Classical action was the highlight of round 5 of the prestigious Norway Chess 2026, as Wesley So and D. Gukesh each took a brilliant win with the black pieces. The outcome completely changed the tournament’s dynamics and added more pressure to world number one Magnus Carlsen.
Wesley So gave one of the highlights of the Norway Chess tournament, with his classical victory over Carlsen giving Norway’s superstar his third defeat in five rounds. The loss was another blow to Carlsen on the sacred turf of his home country and pushed him to the bottom of the rankings. His live rating has also suffered, taking over 16 Elo points over the course of the loss.
World champion Gukesh, meanwhile, captured his first classical win of the event with a thrilling game against another Indian, R. Praggnanandhaa. Gukesh’s win took him to third position and further upped the ante to compete for the title.
The other game, played in classical format, saw Alireza Firouzja go down against Vincent Keymer, but then win the Armageddon tiebreaker to earn bonus points. Firouzja is the tournament winner and holds a slight lead over the following pack of players.
The top three after five rounds are Firouzja, Wesley So and Gukesh.Firouzja is standing alone at the top of the standings, followed by Wesley So and Gukesh. The fight for the Norway Chess title is far from over with a few rounds left to be played.