GM Wesley So leads Norway Chess 2026 after a bloody round six that ended in three decisive results. So inflicted a second consecutive loss on GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and took the lead, while GM Magnus Carlsen exacted revenge on GM Alireza Firouzja, who had led the tournament since beating Carlsen in the first round. Lastly, GM Vincent Keymer defeated World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in his first win of the event—including both classical and armageddon—to land in third place.
Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun had lost five matches in a row in armageddon, but in round six of Norway Chess Women 2026 she took down leader GM Divya Deshmukh in a classical chess thriller. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva took advantage to regain the sole lead by beating GM Koneru Humpy in armageddon, while GM Anna Muzychuk missed a one-move chance to take the sole lead herself with a classical win. Instead she drew and then lost the fast game to GM Zhu Jiner, leaving her half a point behind Divya in third place.
Round seven starts Monday, June 1, at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.
As IM Tania Sachdev said on the broadcast, it was a sad day for Indian chess. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Divya all lost their classical encounters, while Humpy lost in armageddon. We saw four classical wins scored by So, Carlsen, Keymer, and Ju.
Norway Chess Round 6: Results
This round kicked off the second half of the double round-robin tournament. This means that all players face each other for a second time, but with reversed colors from their first encounter.
Despite losing their classical encounters, Firouzja and Divya remain in striking distance of the new leaders.
Norway Chess Round 6: Standings
Norway Chess Round 6: So Takes Over Lead, Carlsen Helps
Five out of the last six classical games have been decisive in Norway Chess. With a second win in a row and a 2884 performance, So has taken the lead.
So 3-0 Praggnanandhaa
After defeating the world number-one, So was rewarded with what, in hindsight, looks like an opportune pairing. Praggnanandhaa was winning against Gukesh in the previous round, but collapsed and lost in the time scramble. In this game, he looked close to holding, but didn’t manage.
So scored his two classical wins back to back. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
At first, the American said he was unhappy with the outcome of the opening. He avoided playing a Catalan because he expected Praggnanandhaa to respond with a Stonewall setup. “I didn’t know what to play, so I just decided to play Shankland’s Chessable course with this setup Be2 b3, but then we got the Stonewall anyway!” Praggnanandhaa started a kingside attack.
The aggressive 12…g5 can be parried with a forcing line, and So found it: 13.Nxe4 and, a few moves later, 15.f3!. He perhaps missed one opportunity with the pawn sacrifice 16.Nxf3! (though it wasn’t winning), but later said he liked his position once the white knight got to c4. In fact, he thought about offering a draw, but when Praggnanandhaa misplayed the position, that went out the window! So went on to convert the extra pawn in the endgame, a theme we’d see in all three games.
Before the tournament, So said that he would have considered finishing with 12 or 13 points a good result. He’s now at 11.5 and still has four rounds to play. He was also asked about Carlsen’s game, and said, “I just wonder if he’ll bounce back, but he didn’t leave any doubts. He played really well today.”
Not that it was a friendly gesture, but Carlsen’s win against the tournament leader was perfectly timed for So to take over.
Carlsen 3-0 Firouzja
At first, Carlsen was unhappy with Firouzja’s opening surprise. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Returning from a third classical loss, now in last place, Carlsen looked unhappy to arrive for round six. Asked about his mood before the game, he rated his ambitions to fight at a 1.5/10.
How much in a fighting mood is Magnus from 1-10?
“1.5 maybe.”#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/cRaMxxbmSC
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 31, 2026
To top that off, Carlsen was surprised in the opening and thought for two minutes before playing the unusual 5.Nc3.
In the confessional booth shortly after, he called it a “proper old-guy move,” steering the game into a position that was popular before Firouzja’s time. He also added that he himself had some preparation against GM Sergey Karjakin for their 2016 world championship match in this line.
After the game, he explained these thoughts in more detail. “He kind of surprised me a little bit in the opening, and I thought, you know, I’ll just play something. I think the plan he went for is not very good and I thought I got a fairly pleasant position, and, most of all, it was relatively easy to play, so I didn’t have any reason to hemorrhage time on the clock as I have in other games.”
Given a chance (21…dxe5? was Firouzja’s mistake), Carlsen played a lengthy line that ended with 23.Qd7! and an advantage. Despite the previous losses, he still trusted his instincts, as he said in another confessional visit. “I may end up looking like an idiot,” he said, but he believed he was much better—and he was.
“I may end up looking like an idiot because I usually have in this tournament, but I just don’t see it. I just think I’m much, much better,” says Magnus in a second confession.https://t.co/Ua1ujB5Ik0#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/ToEoSle9kw
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 31, 2026
Even if Firouzja had some chances to hold on, time also wasn’t on his side. By move 26, he was in a pawn-down position that the computer can hold, but he had 15 minutes against 57, against the world’s best player. It quickly went downhill, as GM Dejan Bojkov discusses in his annotations for the Game of the Day below.
Firouzja drops out of the world top-10 on the live rating list, but there are still four rounds to play. And he’s still well within reach of regaining the lead.
As for Carlsen, he’s trying to be realistic about his chances. He said, “The way the tournament has gone, there is no reason for me to be too ambitious, but it’s less bad than yesterday and it’s nice to get a win.” Interestingly, Carlsen has made just one draw in six classical games—winning two and losing three.
It’s less bad than yesterday.
—Magnus Carlsen
Keymer 3-0 Gukesh
Keymer scored his first victory in the tournament. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Love it or hate it, the Norway Chess format greatly rewards wins in classical chess, which are worth three points, and discourages draws. Even with a slow start, where Keymer lost all five of his armageddon games, his first win shot him all the way up to third place. (Though he’s still 3.5 points behind the leader.)
The game started with the London System, an opening that can evidently score points for all levels of players, including the elite.
Vincent Keymer employs the London System against the world champion!https://t.co/l4ikLC2tOe#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/ZZb0JHc5v6
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 31, 2026
Gukesh was back in the confessional booth after the opening phase to say that he felt good after the opening moves. He explained, “I thought I was making logical moves, but suddenly after Bg5” he couldn’t find a nice reply. But after the moves played in the game, sacrificing a pawn with 13…Bd6, Gukesh was satisfied: “That took a lot of time, but I think I’m pretty comfortable.”
“That took a lot of time, but I think I’m pretty comfortable right now,” says the world champion with Black against Vincent Keymer!https://t.co/l4ikLC2tOe#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/nzHApPeR8T
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 31, 2026
From there, Keymer didn’t play the engine-best moves, but he remained a pawn up and managed his time well. He may have missed the more precise 21.Rfd1!, but he said on the Chess24 broadcast, “With this time control, it’s not easy to say when do you spend a lot of time. If you spend 15 minutes on something decisive [or perhaps indecisive], it was a very bad decision; if you find something, it was great.”
The computer claimed Gukesh had ample chances to draw with a pawn less after 28.Rxb7, but Keymer disagreed. “I am a pawn up. And, humanly, with the time situation that we have, I actually do have very serious winning chances.” The game backs up his opinion.
“It’s nice to finally win a game after so many failed chances,” said Keymer after the game, adding, “I don’t think I was ever worse.” He was critical of Gukesh’s approach: “If he was just trying to play a calm game, it’s very hard for me to advance, but because he put his pieces on weird places just to do something forcing, I actually got some chances.”
The format, and especially the time control, has caused some very up-and-down games—not just for Keymer, but all the players. He said, “I had five draws, but I could have won four and lost three or something like that, so it was not really as calm as the result suggests.” He said the same for the format’s effect on Carlsen: “Magnus could have been on +2, +3 easily, but he blundered and drew or even lost some winning positions, and yeah, that’s just been the craziness all around.”
Keymer came dressed to impress (with a vest!). Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Norway Chess Women Round 6: Ju Beats Divya As Assaubayeva Regains Lead
It was all change in the Women’s standings as well after a round that featured only the third classical win of the whole event.
Assaubayeva 1.5-1 Humpy
Bibisara Assaubayeva arrives for her game. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
Assaubayeva bounced back with a match win, but it felt like she could have pushed for more in the classical game, which ended in a 15-move draw by repetition. Assaubayeva’s Scotch Gambit succeeded in getting Humpy thinking early on, but the Kazakh star decided on a draw after she correctly calculated that after best play she’d have only a small edge in the final position.
Assaubayeva explained that going to armageddon wasn’t the plan: “I also want to win some classical games, but unfortunately since the first round, I stopped doing this!”
I also want to win some classical games, but unfortunately since the first round, I stopped doing this!
—Bibisara Assaubayeva
Humpy had won her first armageddon of the tournament in the previous round against Ju, but this time she returned to her below-par form from earlier in the event. Assaubayeva switched openings, played fast and well, and ultimately gained a crushing position which she wrapped up with a queen sacrifice.
Bibisara Assaubayeva sacs her queen to beat Koneru Humpy — depending what happens in Divya’s game it may be enough for Bibisara to regain the lead! https://t.co/QfuCk9Ldp9#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/7aJwCF3LYd
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 31, 2026
In total the match was over in 39 moves.
Bibisara clinches the win over Humpy in armageddon. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
That 1.5-point win turned out to be enough for Assaubayeva to regain the sole lead, since Divya fell to Ju in classical chess.
Divya 0-3 Ju
Divya vs. Ju was incredibly intense. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
This was an absolutely wild game. Ju won the opening battle in a Ruy Lopez, and when she began to land blows around the white king, it seemed it was all over bar the shouting.
Divya has shown fantastic instinctive play when low on time in Oslo, however, and we saw more of the same, as she somehow managed to untangle. What could have been a saving swindle was arguably the move of the day—41.Rh7+!!.
The point is that if the rook is taken, as it was in the game, the pinned bishop on d5 escapes with check, and the rook on d8 falls.
That saw the game liquidate into a theoretically drawn rook endgame, but Ju still had an extra pawn and, with both players down to seconds, she managed to convert.
Divya resigns a game she came incredibly close to saving. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
After losing all five mini-matches in the first half in armageddon, Ju is suddenly right back in contention just 1.5 points behind Assaubayeva. Divya, meanwhile, suffered a blow, but is only a point off the lead with absolutely everything to play for.
How close things are is illustrated by Muzychuk having had a fleeting chance to take the sole lead herself.
Zhu 1.5-1 Muzychuk
Muzychuk played the Grunfeld with Black in the classical game, and though she was never seriously worse, she admitted, “Usually such positions are evaluated as equal, but it’s much easier to play with the white pieces.”
Zhu won the match, but with a stumble along the way. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
In the end the game finished logically in a 78-move draw by repetition, after strong play by both sides, but 68.h7? could have cost Zhu the game.
The armageddon was close to a positional masterclass by Zhu, who commented: “I think I got some good position out of the opening, and I just tried to push—you don’t have so much time, so I just tried to play fast and I won!”
Zhu Jiner won the armageddon convincingly. Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess.
When Muzychuk missed some chances to equalize and allowed Zhu to push her a-pawn, there was no way back.
That result means Muzychuk is half a point behind Divya in third place, while Zhu actually dropped a spot to fifth place after Ju’s classical win. At 2.5 points behind the leader, Zhu is within a classical win of first place. In fact, she faces Assaubayeva in round seven.
Meanwhile Norway Chess leader So has Black against Gukesh, while there are clashes between Sunday’s winners, Keymer and Carlsen, and losers, Praggnanandhaa and Firouzja.
Round 7 Pairings
Colin McGourty contributed to this report.
How to watch?
You can watch Norway Chess 2026 on the Chess24 YouTube and Twitch channels. The games can also be followed from our events page: Open | Women.
Norway Chess 2026 features Open and Women’s six-player tournaments for equal prize funds of 1,690,000 NOK (~$182k). It runs May 25 to June 5 in Oslo, 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).
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