Norway Chess Round 8: Carlsen defeats Karjakin

Round eight

All photos by Lennart Ootes

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I have been following top level tournament chess quite closely for the past six years or so. For a long time one constant was Magnus Carlsen being head and shoulders above his competition, while the rest of the guys were busy leapfrogging each other and then falling back, time and time again.

The latest generation of fans and players have lived through the Carlsen Era, in which the Norwegian genius has dominated. The idea that it might end is sacrilege, and to suggest it is blasphemy.

Now we seem to welcome the newest addition to the club. Contrary to all expectations, it is not some up-and-coming star – such as Wei Yi or Fedoseev, although they might be arriving any time soon. No, it's the god of chess himself, Magnus Carlsen, who is descending from Mount Olympus. Maybe it's only temporary, but over the course of the past three years Magnus has somehow let his rating drop about 60 points. He's no longer up there by himself; he's no Fischer, Karpov or Kasparov anymore. He's more of what Botvinnik described as “first among equals”.

Today Magnus finally scored his first win of the tournament, but it was far from convincing...

Sergey Karjakin vs Magnus Carlsen (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

A topsy-turvy game in which all three results were possible

As the important position of Number Two goes, the chess public longs to see a clear challenger, but so far it has failed to materialize.

Levon Aronian sits at the table of Norwegian TV

First it was Aronian for some three or four years, sporting a 2830 rating, but it never came to the match we all wanted to see. Instead all we got was Levon's disappointing fails in the Candidates.

Then Caruana made his leap – remember the Sinquefield Cup 2014 and his 7/7 start? - it seems so long ago now. This year Fabiano has yet to notch one win against 2700+ opponents. My bad, I checked the database, he did beat Richard Rapport in the Bundesliga, but you get my drift. Today Caruana had to work up a sweat holding on against suddenly in-form and ambitious Anish Giri.

Anish Giri emanating with a new energy

Daniel King analyzes Magnus Carlsen vs Sergey Karjakin

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In the current list it's officially Wesley So, but these days he seems more determined to steal the King of Draws crown from Anish Giri, than chase loftier goals. Today's game Nakamura-So was a total dud. At least, Hikaru keeps his position just half a point behind Levon, who gave sort of a token effort today against Anand though he never really threatened to get anything.

Once again, who is going to displace Carlsen as Number One, if the bad run continues? Briefly we thought Kramnik could do it, but his dreams took a hard hit today.

MVL was a cold shower on Vladimir Kramnik's dream of no.1, but it is still on the table

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Vladimir Kramnik (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

Going into the last round, it seems that only the three guys at the top of the standings can count this event as a success. The era of parity has arrived.

The huge, gorgeous venue

Standings after eight 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.