Norway Chess: D Gukesh prevails in Armageddon against Anish Giri

India’s teenage stalwart D Gukesh beat experienced Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in the Armageddon of the 11th Norway Chess tournament after their Classical game was drawn on Monday.
Gukesh, the 17-year-old, who’s ranked 16th in the world, moved to 8.5/18 in the tournament.
His victory over Giri, who reigned supreme in the Tata Steel Chess tournament earlier this year, is testament to how confident he’s become while taking on the bigwigs.
Gukesh, who said he was quite happy with his play after the game, said he had decided to change his play in the armageddon: “I decided to change from d4 to e4. We got a very sharp and complicated position, and I guess he didn’t have enough time to figure it out.”
In the armageddon game, Gukesh went into hack attack mode pushing both his g- and h-pawns. While looking quite “bluffy,” it worked spectacularly as Giri wasn’t able to find a proper defense to the crude attack.
Gukesh also said that though the major results haven’t come his way, he’s happy with his performance.
“The results haven’t been so good, but I’m happy with my play so far,” he told Norway Chess.

Gukesh beats Giri in Round 6 of #NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/3Oj2uuV5rD
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 5, 2023
Italian-American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana increased his lead in the tournament, scoring the sole Classical victory of the day against Nodirbek Abdusattorov. It was a double delight for Caruana as apart from increasing his lead 1.5 points (he’s now at 13.5/18), he also became World No. 2 in live ratings.
His loss to Azerbaijan GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on Sunday may have planted the seeds of doubt in some, but his bounce-back victory on Monday was a proclamation: I’m not going down without a fight.
With the black pieces, Caruana won for the first time in classical chess against Abdusattorov, extending his tournament lead to 2.5 and taking back the World no. 2 spot from Hikaru Nakamura. The American GM Nakamura beat GM Alireza Firouzja after responding to a pawn sacrifice with an attack of his own.

And it’s Caruana again on World No.2 spot of the live ratings, as Firouzja settled for a draw against Nakamura and Caruana won against Abdusattorov! What a thriller of a tournament for the two Americans! https://t.co/0ULHPxtuA8 pic.twitter.com/LLBRtINBf5
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 5, 2023

Five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen avenged his last edition’s Armageddon loss against Aryan Tari. Carlsen is currently at 7.5/18, six points behind the sole lead Fabiano Caruana. If Caruana manages to score 3 points in the seventh round, Carlsen will only be able to tie the score provided he wins the remaining all three Classical games.