Norwegian Chess: R Praggnanandhaa becomes first Indian to raid Magnus Carlsen’s backcourt to claim historic title

R Praggnanandhaa is Norwegian Chess Champion 2026 (photo by Michal Walusza for Norwegian Chess) NEW DELHI: Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, what have you done?Just this Thursday, the Norwegian national football team came up with an avant-garde Viking-themed photoshoot with their team for the upcoming FIFA World Cup. With superstars like Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard donning traditional Viking costumes and posing as if they are preparing for another raid, the work looks exquisite to the naked eye.And given the kind of appreciation it received on the Internet, it goes without saying that regardless of the upcoming results of the Norwegian matches, this photo will remain in the memory of many people for many years. But switch from football to chess and Norway has only one king: Magnus Carlsen, world number one, five-time world champion and seven-time Norwegian chess champion.Norwegian Chess is a tournament where the elites of 64 square games travel from all over the world to the land where Carlsen rules. The year 2026 marked the 14th year of the tournament, Oslo became the host for the first time since the tournament was founded in the city of Stavanger.Even the venue was so close to the Carlsen family home that his father, Henrik Albert Carlsen, once said: “I traveled 10 kilometers from home and had a puncture on my bike and had to take the bus and subway to get here in time.”A tough tournament full of classic losses meant local hero Magnus was mathematically out of contention for the title heading into the final round on Friday. So, who was in contention? After the penultimate 9th round, the American grandmaster Wesley So led with 15.5 points, the second was the Indian Praggnanandhaa with 15 points, and the third was the Frenchman Alireza Firouzja with 14.5 points, while the first three players were separated, as you can see, by only one point.

Alireza Firouzja vs Wesley So (photo by Michal Walusza for Norwegian Chess)

Of the three, 20-year-old Pragg had form on his side. Before the final round, So also acknowledged this, adding: “Pragg has won three games in a row and has nine points in the last three games, which is really crazy. If Pragg wins the classic game tomorrow, then he deserves to win this tournament because he beat Magnus twice and won three games in a row, which is really unheard of, so congratulations to Pragg!”But for Pragg to win the title and become the first Indian to do so, several permutations and combinations had to fall into place. The easiest path for him was to win his classic game against German No. 1 Vincent Keymer, and he hoped that So would drop points with either a draw or a classic game loss against Alirez.

So how did the Norwegian chess crown find a new home in India?

Pragg’s opponent, Keymer, had not lost a classic game in the tournament prior to this round, so the prospect of the Indian beating him in the longest format is a daunting task. But as the game began, when Pragg made his opening move of 1.d4 with White, optimism began to grow in the Indian camp.In this Queen’s Gambit Declined, Praggnanandhaa steered the game into a dynamic middle game where piece activity outweighed structural issues. After 16.Ne5 the position was tactically loaded and the sequence starting with 16…Bxa3 led to great simplifications. White appeared with active knights and pressure on Black’s somewhat relaxed pawn structure.Keymer’s 24…Bf5 and 25…Qxc5 restored material, but the move to rook endings favored White for better piece coordination. The breakthrough for the 20-year-old came when he played 33.f5 to open a kingside initiative.After 37.fxg6+ and the powerful 38.Ne6+, the black king was exposed and forced into a passive defense. An exchange sacrifice sequence that culminated in 39.Rxf1 eliminated Black’s counterplay.In 45.Re7, white’s king, rook and knight dominated the board while black’s pieces, tied to defensive duties, found no way out, giving Pragg the much-needed three points.

R Praggnanandhaa (photo by Michal Walusza for Norwegian Chess)

There was no need to look at the Armageddon tie-break between So and Alireza, as a classic draw in their match was more than enough to crown Praggnanandhaa the new king of Norwegian chess.In other matches involving Indians, reigning world champion D Gukesh lost to Magnus Carlsen, who had just lost the Norwegian chess crown; Divya Deshmukh was defeated by Anna Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner defeated Konera Humpy.Still, all those classic defeats in the last round are too little to overshadow the sheer euphoria of an Indian who has done what no countryman has ever done and planted the tricolor in a foreign country, Norway, right in Magnus Carlsen’s backyard.