India’s R Praggnanandhaa won the Norway Chess 2026 title after a classical victory over German grandmaster Vincent Keymer in the final round on Saturday at Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika. This is the 20-year-old prodigy’s first title of the year.
Pragg had a remarkable final kick at the end of the 10-round tournament, winning four classical games in a row after losing two on the trot. The win over Keymer came on the heels of Praggnanandhaa’s victories over Alireza Firouzja, world no 1 Magnus Carlsen and world champion Gukesh over the last four days. The tournament also saw Praggnanandhaa complete a double over Carlsen.
After his victory over Gukesh on Thursday, Praggnanandhaa had spoken about how he had clawed back from the bottom of the table to rise to a title fight.
“I’m happy that I’m still in the race because three days back I was fighting for the last spot,” Praggnanandhaa had said. “And now I have a chance at fighting. So I’ll take it.”
The Gukesh victory in particular was one of the standout moments for Praggnanandhaa.
“Quite proud about this game (versus Gukesh) honestly, because this is how I usually lose to him. He does some weird creative stuff. I end up overthinking and somehow doing something myself and losing. I thought I managed my time well and I was also calculating well. So I thought it was a good game overall,” the 20-year-old said in a post-game interview on Norway Chess’ official broadcast on Thursday.
Praggnanandhaa had also spoken about how he could have much better scores in this year’s event.
“I felt I played well in this tournament There were a couple of positions I could have probably… even the game against Gukesh, when I was playing with white, I was just winning, I outplayed him and then I messed up in time trouble. So there were few games where I could have converted and could have had more points. I thought I was playing well. I just had to try and keep some time in reserve,” said Praggnanandhaa.
(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)
