking was for Arjun to win a won position against Carlsen.

It would have been a shock for the player who started fourth on the final day to clinch the title, but otherwise it wouldn’t have been undeserved in any way. Caruana suffered a horrible loss to Nakamura in round one, but then bounced back with two classical wins to take the sole lead.

Carlsen entered the picture, but with a round-seven win over Wei, Caruana was sole leader again and would have been a huge favorite to win the tournament if he’d converted a winning position against Arjun in round eight. Instead he crashed and burned in that game and the next, to spoil his hopes. “I probably could have won eight out of 10 games, if I took my chances,” said Caruana, who felt it was progress after “a pretty poor year so far.”

Nakamura, meanwhile, kept the drama to an absolute minimum as he pursued his goal of maintaining a healthy lead over Arjun on the rating list to boost his chances of qualifying by rating for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. With Nakamura gaining three points and Arjun losing three, it was job done, with two wins, one loss, and seven classical draws. “I further cement my status as the world number-two player,” said Nakamura in his final recap.

Nakamura also revealed he’d briefly thought he was on the brink of a win in the last round which would have given him a tiebreak for the title against Carlsen, all other things being equal. As it was, he finished fourth, on account of winning just two of his seven armageddons—on standard classical scoring he would have tied for second place with Caruana, ahead of Gukesh.

Gukesh, who turned 19 during the tournament, scored an astonishing four wins and four losses in Stavanger, which was a healthy outcome considering he had a lost position in eight of his games (or nine, if you count the borderline lost position against Wei in the penultimate round).

Arjun, an agent of chaos, did Arjun things, winning two games and losing three, with a score that could have been bigger or smaller based on the finest of margins in wild encounters.

Carlsen, asked if there was a player set to dominate chess the way he or 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov had done, replied, “There’s no one at the moment—that’s the honest answer.” He continued:

I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he’s on track, he’s doing fantastic, but he’s maybe not way ahead of track, as we may have thought. I think he’s a little bit where I was 2008-9-ish, where he can do extremely well, but you can still see that the great results come not only with the quality of the positional play, it’s a lot of fighting qualities. That is what kids are supposed to do; you’re not supposed to master everything at that age!

Carlsen also didn’t see another player among those currently breaking into the elite who would be a clear number-one. However, he did point to Roman Shogdzhiev, who just became an IM at 10, and the world’s youngest GM, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, “who’s way ahead of schedule and extremely good at [14],” before adding:

At the moment, I still think that the older guys are better and [the kids are] not ready to take over. Every single one of them has very, very clear flaws in their game, which you’re supposed to do at that time. Once-in-a-generation talents are once-in-a-generation talents for a reason—it’s not that easy!

While the Open tournament had a staggering 50% decisive classical games (15/30, compared to 9/30 in 2024), the Women’s Norway Chess had a more modest 12, with the first six rounds never featuring more than a single win. The player who most epitomized the steady approach was the winner, Muzychuk, who won “just” two games but was the only player in Stavanger to finish without a single classical loss.

Muzychuk said she was “quite tired” after coming straight from a bitter-sweet victory in the final FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, but was largely untroubled as she took the title, saying afterward, “It’s one of the strongest women’s tournaments, if not the strongest by rating, so of course it’s a big success.”

That’s not to say it wasn’t close. GM Lei Tingjie at times rode her luck as she won three of her last four classical games, and in fact on classical alone, she would have finished at the top. She was let down by one win in three in armageddon, while Muzychuk’s 5/8 proved enough to clinch the title.

Muzychuk herself had armageddon regrets, however, since in the final round she spoiled a winning position against GM Vaishali Rameshbabu that would have given her the title regardless of what happened in GM Koneru Humpy’s game. Instead the 38-year-old could have clinched first herself, after a tournament where she was always leading or close to leading, if she’d beaten the 2024 champion and Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun.

Ju’s challenge ended with a whimper, despite everything looking rosy when she scored her first classical win in round seven, making it six mini-match victories in a row. Just when it was time to accelerate, she faded, losing the remaining three matches, including the crucial loss to Muzychuk in round nine.

Fast Classical Chess Was Fun But Controversial

Armageddon is the signature feature of Norway Chess, but with just half a point for the winner compared to three for a classical win, its influence can be limited. As we saw above, the only two real differences it made were to harm Nakamura and Lei’s final placings. Wei, the king of armageddon with five wins in seven games, including an incredible 4/4 against Carlsen and Nakamura, still finished last after not winning a single classical game.

What perhaps really sets Norway Chess apart, however, is the time control. The players have two hours with no increment before move 40, which forces careful time management in itself, but the real change comes after move 40. The players get no extra 30 minutes, and instead of getting the usual “classical” 30 seconds increment a move, they get 10 seconds, which we’re used to seeing in rapid time controls.

That makes playing any still complicated position incredibly difficult, as we saw in countless examples, starting from round one, where Gukesh and Caruana cracked against Carlsen and Nakamura respectively while playing on the increment. It was most apparent, however, in the games with wild swings, such as the famous Gukesh win, where Carlsen made the losing move with 12 seconds on his clock, or in the all-important Arjun win over Caruana, where Caruana spoiled his position with under 30 seconds on his clock.

After a certain point in each game, the players were competing at a rapid time control but with all the rating consequences and significance of a classical game at stake. It made for fantastic entertainment.

“All future major chess events should be 2 hours per player and ONLY bonus time on Move 40,” wrote IM Levy Rozman on X, while GM Anish Giri pointed out how short 10 seconds a move is both after Carlsen’s win in round one and then Gukesh’s in round six.

It’s worth noting that the mayhem that ensued may be more down to the players than the format, since in 2024, for instance, we had six rounds in the Open tournament without a single classical win. Carlsen, meanwhile, expressed a point he’s made before:

The reduced time control helps a lot, but I think it’s a very good thing. It’s not supposed to be easy to defend; you’re not supposed to be helped by increment, or more time, and so on. Two hours is more than enough to play a really good game of chess.

There were moments during the tournament when it felt as though both the world numbers one and two might quit the game. Carlsen’s reluctance to play classical chess wasn’t boosted by the pain of the loss to Gukesh.

Nakamura, meanwhile, talked about his regret that his round-seven classical game against Carlsen was a quick draw, since he said it was quite likely to be the last classical game they would ever play against each other.

That might still be the case, but for now any immediate danger for chess fans has been averted. Carlsen’s doubts have gone nowhere, but there were no bombshell announcements. He commented:

Even though I won the tournament, the strongest emotion from my tournament is still the game against Gukesh, so it’s more relief from winning the tournament than joy, so that’s kind of why I’m very much on the fence on whether I want to do this. I’m not definitely saying that I’m playing or not playing next year. I’m not ruling it out, at the very least. There were some encouraging signs in my play, but there were also moments where I feel very old.

Nakamura, meanwhile, is determined to play the required classical games to be eligible to qualify by rating for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament and make one last assault on the world championship title before he hangs up his boots.

Right now it’s really hard to enjoy playing chess. I really want to enjoy playing chess, but you can see, Norway Chess, the format is quite a struggle, and you have to fight, and I can see everyone’s face. It’s almost like the same, not like depressed, but I have to say everyone looks…

She didn’t finish the thought, but said she’ll try to qualify for the Women’s Candidates via the World Cup or Grand Swiss, before adding, “If I don’t qualify, then maybe I will start to think about other stuff.”

The players deserve a break—with Carlsen revealing he’s about to set off on his honeymoon—but the chess world never stops. Humpy is heading straight to St. Louis to play in the Cairns Cup, starting Tuesday, while Nakamura, Arjun and Muzychuk play in the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship starting in London on Wednesday.