All three classical games in the ninth round of the Open section of Norway Chess finished in draws.
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Ding Liren, Magnus Carlsen, and Fabiano Caruana secured wins in Armageddon games during the ninth and penultimate round of Norway Chess on Thursday. Despite his defeat to Caruana in the Armageddon tie-breaker game, India’s R Praggnanandhaa still has a mathematical chance of winning the event.
Carlsen, after defeating Alireza Firouzja, currently leads Hikaru Nakamura by 1.5 points. In the upcoming final round on Friday, Carlsen will play Caruana with the white pieces, while Nakamura will face R Praggnanandhaa with the black pieces.
Praggnanandhaa holds the third position in the Norway Chess standings with 13 points, trailing behind Carlsen (16) by three points and Nakamura (14.5) by 1.5 points. Firouzja is in fourth place with 12 points, Caruana in fifth with 10.5, and Liren has earned six points to salvage some pride late in the tournament.
For Praggnanandhaa to win the Norway Chess title, he must defeat Nakamura in classical chess to earn all three points while Carlsen loses to Caruana.
In the Women’s Norway Chess event, Lei Tingjie emerged victorious over R Vaishali in the only classical win of the day. Lei Tingjie will now face Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun, who defeated Koneru Humpy in Armageddon and leads the tournament by 1.5 points. Anna Muzychuk still has a chance in the competition after defeating Pia Cramling, and will be rooting for Lei Tingjie.
