Altibox Norway Rd5: Back to normal

Round five

All photos by Lennart Ootes

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The game between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri was a fairly tame Italian in which both played very proper, with careful piece maneuvers that aimed to neutralize more than to destabilize. Even the light tactics at the end with 31. Qb4 seemed so well under control that the flurry of exchanges that followed left little doubt as to the result. It was no big surprise though, as Carlsen was still licking his wounds from the previous round, while Giri was more than happy to take the draw with black against the world champion.

For aficionados of the Ruy Lopez Marshal, a new leaf was turned in one of the main lines (they almost all seem to be a main line nowadays) between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian. Aronian is a well-known expert of the defense and plays it regularly, though more often than not it seems more like his choice to guarantee a draw, unless White is so bold as to try for more, in which case: watch out. They repeated 19 moves of a previous game they played in…. Norway 2017. No, not a joke, this was their blitz game in the drawing of lots competition, which they also drew. It should be noted that the Marshall is sort of Sofia Rule proof, since with a regular 20+ moves of rote theory, if a draw is planned, it means 10 moves or fewer of actual play. You certainly wouldn’t get that with the St George Defense (1.e4 a6)!

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was certainly not surprised by Aronian's choice of the Marshall as they repeated 20 moves from their blitz game in the Opening Ceremony competition

The game between Vishy Anand and Wesley So was also an Italian, and also a game from the Blitz event the previous week between Caruana and Aronian. There was a small twist, worth noting, and it was the conspicuous delay of d6 by Black. Instead he waited for White to commit 7.c3 and pushed 7…d5 straight away, equalizing as a result as well since White is one tempo behind in his piece development. The queens were off by move 15, and by move 23 it was a completely symmetrical rook and bishop endgame with nothing to grope for, and they shook hands on move 33.

In terms of theory, the game between Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana was certainly a surprise to viewers and pundits. Not only did Caruana swap his Berlin for the Petroff with black, but they followed a line that has barely been taken out of the theoretical basement in years, with the most recent essays by Nisipeanu in the 2015 World Cup. That might not seem so long ago, prior to that, for top players, you need to go back to 2007, with Ivanchuk and Kramnik giving it a one-time spin.

Fabiano was dying to try out a novelty he had prepared, involving an exchange sac, and after careful analysis, Sergey took up the gauntlet

Caruana had a nifty exchange sac in mind to explain his desire to roll back the clocks, and Karjakin was willing to take up the gauntlet, after making sure this would have a better fate than Carlsen when Aronian sacked his exchange. The Russian gave it back at the right moment, and emerged in a rook endgame up a pawn, but with strong drawing chances for Black. Caruana’s technique passed the test, and they drew after 73 moves.

Sergey Karjakin was in form and replied well to Fabiano's novelty. He came out ahead, but was unable to do more.

Sergey Karjakin vs Fabiano Caruana

The battle between Kramnik and Nakamura was also chosen as the game of the day by Tiger Hillarp-Persson, and though also a draw as they all were, it was a good fight between the two players as usual.

An excellent fight once again, and Nakamura maintains the lead at the midway point

Vladimir Kramnik vs Hikaru Nakamura (annotated by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson)

Standings after five rounds

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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.