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 eight

What a round it was, and no one could possibly have predicted its results unless they were oracles or madmen. Anyone hoping to have the tournament defined by now will have to wait until tomorrow for the grand finale where you can be assured of exciting chess.

The start of the day was understandably quiet, but those watching the live video feed from the official site were rewarded with some wonderful insights into Norwegian culture as today was May 17th. For non-Norwegians, this is a meaningless statement other than the date itself, but for Norwegians it is their National Day, to celebrate the creation of their constitution 199 years ago on May 17, 1814. Just as in many other countries, people from around the nation celebrate it by wearing clothes to honor their country. In the US for example, aside from festivities, the red, white, and blue colors and the flag itself are found everywhere, whereas in Norway, people and youths wear traditional Norwegian garb.

Norwegian girls show their support of the National Day by wearing traditional clothes. When asked they said that all their friends would be similarly dressed.

Even the tournament director wore traditonal clothing

That is, youths up to seventeen years old. Why not eighteen? That particular lot is getting ready to face their final high school exams to enter college and are part of a very different and quite unique Norwegian tradition: the Russ. The Russ prepare their exams the way all wild teenagers in the world would like to: an endless three-week party. From April 26 to May 17, the National Day, participants wear colored overalls, drive matching cars, vans, or buses, and celebrate almost continually during this period. Drunkenness, and public disturbances are regularly linked to the celebration. Several Russ came to visit the tournament, displaying their clothes, and even singing some choice songs such as … The Spice Girls. A lot of fun, and incredibly charming.

This group of Russ sung Spice Girls for the audience without even a soundtrack

The pants bore all manner of decoration, including patches of events, things they support, and signatures and messages by friends.

The string she is holding bore knots along its length, each from events and places they had been to.

It bears mentioning that if the Chess Olympiad next year in Norway is held during any period other than Russfeiring, protests and boycotts can be expected.

The first game to end was also the only lackluster bout of the day. Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian played the Rubinstein variation of the Nimzo-Indian and followed the game Grischuk-Leko played just a month ago. By the time they stopped following their example, eighteen moves had been played and the endgame left was as lifeless as in the reference. They repeated moves a dozen moves later and that was that.

The next game to end was Vishy Anand against Jon Hammer. Contrary to Magnus Carlsen who had been more or less forced to depend on an error by his compatriot, the world champion chose a very different road. Although the opening can be classified as a Gruenfeld, there was not much about the game that warranted being called that, and even Jon Hammer after the game said he preferred to just call it a fight. Vishy began by sacrificing one pawn, then a second and went all out on the attack. It was a very positive approach to the fight that warmed one’s heart. He admitted after that despite tremendous amounts of calculations, at some point he thought he might be losing control of the game, and the variations that had seemed great at first were now seeming like draws. It was beginning to seem a bit strained when an opportunity came up, rewarding him for his vivacious play, and a Nxf7 came down like a bolt of lightning, defining the game for good. He kept it simple and brought home the bacon for a sensational win bringing him to 5.0/8.

It is worth mentioning that this morning, before the game, Jon had posted in his Twitter that in honor of the Norwegian National Day, it would be nice to beat the world champion. Sadly for him, this post did not have the effect desired, and instead of causing Anand to tremble in fear, it brought down the wrath of Siddhartha on the board.

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Anand vs Hammer 

The next game was the wonderfully complicated struggle between Hikaru Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov. With Radjabov’s run of terrible form, it was not exactly a shock to find Nakamura on the winning side, but it was not as simple as that, and the Sicilian Kalashnikov they played was full of dynamic twists and turns that enthralled. Though the American missed the spectacular win 34.Nf5!! it did not change the outcome and Nakamura scored the point.

Hikaru Nakamura is on +1 so far, a respectable result in such a field

By the time all this had taken place, two games were left, Svidler-Karjakin and Carlsen-Hao, and both seemed destined for a draw. They say lightning never strikes the same place twice, but today it did.

In the popular Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez, Peter Svidler played some last minute preparation that he came up with a half hour before the round began. Needless to say, one can only imagine the wonders he could produce with 45 minutes. As it was, the move he found for black (he was white) was precisely what Sergey Karjakin played, and the game was pretty much equal by move ten. Perhaps this was what Svidler needed as he punched back with creativity and came up with the strong idea 14.a4. Sergey was not easily taken down, and the fight swung back and forth with both players holding the advantage at different moments as Karjakin held queen, rook and two passed pawns against Svidler’s queen and two bishops.

It was a tough day for Sergey Karjakin, but he still retains his lead going into the last round.

The decisive mistake came with 47...Rc3? which sealed the fate of Karjakin after which Svidler found all the right moves. The game had been so stressful and complicated, that when Svidler appeared in the pres conference, Simen Agdestein asked him if he wanted anything, such as coffee perhaps. Peter replied, “A new head would do.” This loss left Karjakin on 5.5/8, leaving Carlsen a chance to catch up with him for the last round.

At this juncture, with both Magnus Carlsen and Wang Hao deep in thought, another guest was brought to the table, and quite an unexpected one: Lars Monsen. For those who do not know who he is, Lars Monsen is a famous adventurer and journalist who has not only made many extreme hiking expeditions, such as crossing Canada through to Alaska on foot, much of which he documented both in book and film, later edited in documentaries. He regaled the audience with his stories involving his extensive experience with bears, from grizzly bears, black bears, and even polar bears, as well as what to do. He even has a book detailing this. More importantly to all this, was not simply a talk show with a fascinating personality, but the fact that he is a genuine chess buff who plays online every day, and during his expeditions always carries a set and book to peruse in his tent at night or during storms.

Lars Monsen: famous adventurer, journalist, author, and true chess buff

When asked about his opinion of the royal game, and the rekindled debate in Norway on whether it is a sport or not, he showed a perfect understanding of the reality of professional play, and said that even from a purely physical perspective, it was clear that the player with the best physical shape would be best prepared to face the toils of long events and the inevitable exhaustion that would sink in at the end. As he left, the game between Carlsen and Hao was reaching its crux.

Magnus Carlsen wrote on Twitter: Tough loss in @NorwayChess, now sharing 2.place with Anand before last round. Too many bad decisions today, got what I deserved in the end.

The game between Magnus Carlsen and Wang Hao seemed to be a typical game by the Norwegian. The opening was nothing unusual as they played a Symmetrical English with neither side getting anything special. It was fairly balanced and went into an endgame where Carlsen hoped to outplay his opponent as he has done to so many others. Somehow, that is not at all what happened, and Magnus went deeply astray as he lost a pawn, but even so the general feeling was that Carlsen would suffer but draw. Most grandmasters were not especially interested in the foregone conclusion and merely awaited the expected result to be announced. Instead, Magnus went on to badly misplay the ending and found himself in a very iffy position. His final and deciding mistake was 64.Kg2? which left the Chinese player with a  choice between two winning moves, and the rest he was able to calculate to the end.

This astonishing turn of events left the podium wide open with Sergey Karjakin on 5.5/8 and both Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand on 5.0/8. In the event of a tie for first, the top finishers will play a blitz match, or tournament if three tie for first, to decide the winner. Don’t miss it.

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Pictures by the official site

Standings after eight 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.