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 seven

It is getting to the point where one must ask oneself whether there isn’t some hidden aspect of Norway that lends itself to higher than usual levels of testosterone and a strong inclination to fight. Whatever the case, the Viking spirit continues to reign in the Norway Chess tournament as three of the five games ended in a decisive result. So far more than 50% of the games have ended with only one king standing, to the delight of the spectators.

Though the weather refused to cooperate, this was the view outside

The round today was held on the beautiful island of Flor & Fjaere and the players had to reach it by boat. Unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy, but as can be seen in the pictures, in sunnier conditions it must be breathtaking. Though the players have all expressed understanding of the desire to share the event with more than one locale in the country, they have also noted over the rounds that the constant moving and changes have added an extra strain beyond the usual in such a tournament.

The players had to arrive to the venue by boat

Wang Hao and Levon Aronian played an interesting game as the Armenian took risks in against Hao’s  Reti to provoke chances to fight for a win as black, though this was not without genuine danger to himself. Wang Hao acquired a good advantage, though not decisive, and Aronian fought back and eventually drew.

After yesterday’s missed win, Vishy Anand was able to close the deal this time as he steamrolled Teimour Radjabov with on the black side of a Catalan with an ease only possible due to numerous mistakes by the Azeri. Anand commiserated as he commented alone in the press conference, but be that as it may, it only ended as incisively as it did because of the contrasting precision by the world champion. Whatever it is that ails the Azeri, he has withdrawn from the forthcoming FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki to be replaced by French GM Etienne Bacrot. As a result, Anand moves into third with 4.0/7.

A serene Anand had a very clear-cut win today and moves to third

GM Gilberto Milos annotates Radjabov-Anand:

Peter Svidler and Veselin Topalov played a Sicilian Moscow that has been quite popular of late though it quickly degenerated into an endgame. Svidler had hoped to play for an edge, and was quite critical of himself in the post-mortem, as he explained that his gut had been to play 24.b4 instead of 24.f4 as in the game, but for whatever reason he talked himself out of it, which he was not happy about.

Sergey Karjakin is not about to relinquish his pole position without a fight

Tournament leader Sergey Karjakin played Hikaru Nakamura and after his close call against Anand the day before, his state of mind was unclear. The two played a Sicilian Najdorf, with a Dragon flavor, in which the American started out with good chances, but missed the most precise continuation such as 15…Rac8. Nakamura’s inaccuracies led to a very bad position where he gave up the queen for rook and knight and could only wait to see how long it would take Karjakin to put him out of his misery. The Russian did and secured his lead with an anxious Carlsen breathing down his neck.

GM Gilberto Milos annotates Karjakin-Nakamura:

The Battle of the Vikings begins

Magnus Carlsen supposedly played his easiest opponent today, Jon Hammer, rated over 250 Elo less, but that was not the whole story. He has usually had trouble playing his best against his compatriot, and this was one of the greatest reasons the outcome was not as clear cut as one would expect. Hammer played an Open Catalan and accounted himself quite well as he never let Magnus show so much as the shadow of an advantage. As the time control approached, this changed, and several mistakes by Jon left him with a hopeless endgame and he resigned on move 40.

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Karjakin vs Nakamura and Hammer vs Carlsen 

Replay all games

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Pictures by the official site

Standings after seven rounds

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.