Norway Chess: Pragg defeats reigning world champion Liren in Armageddon

Round 7 of the Norway Chess tournament witnessed gripping matches with tense moments that significantly impacted the standings—India's prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa scored another upset by defeating world champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon game.

Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen lost his Armageddon game against Hikaru Nakamura on time.

One of the highlights of the day was the match between Koneru Humpy and Vaishali R. (Pragg's sister), as Koneru Humpy scored the only classical victory of the day in both tournaments. With this loss, former tournament leader Vaishali's winning chances have significantly decreased.

World champion Ding Liren — who has been underperforming, with four losses in a row — finally stopped the bleeding with a much-needed draw against India's Praggnanandhaa R.

However, he missed a trick and lost the Armageddon tie-breaker, with Pragg remaining in third spot in the standings (11 points).

In the highly anticipated game between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, the classical game ended in a draw relatively quickly, as both sides avoided complicated positions.

The Armageddon tiebreak was one of the most intense games so far in the tournament, as Nakamura won when Carlsen’s time ran out on the clock. This win brought Nakamura within half a point of Carlsen, who is leading the tournament with 13 points.

Fabiano Caruana sacrificing his knight against Alireza Firouzja almost backfired, but the former managed to play a draw in the classical chess game before the latter gave away no chances in the decider.

In the Norway Chess women's tournament, the classical game between co-leaders Anna Muzychuk and Ju Wenjun ended peacefully. However, it was Muzychuk who won the Armageddon tie-break to lead the standings, just half a point ahead of world champion Wenjun.

In another closely fought game this day, Lei Tingjie defeated Pia Cramling in an Armageddon.