Mumbai, May 31: Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju continued his steady progress after a poor start in the 2025 Norway Chess, moving to the joint-fourth spot after beating American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in an Armageddon playoff while world No 1 Magnus Carlsen regained the top spot on the standings after defeating Arjun Erigaisi in Round 4 on Thursday.Arjun thus suffered his second consecutive defeat after starting the tournament on a positive note. As for the other board in the ‘Open’ section, top-ranked Chinese player Wei Yi defeated Hikaru Nakamura in the Armageddon playoff after holding the world No 2 to a stalemate in the Classical game.
Contrasting run for Gukesh and Arjun
Gukesh and Arjun, ranked third and fourth in the world respectively, have had contrasting campaigns so far in the elite tournament that is taking place in Stavanger, Norway. Gukesh began the tournament with back-to-back defeats followed by a clinical victory over Hikaru on the eve of his 19th birthday on Wednesday and an Armageddon victory over Caruana.
While there was little to separate the two in their Classical game that lasted 75 moves before the players decided to shake hands, Gukesh – who is a lot more comfortable with Standard time controls than he is in the faster formats – managed to put the American under time pressure and eventually beat him in 52 moves.