Gukesh, Carlsen go from title race to last-place battle at Norway Chess 2026

Heading into the final day, Carlsen was on 10 points while Gukesh had eight, which means that the Indian could only escape last spot by defeating Carlsen in the classical section.

Both of them came into Norway Chess on the back of contrasting results. The world champion has not won a single tournament since winning the elusive title and has looked out of form. During this year’s Norway Chess, he has spoken about feeling “happier and much sharper”, even if the results do not reflect that.

His coach, Grzegorz Gajewski, believes that despite the 20-year-old not being at his A game recently, all he needs is one performance-boosting sequence of results for him to become the Gukesh of 2024 when he swept all in front of him, including the Candidates and the World Championship.

Gajewski says there is a lot of work happening in the background, but the nature of chess is such that the results of all the work show when you least expect it. For now, Gajewski believes that what’s important with Gukesh is the “level of resilience” he has been showing, by playing aggressive, provocative chess game after game despite the results not going his way.

“Obviously, his classical results were very disappointing, for both of us. Even if you look at his recent results from the rapid and blitz event of the Grand Chess Tour in Warsaw, it was not mindblowing. But he kept a level. People understand that he achieved a certain level. People thought that he was overperforming for a 17-year-old, and after that, he’s been fairly underperforming. It’s just a matter of time for him,” said Gajewski, who has been with Gukesh since 2023.

At the other end, the world no 1 from Norway has found a hot streak across different formats, winning the World Rapid Championship, the World Blitz Championship, the FIDE Freestyle World Championship, the Speed Chess Championship by Chess.com and the TePe Sigeman Tournament.

“I think his form has been good in that sense. I think he said it himself; maybe he played even better when he was younger. But I still think he plays pretty well,” Carlsen’s long-time coach Peter Heine Nielsen had told The Indian Express in an interaction last week.

Nielsen says that these days, Carlsen is working in a “minimised model”. Back when he was competing for the world championship, he would have a team of five seconds on average, helping him. That’s not the case anymore.

Nielsen adds, “I’ve always praised Magnus for being an incredible sportsperson, especially at the chessboard. One could be critical of perhaps his lack of preparation, and such. I don’t think so necessarily, but I mean, that would be a problem if, let’s say, you don’t prepare well, but also you don’t give your best at the board. It’s obvious to everybody that he gives everything he has at the board.”

Carlsen and Gukesh both suffered defeats on Thursday in the penultimate round (albeit Carlsen lost in the Armageddon portion). The Indian, who turned 20 on the first rest day of the tournament, lost in the classical portion to compatriot Praggnanandhaa in just 34 moves. In the final round on Friday, both are playing for the consolation of the second-last spot. And plenty of pride.

(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)