Altibox Norway Rd4: Spectacular sacrifices and stalemates

Round four

Cover photo by Tone Marie Haubrick

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The round was nothing short of spectacular. Not only were there three decisive results, but it seemed likely there would be five, and frankly, one of the draws was easily one of the most exciting games of the day, with an end that deserved applause.

There is no point in beating around the bush, and many readers will be skipping ahead searching for the fantastic win by Levon Aronian over Magnus Carlsen, so instead of trying to be clever and place it somewhere later in the report, let’s get right to it.

Levon’s record against Magnus in recent years has been less than stellar, it must be said. It isn’t a style issue, meaning some incompatibility between players that seems to favor one over the other independently of Elos, since the Armenian has certainly not lacked in his fair share of winning chances in his games. Things just haven’t seemed to work in his favor.

Whatever he has been doing with himself of late to get his head back is working, as seen in the recent smashing victory at the Grenke Classic, ahead of Carlsen and Caruana, and now, after two very promising games he failed to convert, he does so against the player it matters the most: world no.1 Magnus Carlsen.

A view of the playing hall (photo by Lennart Ootes)

Things started early, and after a highly unusual 10.Bc2, Magnus Carlsen went into a very deep thing, deliberating his next move over the following 25 minutes. Even live commentator GM Gustafsson was so taken aback, he was convinced it was a typo and the move played was the usual 10.Qc2. However, not so, and even GM Yermolinsky, who annotates the game in detail below, believes this was an on-the-spot inspiration, not a deeply prepared minefield.

Levon Aronian: the look of an inspired man (Photo by Lennart Ootes)

The first spot of true inspiration came when Aronian seemingly stuck out his pawn on a3 with 11.a3!!, played after nearly 17 minutes, inviting, no begging the World Champion to come and get it. It was hard to believe that he would oblige, since the positional drawbacks, not to mention danger to his queen, had to scream caution to Carlsen. Yet, he took the pawn and seemed taken aback when Levon sacrificed his exchange and locked up Black’s queen.

Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen

This was not enough though, and after 16 moves played, came the bishop sacrifice on h7, a theme that is in pretty much all beginner attacking manuals. Viewers were in absolute shock, and the roar online and on social media was all over.

Magnus Carlsen stares at his wrecked position with a grim face (photo by Tone Marie Haubrick)

Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen

The game was still a fight though, and a number of questions needed to be asked and answered. In the end, it was Carlsen, still punch drunk, who failed to continue standing.

Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

An absolutely stellar performance by Levon Aronian, through and through, and while Carlsen did not make the most of his chances to save the game, it was a wonderful bout to watch. (photo by Lennart Ootes)

With both players being known for very aggressive, gritty play, the game between Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had promised to be one to watch for, and it did not disappoint. The Frenchman has become famous for his strong penchant for the Sicilian Najdorf with black, which makes him a somewhat easier opponent to prepare against than some. For example, trying to guess what a player like Ivanchuk will choose, a player who knows it all and plays it all, is a lost cause, and the time trying to predict and prepare against him might be better served grabbing some extra sleep.  However, there are two sides to this coin as one player once noted of GM Lev Alburt who played the Alekhine Defense unswervingly: yes, he is predictable, but how big an advantage is that if he is also one of the world’s absolute greatest theoreticians in it as well? It didn’t work out so well for MVL as the opening went sour, and he bet his all his chips on a kingside attack that never came to fruition. A huge victory for Hikaru Nakamura, who scores his second win, and is now the sole leader after four rounds.

Already winning, it shows in Hikaru Nakamura's body language. MVL's body language is equally expressive as he knows the game is lost. (photo by Tone Marie Haubrick)

Hikaru Nakamura vs MVL (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

The third win of the day was Anish Giri’s over Vishy Anand. The 5-time world champion has been having trouble with his form in this tournament, suffering two losses by now, but he is always a contender and cannot be discounted at any stage of any event. Anish repeated a line of the English he had played against Grischuk at the recent FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow, a game that had gone badly for him, and left him fighting for a draw after he went gung-ho. However, as GM Yermolinsky pointedly notes in his game comments, the young Dutch player had missed a very powerful continuation that could potentially leave him with a winning position. Whether Anand had already analyzed this or not is not known, but he clearly smelled a rat when Giri showed himself so willing to repeat a line that had only given him grief.

Anand stares at his position with justifiable concern. It was on off-day for the great Indian. (photo by Tone Marie Haubrick)

While Anand sidestepped any such embarrassing opening disasters, neither did he ask the most difficult questions of White, and after a couple of minor mistakes that seem to lead to serious problems almost by force, the position became untenable and White won the day.

Anish Giri vs Vishy Anand (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

Caruana will be doing a lot of regretful sighing overnight as he misses a prime chance to score against his fellow 2808 colleague, Vladimir Kramnik. It started out as a game that echoed Fabiano’s fascinating opening play against Jeffery Xiong earlier this year in the US Championship, a cross between a Spanish Berlin (sideline) and a Giuoco Piano, but that he eschewed repeating in its entirety. His choice cannot be faulted as he soon got a significant upperhand that became quite winning.

It was a fierce fight as Caruana had Kramnik on the ropes (photo by Tone Marie Haubrick)

Unfortunately for him, when it came time to reap the fruits of his labor, he stumbled, and not once but twice. First it was a nice little zinger he missed with 32. Nh7! that could have capped his game in glory, and after missing it, he was given a second chance with a possible 39.Rc4! that would have also allowed him to walk home with the full point. There were no third chances, and the Russian was able to finally staunch the bleeding with 42…a5! and then 43…c5!

"And you missed a win here, and then another win here" (photo by Lennart Ootes)

The last game of the day, and also the longest, was the fascinating draw between Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin. The opening was a Giuoco Piano with play for both players, and nothing serious to write home about when the Russian played passively and soon found himself in a very difficult position. So found a superb exchange sacrifice that gave him a monstrous positional bind, and it looked like he was headed to a clear win, when he made a mistake that gave Black just enough breathing room to stay alive.

Wesley switched his base of operations to the kingside with another brilliant design in mind, one that had players and engines completely mystified. Some engines said it was winning, some said it was a dead draw. The same was true of fans watching it, who debated it on Playchess until the bitter end.

When Wesley was finally able to execute his grand plan 61.g5! it turned out there was a stalemate idea that could not be avoided, and while some engines were still spitting out huge scores of +3 and +4 even, the players both seemed to have already understood where this was going. Even with the spectacular stalemate many viewers without the grandmaster eye, argued that it was winning for white, and it probably did not help that some engines were blind to the draw as well. The players elegantly played it out to the forced draw for the benefit of the audience and shook hands.

Wesley So goes over the game With Sergey Karjakin, still unsure if he missed something, and if so, where (photo by Lennart Ootes)

The question remains, did Wesley So have a win or did he not? Analysis with the help of the electronic oracles says yes. While So’s concept with 44. h5 and a subsequent g5 was indeed brilliant, it fell afoul of Karjakin’s no less amazing stalemate resource. The winning line is indeed at that exact crossroad starting with 44.Re2! a baffling idea at first that becomes clear soon enough.

Wesley So vs Sergey Karjakin (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

Standings after four rounds

(click image for full size)

Pairings and results of Norway Chess 2017

Links

• Official tournament site
• All Blitz games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)
• All Standard games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.