Hikaru Nakamura emerged as the sole Winner of the Norway Chess 2023 after defeating Fabiano Caruana in the direct last-round encounter for first place!
Having white pieces, Hikaru chose to play Fried liver attack in the game he needed to win to get the trophy. Fabi seemed not to expect that and started to spend more and more time, which gave some extra confidence to the streamer, as he explained in the confessional:
Caruana’s 17…f5?! was suspicious according to the engines, and Nakamura started to build up a clear advantage. Adding some trades to the scenario, Hikaru converted the position into a victory. >>>Replay all games here
With a final score of 16.5 points, Hikaru Nakamura was half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana in the final standings. Dommaraju Gukesh came third with 14.5 points.
Five-time World Chess Champion and World #1, Magnus Carlsen, finished the event without a classical win! He finished the event in 6th place with 11.5 points. Interestingly, this was Carlsen’s first time in 16 years to finish the tournament without a single victory.
Norway Chess 2023 was held from May 29th to June 9th in Stavanger. It was a 10-player round-robin tournament with the world’s best players in the field. The event featured a prize fund of 2 500 000 NOK (~238,000 USD).
Final standings – Norway Chess 2023:
