6/16/2015 – One could not ask for a better start to the Grand Chess Tour! In the first round in Norway we had it all: Giri demolished Grischuk with a fantastic attack using his opponent's time pressure, MVL's precision overcame Aronian's tenacious defense, Nakamura outplayed Hammer, Caruana held Anand to a draw with great preparation... while the reigning World Chess Champion lost on time!
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The third edition of the Norway Chess tournament runs from June 15th to June 26th, and will mostly be played in Stavanger, Norway. As in previous years, the drawing of lots was determined by the blitz tournament taking place the day before the official start. Not only one of the strongest tournaments in the World, Norway 2015 is also part of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour, which includes the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic later this year.
Round 1 - 16.06.2015
Name
Rtg
Res.
Name
Rtg
Giri Anish
2773
1-0
Grischuk Alexander
2781
Anand Viswanathan
2804
½-½
Caruana Fabiano
2805
Carlsen Magnus
2876
0-1
Topalov Veselin
2798
Nakamura Hikaru
2802
1-0
Hammer Jon Ludvig
2677
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime
2723
1-0
Aronian Levon
2780
Daniel King shows the highlights of round 1
What an exciting start for the tournament, it simply had it all! Solid defenses, great attacks, time pressures, blunders... and even a World Champion losing on time!
Live broadcast for Norway 2015 on www.grandchesstour.com
Giri, Anish 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander
A nice start for Giri, and a disappointing time management from Grischuk:
[Event "3rd Norway Chess 2015"] [Site "Stavanger NOR"] [Date "2015.06.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Giri, A."] [Black "Grischuk, A."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B31"] [WhiteElo "2773"] [BlackElo "2781"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "2015.06.17"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 $5 {Not the most common of transposition - a normal Sicilian is on the board but definitely not on the normal move order!} Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 { The Rossolimmo Sicilian is a popular way of preventing the Sveshnikov, a high chance that Grischuk would have played that against 3.d4.} 4. Bxc6 bxc6 (4... dxc6 {is the "safer" way but both captures on c6 are possible.}) 5. O-O Bg7 6. Re1 Rb8 {Putting the rook in the half-open file makes sense...} 7. h3 $5 Qc7 { However I am not so fond of this move. I keep wondering why the queen is on c7, and later (and more importantly) we will see how the knight actually wanted to go to this square.} 8. c3 Nf6 {A common idea in the structure, but the knight gets kicked around too much.} (8... e5 $5) 9. e5 Nd5 10. c4 Nb4 (10... Nf4 11. d4 Ne6 12. d5 {seems to leave Black completely squashed.}) 11. d4 $1 cxd4 12. a3 Na6 13. Qxd4 {At this point Giri has a very comfortable position. His extra space more than outweighs the pair of bishops, not to mention that Black is lagging on development and he has to be careful that his king does not get mated after 0-0 on the dark squares.} O-O 14. c5 $1 {Gaining more space and making it difficult to find a move for Grischuk. So difficult, in fact, that Grischuk was already in time pressure by this point! With only 14 moves played he had about 25 minutes left, not the situation anyone would like to be in.} d6 $6 {Perhaps panic, perhaps a miscalculation. In either case this move simply gives Giri a great initiative.} 15. cxd6 exd6 16. exd6 Qb6 17. Qh4 Nc5 { Perhaps Grischuk was counting on some activity to compensat efor the pawn, but in excellent fashion the Dutch player gives back the pawn an obtains a strong attack.} 18. Be3 $1 Qxb2 19. Nbd2 Nd7 20. Rab1 $1 Qxa3 21. Rxb8 Nxb8 {The poor knight has moved 7 (!) times in the opening, and although Black is now up a pawn instead of down material, his kingside is difficult to defend. The onslaught continues} 22. Bh6 Nd7 $1 {The best way of organizing a defense. The knight must hurry up and defend h7.} 23. Bxg7 $6 {A little sloppy.} (23. Ng5 Nf6 24. Nde4 Qa5 $1 25. Rd1 $1 {with a huge initiative for White.}) 23... Kxg7 24. Qd4+ Kg8 25. Ne4 Re8 26. Kh2 {A cheeky move, and for practical reasons a good one, though the objective evaluation is that this is too slow. Giri was mostly putting pressure on Grischuk's clock that was ticking down.} a5 $4 {The losing move.} (26... Qa5 $1 {Returning with the queen to the defense was paramount. Here it is impossible for Giri to organize something decisive! There are insufficient pieces to create threats once the queen returns.}) 27. Nfg5 $1 {Very strong. Now there is no way of avoiding the move Nf6+.} Rf8 ( 27... h6 28. Nf6+ Nxf6 29. Qxf6 {is decisive, with threats on e8 and f7} Rf8 30. Nxf7 $18) 28. Nf6+ Nxf6 29. Qxf6 {Re8 is now a threat.} Qa2 30. Re7 (30. Nxh7 $1 Kxh7 31. Re4 {was also lights out.}) 30... Bf5 31. Nxf7 $6 {good enough, but the easier variation was} (31. d7 Qxf2 32. d8=Q {and Black runs out of checks soon} (32. Ne6 $1 {is a fancy way of winning.})) 31... Qxf7 32. Rxf7 Rxf7 33. Qd8+ Kg7 34. Qxa5 Bd7 35. Qc5 Rf5 36. Qa7 Rf7 37. g4 { Unfortunately for Grischuk he doesn't have any real hope of setting up a fortress. His darksquare are too weak.} Kf6 38. f4 Kg7 39. Kg3 Kg8 40. Qe3 Kg7 41. h4 Kg8 42. Qe5 {White's next moves are h5-h6 and Black will be zugzwanged. A nice game from Giri, even though the finish might have not been the most precise.} 1-0
Giri crushed Grischuk, no questions asked
Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ Caruana Fabiano
A very successful opening preparation from Caruana. As he had mentioned in the confession box, it was clear that he had prepared the entire variation. Anand had a chance to go for the following perpetual:
[Event "3rd Norway Chess 2015"] [Site "Stavanger NOR"] [Date "2015.06.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Anand, V."] [Black "Caruana, F."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2804"] [BlackElo "2805"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r2qr1k1/p1p2ppp/2p2n2/2bp4/4P1b1/3P1N2/PPPN1PPP/R1BQ1RK1 w - - 0 10"] [PlyCount "18"] [EventDate "2015.06.17"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 10. h3 Bh5 11. Qe2 (11. e5 $5 {seems like the test of fire, but Black has a clever resource.} Rxe5 12. g4 Nxg4 {otherwise e5 is hanging.} 13. Nxe5 Qh4 $1 { And White can do nothing to prevent the perpetual check on g3 and h3 since the f2 pawn is pinned by the c5 bishop.}) 11... dxe4 12. Nxe4 h6 13. Be3 Nxe4 14. dxe4 Rxe4 15. Qd3 Bxf3 16. Qxd8+ Rxd8 17. Bxc5 Be2 18. Rfc1 a5 {With eveerything traded off and the opposite colored bishops on the board it is clear that this will be a draw, which it was on move 37.} 1/2-1/2
A solid draw that Caruana can be happy about. He pointed out that he might be the only player with Black to hold the draw, but we can only guess he did not expect what happened in the Carlsen game!
Carlsen, Magnus 0-1 Topalov, Veselin
The news of the day! Carlsen was doing his Carlsen thing: he played a relatively solid opening, tried to put on some pressure, created an advantage out of nothing, tortured his opponent in the endgame... and Topalov cracked. The final position is lost for Black:
[Event "3rd Norway Chess 2015"] [Site "Stavanger NOR"] [Date "2015.06.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Carlsen, M."] [Black "Topalov, V."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D43"] [WhiteElo "2876"] [BlackElo "2798"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "1b6/1P4k1/8/7Q/5p2/6PK/4Bq2/8 w - - 0 60"] [PlyCount "2"] [EventDate "2015.06.17"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 60. Qg5+ {After a long defence, Topalov can resist no more. The combined threats of the queen and bishop are decisive.} Kf7 {And White lost! He believed to have an extra 15 minutes given to him on move 60, but they simply did not exist.} (60... Kf7 61. Bc4+ Ke8 62. Bb5+ Kf7 63. Qf5+ Ke7 64. Qd7+ Kf6 65. Qd8+ Kg7 66. Qe7+ Kh6 67. Qf6+ Kh7 68. Bd3+ Kg8 69. Bc4+ Kh7 70. Qf7+ Kh6 71. Qf8+ Kg5 72. Qg7+ Kf5 73. g4+ Ke4 74. Qg6+ Ke5 75. Qe6+ Kd4 76. Qb6+ {And Black loses. It might seem like a long sequence, but White should somehow stumble upon it when he sees that other moves are not winning.}) 0-1
However, the unthinkable happened... Carlsen flagged! Thinking that he had an extra 15 minutes on move 60 cost him the game, as there was no time addition. Instead he simply lost when he overstepped the time limit. Heartbreaking, as he is completely winning.
The arbiter informing Carlsen that the game is over!
The arbiter announced the time control just before the start of the game... but Carlsen arrived late! He did not hear the announcement, mistook the time control and simply lost.
Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0 Hammer, Jan Ludvig
Nakamura played a strange opening, obtained a position that was perhaps not too comfortable, but soundly outplayed his opponent. Hammer seemed at a loss on where to put his pieces, and they kept jumping positions while his queen felt uncomfortable. Nakamura upped the pressure and waited for the Norwegian player to make a blunder, which he did. The final important stroke of the game was:
Nakamura won in Nakamura style: complications, confused opponent, and a strike when the iron is hot
[Event "3rd Norway Chess 2015"] [Site "Stavanger NOR"] [Date "2015.06.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Nakamura, Hi"] [Black "Hammer, J."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A20"] [WhiteElo "2802"] [BlackElo "2677"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r1r1k/1p2bBpp/2p1Pn2/p2b1qN1/1P3B2/P5P1/4Q2P/2R1R1K1 w - - 0 38"] [PlyCount "31"] [EventDate "2015.06.17"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 38. Rf1 Ne4 $2 (38... Bb3 $1) 39. Nxe4 $1 Qxe4 40. Qxe4 Bxe4 41. Be3 $1 {This is the key move. When Nakamura saw this he felt confident in a victory. The point is that the threat of Bc5 is too strong, simply destroying the blockade of the e6 pawn.} axb4 (41... Rc8 42. Bc5 Rc7 43. Bb6 {costs Black a pawn, and it doesn't improve his position much, but it was his best bet.}) 42. Bc5 Rd2 $6 {simply hastening his defeat.} 43. Rfe1 $1 Bxc5+ 44. Rxc5 Rg2+ 45. Kf1 {Black runs out of threats and White wins easily with his powerful passed pawn.} b3 46. Rxe4 b2 47. Re1 Rxh2 48. Rce5 Rh1+ 49. Kg2 b1=Q 50. Rxb1 Rxb1 51. e7 Ra8 52. e8=R+ Rxe8 53. Rxe8# 1-0
With this win Nakamura jumps slightly over Anand and Caruana to claim the #2 spot in the live rating list!
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 1-0 Aronian, Levon
An excellent game from the French player. He went into a strategically sharp Ragozin where his structure was shattered but piece placements were active and strong. The following combination left Black with too many weaknesses:
An excellent start for the Frenchman
[Event "3rd Norway Chess 2015"] [Site "Stavanger NOR"] [Date "2015.06.16"] [Round "1"] [White "Vachier Lagrave, M."] [Black "Aronian, L."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D38"] [WhiteElo "2723"] [BlackElo "2780"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r3k2r/ppp1qp2/1n2b3/3pNB1p/3P4/2P1P1P1/P1Q3P1/R4RK1 b kq - 0 18"] [PlyCount "12"] [EventDate "2015.06.17"] [SourceDate "2015.02.07"] 18... Nd7 19. e4 $1 {Excellent, opening up the position.} Nxe5 20. exd5 $1 { The point. Black has no good way of responding to this move.} O-O-O (20... Bxd5 21. Rae1 Be6 22. Rxe5 {should cost at least a pawn, but might have been the lesser evil.}) 21. dxe6 fxe6 22. Rae1 $1 exf5 23. Rxe5 Qa3 24. Rfxf5 $1 { White's rooks are dominant, and he has an extra pawn. Black was unable to create counterplay and after many moves MVL converted his two extra pawns (after taking on h5).} 1-0
With two extra pawns and excellent technique MVL won a great game. An important result as he comes as the lowest rated player of the Grand Chess Tour (remember that Hammer is only in this event as a wildcard).
Jennifer Shahade and yours truly live from www.grandchesstour.com,
the official commentary for the Grand Chess Tour events.
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Alejandro RamirezGrandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.
To Moropo. Why would he boycott the tournament? Carlsen showed up late, missed the the arbiter announce the time controls and then lost. No one's fault but Carlsen's. As it stand's now, it is 2 losses for the Champ.
Alexander Khalifman had just stated earlier that Magnus was near perfect. The operative word being "near".
Carlsen is a man, not machine. If he were to boycott the tourney, it would tarnish his reputation and that of chess. Rules are rules.
Danstacey 6/17/2015 04:36
Is the live commentary downloaded onto Youtube - so you can catch up if you missed the live commentary? They did this with the US Champs and I think the Sinqufield chess...
johnmk 6/17/2015 04:02
One way to deal with this is that clocks should reflect that a time control is the final time control. We have the technology currently to convey the fact that this is a sudden death control.
The_Jeh 6/17/2015 03:50
daftarche, it is worth noting that the time control used by this tournament gives you 195 minutes over 70 moves, whereas the FIDE standard control 40/(90+30) + (30+30) only gives you 155 minutes. That's a full 40 more minutes than the FIDE standard, and only 5 minutes less than the classical 40/120 + 20/60 + (15+30) control would give.
The_Jeh 6/17/2015 03:40
When different tournaments have different needs, how can you standardize the control? Obviously not all amateur FIDE-rated tournaments can afford to play this slowly, so where do you draw the line between amateur events and top-level events? Any control is going to have its likers and its dislikers. At least when there is a variety everybody gets to play at a control they like once in a while.
Wallace Howard 6/17/2015 02:38
RE: "The chances of him finding that sequence with that amount of time on his clock seems quite impossible to me."
You'd have to have a huge 2900 blitz rating to find it, right? Oh wait ... Carlsen does have a 2900 blitz rating.
sexaybachay@gmail.com 6/17/2015 02:19
The chances of him finding that sequence with that amount of time on his clock seems quite impossible to me
daftarche 6/17/2015 12:32
i didn't say anything about magnus losing on time. i wrote it is hard to imagine to get to move 70 without getting into serious time trouble and by the way endgame is a part of the game which needs to be studied deeply and with this format, you can't do it on the board. this approach to endgame is not good for chess. nowadays they just want to make the games shorter and shorter.
thlai80 6/17/2015 12:25
@Moropo ... I guess that's why you are not the charismatic world number 1 that Carlsen is. He is much cooler than just boycotting a tournament just because he forgot the rules and lost a game. He will brush this off, and take it as an extra motivation to win the tournament.
@firestorm, to be exact, digupagal wasn't directly calling a user moron but asking if he is one! lol
Anthony Migchels 6/17/2015 11:49
Simply an unprofessional blunder by Carlsen.
Probably some psychology is involved too. Many strong players have problems doing their thing on their hometurf.
Hopefully he'll recover and take this tournament.
bbrodinsky 6/17/2015 11:46
If Carlsen has done it once and Nakamura has done it once, perhaps the time control should be clearly posted somewhere. It wouldn't hurt. Running out of time is part of the game. Not knowing the eccentric time control need not be part of the game. It's as if a baseball game was suddenly two strikes and you're out.
algorithmy 6/17/2015 11:15
Indeed, what happened sheds light on yet another problem of chess organization; the lack of standard time control.
Football game has a standard time control for over 100 years now for all events, and we still didn't make our mind yet in chess. What are all these time formats??about four formats for each of blitz and rapid and classic!!
Just pick one time control for every type. is it hard??. Chess is terribly organized sport, with no clear rules, time controls, anti cheating procedures nor decent financial support.
chess as a sport really sucks!?
Martas 6/17/2015 10:54
DJones: Vallejo - Nakamura (Bilbao 2011) .... similar story, lost on time thinking he just got extra time, I think Naka even left the table for some refreshment while his flag was falling.
Balthus 6/17/2015 10:48
Alighearach, your words would need to be carved into stone and entered into the Hall of Fame of chess & philosophy. Well done!
Also, Ivanchuk did it before, Fischer famously defaulted in a much sharper situation, his new Nokia phone was once the demise of Short (who then went on to win the tournament), it happens literally to the best of us. It's piquant, spectacular, and good publicity, too.
hpaul 6/17/2015 10:30
Good. Now that everyone else has an extra point (in effect), we can look forward to a fighting tournament.
Aighearach 6/17/2015 09:53
Many commenters have apparently never played in a tournament, even at the amateur level. Losing on time is not a fake loss; or a disgrace; or a tragedy. It is just part of the game. He may be World Champion, but Carlsen is also still a young player. The way you get good at time control is losing on time in a rated game in front of your peers. That is true at any level.
When an opening round of a top level tournament has only 1 draw, that alone is spectacular. And to those who say losing on time is not spectacular, I recommend you find a dictionary. How could the World Champion losing on time not become a spectacle?
He's probably the only player in the tournament who can drop a game and not have it impact his pay, since there is nobody else close to his rating.
Also, games aren't already won or lost before the score is recorded. Don't get over-excited over your analysis. If you lose on time, you were already losing 20 moves earlier; you just didn't know it yet. Such is the temporal nature of time and human life. It seems dubious to overlook this.
calimero_1984 6/17/2015 09:40
It's not like he lost on time because he was under pressure and couldn't find a move.
This is ludacris.
But on the other hand, had it happened to John Ludvig Hammer, hardly anyone would pay attention...
daftarche 6/17/2015 09:10
there are too many time formats. why not give 15 minutes on move 60? with this time control hard to imagine any game can last till move 70 without serious time trouble. they need time to study the endgame on the board. surviving on increments for such a top tournament is ridiculous.
Pionki 6/17/2015 09:01
Carlsen has to loose a game or two to win the tournament. That's the way he operates. I don't see a problem.
firestorm 6/17/2015 08:55
Its not very nice to read comments about a user calling them a moron, whatever they wrote.
Some world champions have a real issue about losing after they become world champion- look at Fischer after he beat Spassky, and Kasparov's theatrics when he was beaten. The great thing about Carlsen is that he just discusses losing in a level-headed way (in general). He got the time control wrong and lost, its not the end of the world. He's started in the past with 0.5/3 and still won, hasn't he? He'll just be annoyed with himself for having a tough opposite colour bishop+queen to solve, succeed, then messes up on the time.
AncientRo 6/17/2015 08:46
This happened because there is no time control standard. There should be a standard time control agreed for classical chess in all tournaments, not all these different variations.
It is understandable that Carlsen made this mistake when he plays a lot in one time control and a tournament decides to play the games in another time control. He has the blame of not being better aware of this lack of consistency and being sure to inform himself before the game.
But I blame more the lack of a standard and the organizers who chose this format than I blame Carlsen. The fact that the tournament is in Norway and they created this situation through the decision to have this weird time control makes it that more shameful for the organizers.
Peter Tobler 6/17/2015 08:05
Can't the players see how much time they have left at the board? If not, this is something that should be changed...
amarpan 6/17/2015 07:41
Moropo the moron got it all wrong! The article says the round was overall spectacular,
this being the case despite what happened to Carlsen's game and not because it it.
digupagal 6/17/2015 07:29
moropo are u a moron? I dont believe that time rules were unknown to players. Carlsen is a WC, this was not expected of him, no excuse for his loss. It is part and parcel of this game
bronkenstein 6/17/2015 07:18
Topa is back to the 2800 club! They tried to get rid of Karjakin, "just in case", but Kaissa is always watching. You know, karma and stuff... :)
PS Quite unusual to see Naka full point ahead of MC, also we have five men above 2800 at this point. If I recall correctly, for second time already (first one happened couple months ago when Grish and Giri were upthere). It`s gettin crowded.
Shatir 6/17/2015 05:59
@Moropo,
I don't think losing on time can be considered a reason "outside the chessboard." It's very much a Chess-reason. Shouldn't Carlsen glance at his clock once in a while just to be sure?
He made a rookie mistake and paid the price for it. Absolutely no point blaming anyone else.
Also, I believe Carlsen is outspoken enough to have said something if he blamed anyone else.
DJones 6/17/2015 05:14
Kvakkamura makes bad moves sometimes but he never forgets the rules. This is Kvakkarlsen level. Much much Kvakkier.
Moropo 6/17/2015 04:44
Ah please, he has accepted he is responsible because that's the cinderella behavior expected from him.
Carlsen:
Why dont you really tell us how you feel inside towards the organizers?
How you really think that given such unusual time control it should actually be displayed with neon lights?
This event invalidates the whole tournament. No matter what happens in the future rounds, it will not be a valid outcome.
Carlsen won.
The_Jeh 6/17/2015 03:35
Moropo, the time control was posted on the Grand Chess Tour website for two months. It was announced before the round to all players who bothered to show up on time. Heck, it was even in the contract that Carlsen signed. He has accepted that he's responsible, and it's time for you to do the same. Move on.
algorithmy 6/17/2015 03:15
no no! no need to boycott the tournament since it was his responsibility to read the regulations, but don't worry he is going to revenge by crushing the rest of them. Go ahead Magnus
Moropo 6/17/2015 02:53
Spectacular ???
There is nothing spectacular about a player losing a won game due to reasons outside the chess board. The word is disgrace, not spectacular.
Carlsen is the World Champion, he should boycott the tournament. If anyone can do it, it's him.
algorithmy 6/17/2015 02:48
it doesn't matter at all that he lost that game on time, he proved his point and he is the moral winner, he is the world champion, the highest rated player in the world and most probably the strongest chess player ever.
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