Norway Chess 2013

The Norway Chess 2013 Super Tournament is one of the strongest super tournaments ever and is held from May 7th to 18th 2013 in several different locations in the Stavanger-region of Norway: Quality Residence Hotel, Sandnes (six rounds); Stavanger Konserthus, Stavanger (one round); Fabrikkhallen til Aarbakke AS, Bryne (one round); Flor & Fjære, Sør-Hidle (one round).

Tourney structure: nine-round round robin Time control: 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 minutes/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the first move Game start: daily 15:00 (server time), last round 12:00 Rest day: 11th May and 16th May Rules & Tiebreak Rules: The “Sofia rules” will apply. A tie for first place will be decided by a blitz match.

Round two

A rapt audience watches the games up close

It was another round of hard fought chess, and though far from perfect, the entertainment was assured. The main focus of the round was quite obviously the game between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, a game that GM Simen Agdestein dubbed ‘the first game of the world championship’.

A tense struggle worthy of the two players

In fact, in the press conference after the game (see the video below) Anand pointed out that while either player would get a boost from winning, the match would still start with a blank slate, so it was not quite accurate to call it such. In any case, if the opening and development are any indication, their actual match will be a treat. The two played a Sicilian Moscow variation but a mistake by the world champion put him at a serious disadvantage and his fans worried he might not hold. It was nervous times for all, but a missed resource by the Norwegian held Black’s position together, and the danger passed. Despite the issues, it was a moral victory for Anand, who not only held Carlsen with black, but also came back from a very dodgy situation to avoid disaster.

GM Gilberto Milos comments Carlsen-Anand:

A fascinating post-mortem by Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand who also took questions from the press

Veselin Topalov and Teimour Radjabov played a complicated game stemming from a Sicilian Rossolimo without …g6 and the Azeri sprang a novelty (10…Ne5) he himself described as being something one might expect from an amateur. It seemed to defy the usual rules of play, but both players seemed to conclude it worked and was a viable solution to improve the knight’s position. A very complicated middlegame ensued with both players finding the right moves, avoiding trouble, but not a struggle. They drew on move 40, by which time the shake of the hands had been clear for some time.

Teimour Radjabov: playing the opening like an amateur

Jon Hammer faced Sergey Karjakin, and they played a Queen’s Indian, following Leko-Karjakin from the FIDE GP in Zug less than two weeks ago. Although the Norwegian was the first with the novelty, two moves later he began to spend inordinate amounts of time and it was clear that the Russian had played something unexpected.

That is the look of a man headed for a perfect start

After a surprising 25…Ne5!, the advantage passed into Black’s hands. Although it took them 30 moves to seal the result, it was never really in doubt. After his victory in the opening blitz tournament and two wins in the first rounds, it would not be a shock to read Karjakin was considering permanent residency.

A somewhat unexpected result came from the game between Wang Hao and Peter Svidler. In round one, Svidler had shown grit in beating Hammer, while Wang Hao was a shadow of himself against Nakamura, yet somehow the roles were reversed today. For Svidler it was another Gruenfeld, this time of his choosing, and once again it did not go well for him. This time it went worse as he found himself with worse development facing a monster center by White. 

Hao-Svidler wasn't the cleanest win, but it was still a win

It did not take long for the Chinese player to reach a winning advantage, but somehow he kept on letting Svidler play a little long, hope a little longer.  It almost seemed as if he might let the Russian off the hook, but he ultimately converted to the full point.

GM Gilberto Milos comments Hao-Svidler:

The game between Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura was a similar story. An offbeat Slav was played, and the Armenian developed with 12…Nge2. The American got a bit adventurous with 18…e5 and the game went downhill. Despite several creative attempts to defend, that impressed even Aronian it was not enough to save the game, and little by little he lost ground for a win by the Armenian.

Unlike Karjakin, Nakamura was unable to repeat his first round success

Replay all games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Pictures by the official site

Playchess commentary schedule

Pairings and results of Norway Chess 2013

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.