Hikaru Nakamura beats Magnus Carlsen after Armageddon game at Norwegian Super Series

On the evening of May 28, the second round of the Norwegian Super Cup continued to bring surprises when Hikaru Nakamura brilliantly defeated Magnus Carlsen. Gukesh Dommaraju suffered his second consecutive defeat.

Nakamura successfully avenged Magnus Carlsen with a thrilling victory at the Norwegian Super Tournament - Photo: Noway chess

The epic battle between "lightning god" Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen at the Norwegian Super Cup had to enter a game of Armageddon to determine the winner. And the developments that followed really left fans breathless.

After a series of tense moves in the middle game, the decisive turning point appeared on move 27. Carlsen boldly chose a risky play, not one who needed to win at all costs. The home player accepted to sacrifice his rook, sacrificing quality to open the way for a lightning attack on the opponent's king with the move gxh4.

According to computer analysis and top grandmasters, Carlsen's move was considered a genius move, opening up a very advantageous position. However, by taking such a risk, Carlsen was forced to calculate each next move extremely carefully, especially in the context of running out of time.

Magnus Carlsen bets on gxh4 move to decide victory against Nakamura - Photo: screenshot

The time pressure reached its peak on move 30, when Carlsen had just 23 seconds left on the clock. In a game that was running out of time, he played poorly. And Nakamura did not miss this golden opportunity to win a dramatic victory over the Norwegian.

Despite losing the Armageddon game, Magnus Carlsen was awarded 1 point from the previous standard draw, while Nakamura was awarded 1.5 points.

Meanwhile, young "Chess King" Gukesh Dommaraju continued to have an unsuccessful day of competition when he had to accept defeat against grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi.

Grandmaster Erigaisi, with white pieces and in top form, knew the Spanish opening by heart for the first 16 moves.

What is worth mentioning is that Gukesh had to rack his brain from the 7th move, leading to him having only 39 minutes left after 16 moves. At this point, Erigaisi still had 1 hour and 55 minutes left.

The time disadvantage put Gukesh in a losing position after only 26 moves. Despite trying to hold out and hope for a mistake, in a time-depleted situation, Gukesh could not find the best defense when Erigaisi brought the game to a knight-versus-bishop endgame with the advantage of two pawns (despite having a pair of stacked pawns).

After many moves, Erigaisi finally found a winning solution before time ran out. After 62 moves, Gukesh had to accept defeat and rarely showed his emotions as he put his head down on the chessboard.

Like the game he lost to Carlsen the day before, Gukesh made another critical mistake with seconds running out. The tournament format only gives players 10 seconds after each move from move 40, far less than the 30 seconds in other standard tournaments. Gukesh seemed to be struggling to adjust to the time pressure.

The 18-year-old "Chess King" is in alarming form, having lost four of his last eight standard games, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alireza Firouzja, Carlsen and now Erigaisi. He has lost nearly 20 Elo in May, nearly 74 Elo behind Carlsen and is the only player without a point after two rounds of the Norwegian Super Tournament.

In addition, grandmaster Fabiano Caruana had an impressive "revenge" with a convincing victory over grandmaster Wei Yi.

After two dramatic rounds, Hikaru Nakamura and Arjun Erigaisi are tied at the top of the Norwegian Super League standings with 4.5 points. Magnus Carlsen is right behind with 4 points, followed by Fabiano Caruana (3 points), Wei Yi (1 point) and finally Gukesh Dommaraju, who has yet to score a point.

Round 3 promises to continue to bring fierce matches, taking place at 10pm on May 28 with the following matches: Carlsen vs. Wei Yi, Gukesh vs. Nakamura and Caruana vs. Erigaisi.

TUAN LONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hikaru-nakamura-danh-bai-magnus-carlsen-sau-van-armageddon-tai-sieu-giai-na-uy-2025052807504366.htm