Norway Chess 2024, one of the world's most prestigious Chess tournaments, was held at the SR-Bank in Stavanger, Norway, from May 27 to June 8. It witnessed six top players from around the globe competing for a prize pool of $156,535, with an all-too-familiar face coming out on top yet again.
After ten rounds of classical action, home hero GM Magnus Carlsen regained a crown he lost last year with 17.5 points. Having won four straight titles between 2019 and 2022, he had to relinquish his throne in 2023 to eternal rival GM Hikaru Nakamura after a disappointing run that saw him place sixth out of ten participants.
However, the World Number 1 was too good this time, even predicting his win before the tournament began by declaring himself the victor in the official promo video. He kept his word, scoring three classical wins and 5/6 in armageddon, although a loss to GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in round three almost dashed those hopes.
The Norwegian has now won exactly half of the 12 editions at this Super Grandmaster tournament having participated in each. Despite losing to his young Indian upstart for the first time in the classical format, he finished two full points ahead of Nakamura to seal a 59th major career title.
With such star power and another Carlsen win, the Norway Chess 2024 hit 140.8K Peak Viewers during Round Classical 8. This was when Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa met once again, but the latter could not repeat his heroics from the third round and had to settle for a draw en route to finishing third with 14.5 points.
This Chess event also recorded 2.9M Hours Watched and 55.7K Average Viewers over an airtime of 53h 15m. What helped was Carlsen's official YouTube account live-streaming the action, making it one of the top channels by watch time and peak concurrent viewership to provide coverage of the event.
There was some jeopardy regarding Carlsen losing his world number one spot after the early loss, but that was not to be. Moreover, World No. 2 Nakamura, in what was possibly his last classical game of 2024, was able to cross the 2800 rating barrier for the first time since 2015, bringing to an end a successful run for the American Kick star.
There was also a women's draw for the first time this year, with world champion Ju Wenjun maintaining her dominance to emerge victorious. The peerless Chinese notched three classical wins, drew the rest, and scored 6/7 in armageddon to put up a near-perfect performance at her Norway Chess debut.
Coming to viewership comparisons, Norway Chess 2024 ended second on the most watched and most popular by PV tables for the year. Leading the charge is the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournaments 2024, which closed as the sport's third-most watched competition of all time and its fifth-most popular one ever.
More importantly, it was the most successful iteration in the series so far, bettering last year's competition on both counts and becoming the first one to cross the 100PV mark. That is only good news for an event that continues to attract the best players in the world and has added a women's segment to its catalog.
There's lots more action to come for Chess fans, so they can be rest assured of more quality action from the best players in the world. Speaking of upcoming tournaments, those interested in what's happening globally can check this link for a schedule of the top Spring events.
