Norway 06: Topalov wins, Anand brilliant

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.

Grischuk, Alexander 0-1 Topalov, Veselin
An interesting Nimzo-Indian set-up, and one that suited Topalov's styles quite well. A position in which Black definitely had good counterplay chances, though White's solid central structure gave him a space advantage. Grischuk, as usual, played too slowly. The combination of that and missing Black's amazing g5 resource cost him the game:

Grischuk's time trouble needs to be solved if the Russian wants to return to 2800

A good time to look at the live rating list!

courtesy of 2700chess.com

With his gigantic lead going into this tournament, Carlsen is still the number one player in the World, of course. The battle for second, however, has been reduced to four players. Caruana's poor performance in Norway means that he is now below 2800, a completely different person than the 7-0 player in Sinquefield. Meanwhile Topalov achieves the fifth highest live rating in history, even higher than Anand's best! Anand himself is not looking bad with third in the World with 2813, but it is surprising that the super high rating of 2810 of Nakamura is only good enough for fourth!

Caruana, Fabiano ½-½ Hammer, Jan Ludvig
Not a very good game. Hammer's opening choice was dubious to say the least, and Caruana's strong pawn center seemed to prevent Black from making any good moves. However a mistake with his knight placement allowed Hammer good counterplay on the light-squares. When things were looking good for Hammer, he made the bizarre decision to exchange his powerful blockading knight for a useless White bishop. Caruana obtained a small edge, did nothing with it and the game ended in a draw.

Not the game of the round

Giri, Anish ½-½ Aronian, Levon
A very interesting game, but it was mostly a theoretical battle. Aronian handled the sharp variations of this Vienna position with excellent understanding, but Giri obtained an extra pawn from the complications. That being said, the a-pawn was so weak that the Dutch player could not hold it. The resulting endgame was completely drawn.

Anand, Viswanathan 1-0 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
What a clear example that only one bad move can cost a chess game, especially in the sharp lines of the Najdorf!

Anand, 45 years old, showing sharp and accurate chess

MVL is not happy with his position

Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Carlsen obtained nothing from Nakamura's ultra-solid opening. He kept declining repetitions, but the position was simply not going anywhere. He finally managed to win a pawn, but by that point Nakamura had managed to exchange most of the pieces and he simplified all the pawns on the queenside. The resulting 4v3 on the kingside with rooks on is a theoretical draw, and Nakamura defended perfectly, making it look easy.

Carlsen and his coach both thought he needed "magic" to obtain an advantage in this game

Round Six Games

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Standings after six rounds

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Tournament schedule

Links Official tournament site Grand Tour official site and commentary Blitz games in PGN Classical 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.