With wins in their round seven classical games of Norway Chess 2025, GM Fabiano Caruana has taken pole position while World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju follows a point behind. Caruana defeated GM Wei Yi on the latter's 26th birthday, squeezing water from stone in a pawn-up endgame that should have been equal. Gukesh, after crawling out of a worse-to-lost position, scored his first-ever classical victory against GM Arjun Erigaisi. GM Magnus Carlsen sunk to third place, though he beat GM Hikaru Nakamura with White in armageddon.
Round eight starts Tuesday, June 3, at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
Norway Chess Round 7 Results
In the most decisive day of Norway Chess 2025 so far, we saw no fewer than four classical wins. Gukesh, Caruana, Ju, and Lei finished their mini-matches in one game.
Open: Caruana Scores 3rd Classical Win, Unbeatable Gukesh Does It Again
Caruana is, quite suddenly, the leader. With three points for a classical win, however, there may be more twists and turns to come.
Norway Chess Standings After Round 7
Carlsen 1.5-1 Nakamura
After Carlsen's devastating loss on the previous day, the chess community was divided on the way he slammed the table before he resigned. Some, like Singaporean GM Kevin Goh, wrote on X, "It’s completely understandable why he got so mad." Many others disagreed. Commentator IM Jovanka Houska on yesterday's broadcast said slamming the table was unacceptable. Several players in the tournament also shared their takes (or Takes Takes Takes) in the video linked below. The general vibe was that they would never do the same, but they understood the pain Carlsen must have felt.
Carlsen addressed the topic at the start of the day, saying, "I wish I had a different reaction. But it was what it was." He also suggested that avoiding classical games is one way of evading such a negative experience in the future.
Game one was the quickest draw of the day. Nakamura said he could tell Carlsen wanted a quick draw by the latter's facial expression before the game, and the players repeated the position three times by move 21.
Nakamura said this might be the last game he'd play against Carlsen in classical chess, and he was sad with the quick draw. Both players aren't as active on the classical circuit as they used to be, though they still participate in speed chess and Freestyle Chess events regularly.
He said that even if they don't retire from classical chess soon, they might not always play in the same tournaments. Before this, Carlsen's last individual classical tournament was Norway Chess 2024. It's almost the same for Nakamura, except that he'd played the 2025 American Cup this year.
"There's a better than 20% chance this is very likely the last classical game that Magnus and I will ever play against each other"
Carlsen explained after the armageddon, "I didn't really want to be there, so my play sort of showed that." He revealed that he'd only prepared for the armageddon game: "I at least wanted to give a nice performance there."
There were three acts, said GM David Howell. First, Carlsen sacrificed a piece out of the opening (14.Nc3!!), then Nakamura fought back and equalized with a pawn sacrifice (28...g5!), and finally Carlsen defended and won with the extra piece.
The moment Nakamura realized he had no attack in the armageddon. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
How motivated will Carlsen be in tomorrow's game? "More than today, I hope," he said in one interview. In another, he told WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili with a deep sigh, "I will have to play the last three games and then I will have to make some decisions about next year here or additional other tournaments later because I just don't enjoy it that much."
You can watch Nakamura's video recap below.
Gukesh 3-0 Arjun
Gukesh's first-ever classical victory over Carlsen in the previous round garnered international attention and received a congratulatory post from India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was featured by ESPN and countless other outlets.
An exceptional achievement by Gukesh! Congratulations to him for triumphing over the very best. His first-ever win against Magnus Carlsen in Round 6 of Norway Chess 2025 showcases his brilliance and dedication. Wishing him continued success in the journey ahead.@DGukeshpic.twitter.com/TjxyPzn3uN
After his win against Carlsen, from a lost position, Gukesh said that 99 out of 100 times he should have lost. But against Arjun, he was again worse-to-lost before he climbed out of the hole—and then went on to win. Is it luck? How many times can lightning strike the same place?
The handshake between Indian numbers one and two. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Going into the game, Arjun had an overwhelming score against Gukesh. He'd won six times, including in round two of this tournament. And he'd never lost a classical encounter.
Facing the Pirc Defense, Gukesh with White walked into a well-known opening tactic of 6...Nxe4, a temporary piece sacrifice that trades a set of pieces. The point is that if the knight captures 7...d5 forks the bishop and knight. Had Gukesh prepared for this, or was it an accident?
Three moves later, he took 10 minutes to respond to 8...d5 with 9.Nc3. At this point, the commentators were pretty sure Gukesh was thinking on his own, and also Black had equalized (at least). By move 19, a loss for White looked almost inevitable.
But as he had done on the previous day, Gukesh kept on fighting. After a long line of captures ending with 28.Qe6! (the move Howell and Tania predicted Arjun had missed), Gukesh had equalized. He was a pawn up, but Arjun had full compensation with activity.
The rest of the game, played with little time for both players, featured several mistakes, but it was Gukesh who scored the three points at the end of the chaos. He said, "Probably I was just losing at some point.... From the opening, nothing went my way, but okay, once I got to this position I just had to keep making moves which don't lose on the spot, and I think in the time scrambles things happen." He quipped later, "I'll try to get some good positions from now on!"
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
Caruana 3-0 Wei
Caruana told Take Take Take, "If you told me last night I'd be in first in less than a day, I wouldn't have believed you." He got a surprisingly easy win against Wei, and said he didn't know it was his opponent's birthday.
If you told me last night I'd be in first in less than a day, I wouldn't have believed you.
—Fabiano Caruana
Caruana won a nice endgame squeeze. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Caruana employed a King's Indian Defense setup with the white pieces, with a provocative 6.Be3 move that beckoned his opponent to expand his center. But Wei, especially with the novelty 8...Be6N, showed he was familiar with Caruana's setup. Caruana had played the same opening against GM Vidit Gujrathi a year ago.
Caruana won a pawn, but with opposite-color bishops, a draw was still the most likely result. But it was a position Black would have to defend for at least an hour, Howell predicted.
"I just think he chose the wrong mode of defense in the endgame," Caruana said. "He wanted to place his rook actively, but I don't think it was correct." He went into more detail with Take Take Take:
I thought his best defense was to put the rook on the seventh rank, the bishop on for example f8 or anywhere on this diagonal, and ...Kg7, ...h5, and just hold this position. But then his rook on b2 becomes stuck. If it moves, then I get b4. Then I already started to feel some hope. And I was sure I was winning after Kg4.
Wei collapsed when he got to his final seconds. Caruana concluded, "Once you're in a worse position in this time control, it really sucks."
Caruana, who finds himself in the lead now, has been satisfied with the quality of his play. He said, "After the first game, I think every game I played had a lot of bright moments. Even missing the win against Magnus and against Gukesh, I think those games were overall quite good."
Even missing the win against Magnus and against Gukesh, I think those games were overall quite good.
—Fabiano Caruana
A tough birthday for Wei. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Women: Ju Wenjun Grabs The Sole Lead
Defending Norway Chess Women's Champion Ju followed five armageddon wins in a row by scoring a first classical win to take the sole lead, but the top-three are separated by a single point.
Norway Chess Women's Standings After Round 7
Ju 3-0 Khadem
One classical win, and Ju Wenjun is on course to defend her title. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
The women's world champion won Norway Chess 2024 after scoring a first classical win in round six. This year she's left it a round later, but has also hit the front after defeating Khadem in a game where she admitted to taking some risks in the opening. The last critical moment came after Ju played 42.Bc4?!.
42...Qa5! and Black still had hopes of stopping White's a-pawn and holding on to f5, while after 42...Qd2? Ju was able to take over, with Khadem's plan of following up with Qe2 only leading to a trade of queens into a hopeless endgame.
Ju identified the "interesting" move 20...b5!? as the point at which Black began to lose the initiative she had out of the opening.
That win proved enough for Ju to take the sole lead, since the two leaders at the start of the day drew their classical encounter.
Humpy 1-1.5 Muzychuk
This match-up was potentially about revenge, since Humpy's one classical loss of the event had come against Muzychuk. The classical game this time, however, fizzled out into a 31-move draw by repetition. Muzychuk described Humpy's 11.Qd1?! as "kind of a sign that something’s gone wrong," while also admitting her 11...Nb6?! reply was passive.
The clash of the leaders. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
The clash of the leaders had to have a decisive result, however, since the action now switched to armageddon. Once again Muzychuk played the Grunfeld, with Humpy, who needed a win, going for the hyper-aggressive 3.f3. The Ukrainian star would later comment, "Playing 3.f3 without prep is quite a bold decision, I would say!"
The point was that after 9...f5, in a well-known theoretical position, Humpy spent over two minutes, using up all her time advantage, to play a move which immediately put Black on top. It was far from smooth from there, but Muzychuk was never objectively in trouble and got the draw she needed to pick up the extra half point.
"We were just playing on seconds and somehow I saved it!" said Muzychuk, while Humpy also did well simply not to lose on time.
Afterward Muzychuk was asked what she thought about Carlsen's slamming the board the day before:
It’s not the first time that something like this is happening, but this obviously shows that men are able to show their emotions much more than women do. It’s not like we don’t have emotions, but I don’t think any woman can do something like this.
Men are able to show their emotions much more than women do.
—Anna Muzychuk on Magnus Carlsen's reaction to losing to Gukesh Dommaraju
Anna Muzychuk talked to Anna Rudolf. Photo: Roza Czarnota/Norway Chess.
Lei 3-0 Vaishali
Another Chinese player to pick up her first win of the tournament was Lei, who had taken comfort from Carlsen's painful loss since it helped her to come to terms with losing a winning position to Khadem:
After Sara’s game also I lost three armageddons, the quality was quite high, but I didn’t win any of the games, so I was quite upset, but today I won a classical. I just want to say at least I’m not last anymore!
Lei Tingjie also picked up her first classical win. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Lei first felt she was taking over when Vaishali made the less-than-obvious mistake 26...Kf7?!, but in the end she'd have to win the game twice—helped by Vaishali's deep time trouble.
Lei is in fourth place, but less than a classical win behind leader Ju, while Muzychuk and Humpy are even closer with three rounds still remaining.
The three players at the top of the open tournament will have the black pieces on Tuesday, and all three of their opponents lost their mini-matches on the previous day. The leader of the women's tournament, Ju, will have the black pieces against Vaishali, while Muzychuk, just a half-point behind, will have White against Lei.
How to watch?
You can watch Norway Chess 2025 on the Chess24 YouTube and Twitch channels. It will also be streamed on Nakamura's Kick channel. The games can also be followed from our events page: Open | Women.
Norway Chess 2025 features Open and Women's six-player tournaments for equal prize funds of 1,690,000 NOK (~$167,000). It runs May 26 to June 6 in Stavanger, with players facing their opponents twice at classical chess (120 minutes/40 moves, with a 10-second increment from move 41). The winner of a classical game gets three points, the loser, zero; after a draw, the players get one point and fight for another half-point in armageddon (10 minutes for White, seven for Black, who has draw odds).
