Norway Chess 2026: Praggnanandhaa's winning moment as he outplays Magnus Carlsen | Watch video

Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa clinched a memorable victory over the five-time world champion in round three of the Norway Chess 2026 tournament in Oslo on Wednesday.

This win is the 20-year-old's second win over Magnus Carlsen in classical chess, following his victory over the Norwegian in the 2024 Norway Chess tournament.

Magnus Carlsen has got off to a forgettable start at the Norway Chess 2026 tournament, losing two out of his first three matches. He began with a defeat to Alireza Firouzja in the first round, before beating Vincent Keymer via the Armageddon tiebreak.

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Against Praggnandhaa, Carlsen endured a mixed game. The Norwegian got off to a forgettable start, making blunders before showcasing resilience against the Indian.

He fought back from a losing position, but that didn't last long. Carlsen was under pressure with time running out, and a decisive mistake in the middlegame allowed Praggnanandhaa to move his pawns to safety.

Not long after this decisive mistake, Carlsen resigned, surrendering to defeat against the Chennai-born youngster. After the contest, Pragggnandhaa said that it wasn't a game to celebrate much.

"Honestly, this is not a game to celebrate too much about! In these time scrambles, it’s basically like tossing a coin. It could have gone Magnus’ way or my way, so it’s not something to be extremely proud of or anything. I’m happy that I played well in the first half, I was playing with control, but in this time control it can go either way," Praggnanandha said at the post-match interaction.

Carlsen, on the other hand, is struggling in sixth place with just 1.5 points to his name.

During the match, Praggnanandhaa had surprised Carlsen with a rare, aggressive opening line of 6.h4, and the latter explained that he spent 28 minutes thinking about the next move before playing a counterattacking move with 8...Nxe4!?.

"I just wimped out a little bit at the end, which is a little bit sad!" Carlsen said.

Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, felt that the opening worked for him quite well. "I thought the opening went really well for me because it felt like he was uncomfortable and he was spending way too much time early on," he said.

In another classical game, Vincent Keymer and Wesley So shared points following a balanced game. However, Keymer went down to Wesley in the Armageddon tiebreak, making this his third straight loss in such a fashion.

In the women's section, Anna Muzychuk and Koneru Humpy played out a draw before the former outplayed the Indian via the Armageddon tiebreak. India's Divya Deshmukh and Bibisara Assaubayeva also drew in the classical game before the Indian emerged victorious in Armageddon.

Deshmukh is in second place in the women’s standings with 4.5 points, behind Assaubayeva (5.5 points). Humpy is in sixth place with two points.