Following the conclusion of the fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger, Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa upset world number two Fabiano Caruana of the United States and found himself inside the top ten rankings. US player Hikaru Nakamura defeated China’s Ding Liren, the world champion, to increase his lead over Magnus Carlsen by one full point. Nakamura leads Carlsen by a whole point at the halfway point of this 161,000 US dollar prize money competition with 10 points already secured. From a drew rook and pawns endgame, Carlsen outplayed France’s Firouzja Alireza.
With five rounds remaining, the world champion is trailed by Praggnanandhaa on 8.5 points, while Alireza, who dropped to 6.5 after his defeat, is now a distant fourth. Caruana, who scored five, is in fifth place, while Ding Liren, who only scored 2.5 points, is obviously not having fun. In the concurrent women’s competition, R Vaishali maintained her 10-point lead after defeating Tingkie Lei of China in the Armageddon game.