OSLO: Alireza Firouzja. Magnus Carlsen. D Gukesh. Vincent Keymer.
Or, in other words, the guy Carlsen anointed as the next Carlsen. The actual Carlsen. The world champion. One of 2026's most in-form players and a former second of the world champion.
These were the players R Praggnanandhaa had to beat in the exact sequence if he had to keep his slim hopes of winning Norway Chess. And he had to beat all of them in Classical, ideally. To compound matters, he would be having black against Gukesh and Carlsen.
In a rather simplistic, rudimentary way, this is exactly what Praggnanandhaa did over five days in Oslo. He beat all of them to become the first Indian to win the event in its 14th year. It's an absurd, borderline abnormal run of wins. Here's an illustration. Mehmet Mars Seven, a Game Theory expert with Norway Chess, estimated that the Indian's chances of winning the competition before the seventh round was 0.7%. Per his model, you play the remaining matches in the same sequence over 10000 times, Pragg would win the tournament 70 out of 10000 times. This was one of those 70 times.
Taking only the last four rounds into consideration, his performance rating was 3250.
Genius.
****
Pragg is signing autographs and obliging every selfie hunter irrespective of the demographic. Tamil speakers. Norwegian speakers. English speakers. Marathi speakers. It doesn't matter. It's way past 10 PM inside the Deichman Bjorvika, the country's national library and venue for this year's Norway Chess, but the place is teeming with families and kids, all of them wanting a piece of the first Indian to win this event.
From nowhere, an automated voice booms out through the fifth floor of the Library. "The Library," it says in Norwegian, "is now closed." Nobody bats an eyelid. The announcement does little to dampen the mood inside. Pragg isn't bothered. His fans aren't too fussed. The young parents do not panic. They are here for him and they are not going home without getting a piece for themselves from this most surreal of Friday nights back with them.
The distance between the broadcast studio and the escalator on the top floor at the Deichman is less than 20m. It can normally be covered in under 10 seconds by an average adult human.
The Chennai boy takes five minutes because he is surrounded by people. Kids whose bed times were three hours ago, anxious mothers who were trying to please their kids, men twice Pragg's age, journalists and chess influences hoping for a photo or a video... he can hardly move. He may have felled the king but in those few minutes, he is walking like a pawn.
It doesn't stop there. It spills over to one of the city's most important main roads. On a busy intersection by the pier, traffic lights are subtly ignored by the same cohort. All of them have their phones out as they are recording videos or shooting pictures. There are a few amused locals on the other side of the road.
It doesn't even end when Pragg completes the short walk between the venue and the official hotel. Just before entering it, one person calls out his name. "One photo please, Pragg," he asks. "Sure."
A journalist from one of the official agencies ends up shooting that picture. It was originally meant to be a selfie.
You can't blame him. It's that kind of night.
****
Wijk aan Zee is generally referred to as the Wimbledon of chess. History, prestige, player fields and a permanent place in the calendar evokes a certain aura. Pragg won that event last year in a heart-stopping tie-breaker against Gukesh.
When he was asked whether he would pick this as the best win of his career so far, he said yes. "Winning this is more special," he told the Indian press corps. "I'm overall happy that I managed to come back like this. For me, it's more special that I won a tournament, especially when Magnus is playing. I think this is stronger (than Wijk) in terms of average rating. Certainly, this will come top in my career."
Did he change anything in particular after the back-to-back losses in the middle stages of the tournament? "I think as the tournament progressed, I decided to sleep more," he said. "If you have more time in the morning, you are looking at your computers more and it's just tiring. It's something I decided to do; sleeping a bit later and waking up a bit later. With the games beginning only at 5.00 PM, I have that luxury."
If that was an off the board change, one major on the board change he implemented post a manic 2025 was just enjoying chess a bit more. "If this is the version (of me enjoying chess and chilling), I’ll take it (smiles)," he said. "This is what I tried to do in Bucharest, and it didn’t go well. I just want to take chess more lightly and enjoy it more." He made this change after a gruelling 2025 where he suffered from burn out, something he revealed in a very revealing interaction on the tournament's second rest day.
****
Coming into the 10th and final round, US' Wesley So was leading by half a point compared to the Indian (15.5 to 15). So, in theory, So was the one who controlled the fate of the tournament. But he played out a drab draw with Firouzja in a few hours.
It opened the door for Pragg, who suddenly knew that he would win the tournament as long as he won his fourth game on the bounce. He got an edge out of the opening but it wasn't decisive per the engines.
However, his position was devoid of risk so he decided to push and prod his way. Luckily for him, the German made a few small errors right when the match entered the endgame. The Indian made small, small improvements in the position and was threatening to strike when the German made the committal 30. h5 on the board. That started a sequence of moves which saw Keymer lose his rook; ending up on the receiving end of an exchange sacrifice.
On the So match itself, Pragg, whose last visit to Norway for this tournament saw him beating Carlsen for the first time in 2024, said that 'my position was 'risk-free'. "I didn't really have too much to think about it (when So-Firouzja ended in a draw)," he said. "I was playing a position which was risk-free, I didn't have to make big decisions. I was just putting pressure and continued to do it. I was happy it was a draw but still I had to win so that was what I had to focus on."
That's what he did.
Standings
Open: R Praggnanandhaa 18, Wesley So 17, Alireza Firouzja 15.5, Magnus Carlsen 13, Vincent Keymer 11, D Gukesh 8
Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva 16.5, Zhu Jiner 16, Anna Muzychuk 15, Ju Wenjun 13.5, Divya Deshmukh 10, Koneru Humpy 9