Norway Chess - Tactics from Round 5

source: chess.com

The Norway Chess 2025 is ongoing with six of the top players including the current World Champion, 19 yo Gukesh Dommaraju of India is competing.

source: https://ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtml?list=open

As of round 6, the World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen is tied at first place with Fabiano Caruana with 9.5 points.

source: chess.com

In Round 5, all three matches were decided by Armageddon after the Classical games were all drawn. In Armageddon, White gets 10 minutes while Black gets 7 minutes time control. With extra 3 minutes, White must win to score while Black only needs to draw to get a point. It's a fast game where there are a lot of blunders and tactics to be found. I got some tactical positions from the three games.

Caruana - Carlsen

After 55. Rxc3 Black has a forced win with the simple 55....Rb1 threatening mate on h1. White will have to give up material to avoid mate.

Wei - Gukesh

White wins with 55. Rf6+ Bf5 56. g3 Kxf3 57. Rxf5 winning the Bishop.

Erigaisi - Nakamura

Nakamura with Black will have the advantage after 41. ...Rxg2 Kxg2 42. Qg4+ winning back the Rook on c8.

Uncharacteristically, Nakamura missed this tactic with a lot of time left and moved 41....Rf6 instead

After this blunder, White had a winning tactic 42. Qg8+ Kg6 43. g3 Qg4 44. Rc7 Kh5 45. Rxg7 Rg6 46. Qf7 Bc4 47. Rxg6 Qxg6 48. g4+ and Black will lose his Queen.

Link to games: https://lichess.org/broadcast/norway-chess-2025--open/round-5--armageddon/b3lUTDzE