2015 Norway Blitz won convincingly by MVL

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.

The blitz tournament took place at the beautiful Flor og Fjære located just outside Stavanger
(photo: official tournament Twitter)

The incentive to play and perform go beyond the fun factor of blitz play or the FIDE Blitz Elo the games are rated for. The uneven number of rounds mean that some players will play one more game with white than others, so as a result, the top five players are rewarded with five whites and four blacks, while those in the bottom half will have to fight five games with black and only four with white.

The opening ceremony with Garry Kasparov saying a few words

There is little doubt that all eyes were on the world champion Magnus Carlsen, still the top rated blitz player in the world, followed by Hikaru Nakamura, the only other player to break 2900 FIDE Blitz. Of course, all players were expected to produce their share of pearls, but the limelight was a little brighter on those two.

In fact, the tournament started with a bit of trash talking even before the official start of hostilities, with American Hikaru Nakamura commenting on Norwegian TV that he found Carlsen’s style of play a bit dry, and there were other players he found more interesting. True, it wasn’t trash talking in the purest sense, but any uncomplimentary evaluation made to his home crowd had to be viewed as a bit provocative.

Still, this was but a small, albeit fun, throwing down of the gauntlet, always good to whet
the appetites of the fans, and the blitz tournament itself was surely the best way to have
the spectators salivate for the competition ahead. See the video clip.

The first round of the blitz tournament already saw a number of surprises, starting with the near loss by Magnus Carlsen to Anish Giri. Carlsen faced a losing position, and a combination of strong play and luck helped him save a half point. Still, the highlight of the round, picked out by Garry Kasparov himself as the best game, was Vishy Anand’s classy win with black over Alexander Grischuk.

Grischuk - Anand

Consider this position near the end. One possibility was for White
to play f3 attacking the knight. Can you see the strongest continuation?
Black to play and win.

Still the entire game was a treat and in it you will also see the solution to the position above.

If round one saw Carlsen’s legion of fans biting their nails, especially on his home turf where the attention is nothing short of rabid, round two had them downright queasy. Magnus started the game very well against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, but a series of imprecisions and errors reverted a near won game to unclear. It seemed as if he would save the endgame, despite being under pressure, but he cracked and went down.

For the Frenchman, things seemed to be under a geas of good fortune, and after beating Caruana in round one, beating Carlsen in round two, he stormed to a perfect 3/3 with a convincing win over Levon Aronian in the third round. This was all the more remarkable as he had suffered inordinate difficulties arriving in Stavangar due to flight issues from Paris, and he had probably slept very little the night before. Still, who needs sleep when you are just 24 and a chess junkie?

Norway has gone gung-ho in support of their champion. Behold the first edition of Norway
Chess newspaper. In Norwegian needless to say. (Photo: official tournament Twitter)

On the other hand, good fortune was seriously lacking for blitz aficionado and expert Alexander Grischuk, who completely flubbed his game against Topalov in a terrible oversight.

Round five saw the much awaited encounter between the two top rated blitz players, Carlsen and Nakamura, but Carlsen was up to the task, and soundly defeated his rival to recover some of his lost ground in the tournament. Magnus took advantage of this, and his lukewarm final result, to give Hikaru a bit of payback, commenting on TV2, "Today I played ‘Nakamura chess’ and that just isn't enough." He further joked on Twitter:

"You play a bit like Kvakkamura" Makspuls Clarsyn said on my play today

For those who wonder at this, it is a direct quote of a comic book made with him playing chess against Donald Duck.

If you missed out on this article, do read up on how Magnus Came about to face one of
Disney’s favorites. (Picture: Donald.no, © Disney)

Round six saw Carlsen playing another rival, one of his staunchest: Vishy Anand, his opponent in no fewer than two world championship matches. Here the game saw more of Carlsen’s mystique in play, as he found himself being trounced from end to end by his senior. Then, in a bolt of lightning when all seemed resolved:

These two back-to-back wins put Magnus back on the map, so to speak, but MVL had not cowered in a corner crying after his loss, and was also back on the winning road. In round seven, he dispatched Magnus’s second and friend, Jon Hammer, who had earned his spot via qualification.

Round eight showed that Carlsen was still struggling with his form, and the world no.1 suffered his second loss in the tournament, this time against Grischuk. In the meantime Nakamura and Aronian ended in a completely crazy time scramble which Naka managed to come out on top of.

Entering the final ninth round, both Nakamura and MVL shared the lead with 5.5/8 and Anand sole third with 5.0/8. Facing each other, Anand and Naka agreed to a quick draw, while MVL capped off his amazing day by beating Topalov fairly quickly picking up one and then two pawns, securing sole first.

Final standings

Nakamura was sole second, and in third to fifth, all earning that much desired one extra white: were Carlsen, Giri, and Anand. If you are now feeling ready for some top-notch action, then be sure to not miss round one starting tomorrow. You can follow it at the official site, or on Playchess with grandmaster commentary featuring Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2704 FIDE).

If you are lucky enough to be in Norway, you can also watch the games live, on location, for a modest 200 Krone per day, which is about US$25.

To put that in perspective, that is roughly four Big Macs (in Norway) according to the highly respected Global
Big Mac Index. If you are Ukrainian, you may understandably balk at the idea of forking up over twenty Big Macs.

In any case, whichever your choice, you cannot go wrong, and to paraphrase “Wargames”, the only losing move is not to watch.

Playchess commentator schedule

Tournament schedule

Links Official tournament site 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.