Norway 01: Caruana strikes first

The Unibet Norway Chess Tournament will take place in Stavanger, Norway from June 2nd to June 13th. The tournament features some of the best players in the world and has a massive rating average of 2774.

Many of our readers have been inquiring about the banner appearing above the Norway Chess 2014 tournament logo. The organizers have explained it:

Our main sponsor, Unibet, is one of the largest online gambling operators in the European market with over 8.9 million customers worldwide in more than 100 countries. According to Norwegian gambling law marketing of international online gambling operators is not allowed. However sponsoring is accepted if commercial logo is not displayed to the public. Though the law still states that Unibet cannot claim for their logo to be used in connection with the tournament, or the event they are sponsoring.

This partnership does not give Unibet commercial rights to advertise in Norway, and therefore a neutral sponsor-name for the tournament has been chosen. No Logo Norway Chess has no direct link to Unibet, nor its way of operations. Towards their international markets Unibet will use the “No Logo” logo in combination with its own logo. The agreement also give Unibet the rights to stream matches from the tournament, and all of Magnus Carlsen’s matches will be shown live online on Unibet TV. This will coincide with a huge offering on odds for the event, both pre match and live.

Round One

Kasparov came in to to provide analysis and talk
about the upcoming Tromso FIDE elections

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Agdestein, Simen
Aronian had a very slight advantage from the opening, but he misplayed it and Agdestein counterattacked perfectly. A great exchange sacrifice, which Aronian completely missed, left Black with enough compensation and maybe even some pressure. The game ended up fizzling to a draw.

Aronian almost run into serious trouble against the lowest rated player in the event

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Topalov, Veselin
A strategic duel featuring hanging pawns left at lot of tension on the board. Karjakin found a nice combination that won the exchange, but his weak pawns left him a tough technical task ahead. After losing one of his weaknesses, Topalov set up an impregnable fortress.

Carlsen congratulated the Karjakins on their marriage

Grischuk, Alexander 0-1 Caruana, Fabiano

Grischuk likes Blitz so much he makes sure he never has more than five minutes,
even on standard time controls. Today this came back to haunt him.

1-8 odds that he wins the event? That will go down very soon.

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Kramnik, Vladimir
A game with many technical nuances, but ultimately just a solid draw.

Good prep and a good mindset got Kramnik an easy draw

Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ Giri, Anish
An exciting game. After Carlsen sacrificed an exchange it was clear that Giri was against the ropes. With every move Carlsen increased the pressure and the combination of active pieces and a seemingly deadly passed pawn was certainly powerful. However, somehow or another, Giri "convinced himself he wasn't losing" and accurately defended the position, drawing it. Carlsen simply could not crash through.

Giri thought for over 30 minutes on one rather obvious move;
but he still had enough time to find a cold blooded defense later on

Daniel King recaps the game Carlsen vs Giri

Replay today's games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Schedule of Events

Pairings

Links Official tournament site Blitz games in PGN 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.