Norway Chess: Magnus Carlsen floors Arjun Erigaisi in endgame for sole lead

Time of India

2 days ago

, the Dronacharya of endgame, showed no mercy against Arjun Erigaisi. Ruthlessness reigned in the fourth round of Norway chess meet in Stavanger on Thursday.
Stunningly, the Norwegian World No.
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1 had pointed out the correct 30th move (Qe7) to the world via a confession box during the live webcast. That move would have given Arjun the best chance to draw the game.
Most importantly, Carlsen also explained the logic behind it. When you are a pawn less in the queen, double rook and pawns endgame, it's better to exchange queens first.
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However, Arjun allowed a rook trade first — human answer to the pressure on the board and chaos inside.
And the queen exchange never happened. It was just a marginal inaccuracy, but Carlsen turned that into a cardinal mistake.
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He went for a rook exchange and played with such beauty and precision that both Stockfish (chess engine) and Caissa (chess goddess) would have doffed their hats to the endgame masterclass from the white side of an English opening game that lasted 48 moves.
It was nigh impossible to stop Carlsen when he played at high level, especially after he drew his previous two classical games against Nakamura and Wei Yi and lost both in the Armageddon.
Carlsen brought his king to the centre against Arjun while facing the checks in the queen and three pawns vs queen and four pawns climax to score three points.
In his only previous game in classical format against Arjun (Wijk aan Zee 2023, Reti, Zukertort Symmetrical), the first grab had happened on the 28th turn. Carlsen had won with black pieces then.
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Stars aligned for Carlsen as D Gukesh defeated overnight leader Fabiano Caruana in Armageddon.
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It meant Carlsen moved into the sole lead with six rounds to go in this six-player double round robin elite event. He is on eight points followed by Caruana on 7. The bottom-placed Yi (4) is not too behind in terms of points. Both Gukesh and Arjun are joint fourth with 4.5 points each.
On the women's side, joint leader K Humpy could not capitalise on R Vaishali beating co-leader Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine in Armageddon. Humpy lost in the Armageddon against China's women's world champion Ju Wenjun.
Both Humpy and Muzychuk are on 7 points. Vaishali is sixth and last on 3.5 points.