On June 3, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu beat GM Magnus Carlsen for the second time at Norway Chess 2026. This moment went viral on social media, notching over 1.1 million views on ChessBase India's official Facebook channel and over 152K views on the tournament's official X (formerly Twitter) account.
?? Pragg does it again and again and again ??#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/kF8xA9Xj1V
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 2, 2026
It's not often that World No 1 Carlsen loses in any tournament, let alone in the Classic format, where he has been almost unchallenged for more than a decade. However, Praggnanandhaa has come with a plan to Norway Chess 2026, and he's done something no one was able to for almost two decades.
R Praggnanandhaa joins exclusive list at Norway Chess 2026
The last time anyone beat Carlsen twice in the same Chess tournament was 19 years back! The then world champion Vishwanathan Anand was the last to do so, beating his eventual successor Linares International Chess Tournament back in 2007.
Magnus Carlsen has since been so dominant that he has never been beaten multiple times at the same classical event. However, in Oslo this year, cracks have appeared in his game, as the defeat to Praggnanandhaa was a fourth classical loss of the event, a rare occurrence that hasn't happened since 2015, also at Norway Chess.
Social media makes hay after Praggnanandhaa beat Carlsen for the second time
Magnus Carlsen has mostly been a darling of the online chess community thanks to his lengthy dominance and support for bringing change to the game. However, as with all things social media, one slip-up or bad tournament performance can open the floodgates, and netizens have been enjoying Carlsen's second loss.
Clips of this defeat across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have accrued over a million likes. Indian fans, with whom Carslen has not always shared the best of bonds, have taken a special liking to these clips, as seen from their comments on these clips.
Norway Chess 2026 results and viewership
This top-tier Chess competition began on May 25 and will run until June 6. Six of the world's best players are competing for a prize pool of around $182,000 at one of the year's most prestigious events, and so far, eight rounds have been completed.
GM Wesley So leads the table with 14 points, while Magnus Carlsen sits in the fifth spot with 9 points. On the women's side, GM Bibisara Assaubayeva is close to clinching the Norway Chess Women 2026 title after opening a five-point lead at the top of the leaderboard.
Norway Chess 2026 has so far reached 106,051 Peak Viewers, putting it among the five most popular Chess events this year. It has a long way to go to top the series mark of 251,184 PV, but the right circumstances could see this year's edition challenge this number.
ChessWatch.com provides a comprehensive view of chess popularity across formats and platforms, helping organizers, teams and partners leverage data to better understand audience behavior and improve viewership performance. Start using ChessWatch.com to analyze chess viewership and turn audience data into a competitive advantage.
After a rest day, the penultimate round nine starts on Thursday, June 4, at 11 AM ET / 5 PM CEST / 8:30 PM IST. Chesswatch will continue to monitor the action and report on the results and viewership of Norway Chess 2026 in its news section.
