Norway Chess: Indian quartet endures miserable day as all four suffer defeats

It wasn’t a good day for the Indian players as they lost their games in the Open and women’s events in the sixth round of Norway Chess at Deichman Bjorvika on Sunday (May 31, 2026).

All the three games in the Open section ended in victories in the classical format.

World champion D. Gukesh succumbed to Germany’s Vincent Keymer in the classical, handing his opponent a first win in the tournament while fellow R. Praggnanandhaa’s adventurous approach cost him against the experienced American Wesley So.

“It’s nice to finally win a game after so many failed chances,” said Keymer after beating Gukesh, adding, “I don’t think I was ever worse.”

World No.1 Magnus Carlsen exacted revenge on Frenchman Alireza Firouzja, winning the reverse fixture after having opened his campaign with a defeat to him.

After the win, the Norwegian ace said, “He kind of surprised me a little bit in the opening, and I thought, you know, I’ll just play something.

“I think the plan he went for is not very good and I thought I got a fairly pleasant position, and, most of all, it was relatively easy to play, so I didn’t have any reason to hemorrhage time on the clock as I have in other games,” he added.

In the women’s tournament, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Koneru Humpy played out a quick 15-move draw in the classical before the Kazakh raised her game in the Armageddon to win and return to the top of the leaderboard.

Divya Deshmukh, on the other hand, lost in a wild game to World champion Ju Wenjun.

The results (sixth round):

Open: Vincent Keymer (Ger, 8) bt D. Gukesh (6.5), Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 7.5) bt Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 10), Wesley So (USA, 11.5) bt R. Praggnanandhaa (6).

Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 9.5) bt Koneru Humpy (5.5) in Armageddon, Divya Deshmukh (8.5) lost to Ju Wenjun (Chn, 8), Zhu Jiner (Chn, 7) bt Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 8) in Armageddon.

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