Norway Chess: Caruana remains perfect, Carlsen wins on time

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
10/7/2020 – Fabiano Caruana took the sole lead of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament by beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda with the white pieces to reach a perfect 6/6 score. Meanwhile, on his 38th birthday, Levon Aronian inflicted Aryan Tari’s second loss, and Magnus Carlsen defeated Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon after the latter failed to make the most of a very favourable position and lost on time. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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Aronian wins on his birthday

Armenian star Levon Aronian was born on October 6, 1982 in Yerevan. On his 38th birthday, he found himself in Stavanger facing Aryan Tari with the white pieces. Aronian won the classical game and now shares second place with Alireza Firouzja in the standings table. Right after signing the scoresheets, Aronian was surprised by the Norwegian organizers, who hired classical musicians to give a small concerto as a birthday gift — the world number nine is known for his love of music

Aronian was the first one to finish his game. The second winner of the day was Fabiano Caruana, who became the sole leader by beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda with white out of a Slav Defence. The American’s play so far in Norway was praised by commentators Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik.

Just when Caruana was being interviewed, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja were going through time trouble in their Armageddon encounter. Firouzja came from having got a clearly superior position in the middlegame. But beating the world champion is no easy task — Carlsen kept on fighting and ended up getting his second win in sudden death when Firouzja’s time ran out in a rook endgame.

Caruana noted:

I should mention that we had a players’ meeting and the initial regulation was supposed to be a 3-second increment from move 40 — we decided it was too much of an advantage for black, and so we changed it to a 1-second increment. And I guess this cost the game to Alireza.

Altibox Norway Chess 2020

The concerto for Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen 1½:1 Firouzja

In the classical game, the players followed a line from a game in which Maxim Rodshtein defeated Pavel Eljanov with white in 2019. Firouzja deviated on move 12, and a critical position was reached three moves later:

 
Carlsen vs. Firouzja - Classical
Position after 15.Nf5

The most natural continuation — the one that Kramnik would play almost automatically, as he noted — is 15...c4 here. However, Firouzja spent almost 20 minutes before opting for 15...Bf8, perhaps fearing Carlsen’s strategical abilities. When asked about this particular position in the post-game interview, the world champion mentioned that, in fact, he “was kind of hoping for 15...c4”.

In hindsight, we can praise Firouzja for his decision to keep more tactical possibilities in the position, as he had no trouble holding a draw against the strongest player in the world.

For a second day in a row, Carlsen was one of the contenders in the only Armageddon decider of the round. The Norwegian’s position did not look good at all in the middlegame:

 
Carlsen vs. Firouzja - Armageddon
Position after 30.Nce4

Black is a pawn up and has good piece coordination. At this point, the cool retreating move 30...Ne7 was called for, consolidating Black’s edge. Firouzja’s 30...Bd5 was not a mistake, however, but it allowed 31.Rxf3:

 
Position after 31.Rxf3

Now that the battle turned tactical, Black needed to be precise in calculation and go for 31...Rxf3 32.Qxf3 Qxh2+ and, for example, 33.Re2 Qxg3 34.Qxf5 Rxf5 35.Nxg3 Rf8 when Black has a winning endgame. Most likely, Firouzja would have found this in a slow game, but things get more complicated in a 10-minute sudden-death encounter against the world champion.

The youngster went for simplifications with 31...Nxg3 32.hxg3 Rxf3 33.Qxf3 Rxf3 34.gxh4 Bxe4 35.Rxe4, and the position is equal — after all, Firouzja only needed a draw!

The tragedy came twelve moves later, when Firouzja’s time ran out in an equal rook endgame. Carlsen confessed:

It was obviously pretty undeserved, the Armageddon thing. But it happens.

Talking about his overall play so far in Stavanger, the world champion explained:

I feel like I missed too many things today. It’s about the opponent as well, since he has a very tricky style — he always plays for some little tactics. I feel that today was not great, so I still have a way to go.

Given how the scoring system this year vastly favours classical wins over wins in the Armageddon tiebreaker, Firouzja is actually ahead of Carlsen in the standings thanks to his win over Duda in the opening round.

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Qc2 0-0 9.Nf3 Re8 10.Bd3 Ne4 D36: Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation: Main line (5 Bg5 c6 6 Qc2). 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12.Bxe4 dxe4 13.Nd2 f5 14.0-0-0!? An interesting side line. Better is 14.0-0= 14...Nd7 15.g4
15...fxg4N Predecessor: 15...Nf6 16.gxf5 Bxf5 17.f4 Rac8 18.Kb1 c5 19.Nb3 c4 20.Nc1 a6 21.Rhg1 b5 1-0 (33) Cazzaniga,W (2139)-Cocconcelli,L (2012) Milan 2013 16.Ndxe4 Nb6 17.Ng3 Be6 18.Kb1 Rf8 19.e4 Rad8 20.Rhe1 Qf6 21.f4 gxf3 ...f2 is the strong threat. Weaker is 21...Rxd4 22.f5= Don't do 21...Qxf4 22.Ka1 22.Qf2 Nc4 23.Rg1 23.b3 Nb6 24.Rd3 23...Qh4!-+ 24.b3 Nd6! 25.Kb2 Rf7 26.Rd2 Rdf8 27.Re1 27.e5 was worth a try. Ne8 28.Nge4 Qxf2 29.Rxf2 27...Kh8 28.Rd3 Rf4 29.e5 Nf5 30.Nce4 Bd5 31.Rxf3 Nxg3? 31...Rxf3-+ 32.Qxf3 Qxh2+ 33.Re2 Qxg3! 34.Qxf5 Rxf5 35.Nxg3 Rf3 32.hxg3= Rxf3 33.Qxf3 Rxf3 33...Qh2+ feels hotter. 34.Qe2 Qxe2+ 35.Rxe2 Bxe4 36.Rxe4 Kg8 34.gxh4 Bxe4 35.Rxe4-+ Endgame KR-KR Kg8 36.Ka3 Kf7 37.Kb4 h5 38.a4 Ke6 39.a5 Rg3 Hoping for ...Rg4. 40.a6 40.Kc4= 40...b6 Threatens to win with ...Rg4. 41.Kc4? 41.Rf4! 41...Rg4-+ 42.Kd3
next Rxg4 is good for White. 42...Rg3+? Black should play 42...c5!-+ 43.dxc5 bxc5 43.Re3 The position is equal. Rg4 44.Rf3 c5 45.dxc5 bxc5 46.Rf8! Kxe5 47.Rf7 Accuracy: White = 58%, Black = 79%. . Loss on time!?
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2863Firouzja,A27281–020208th Altibox Norway Chess 20202
Carlsen,M2863Firouzja,A27281–020208th Altibox Norway Chess 20202

Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja

The moment Carlsen points out that Firouzja’s time has run out | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Caruana 3:0 Duda

For a second day in a row, Duda made some strange decisions in the opening. First, on move 15, he decided not to go for a very natural-looking pawn push:

 
Caruana vs. Duda
Position after 15.h3

Kramnik and Polgar wondered why the Polish number one rejected 15...b5 and opted for 15...Qa5 instead, a curiosity that was seconded by Caruana later on. White got a comfortable position, but it was still too soon to call it a winning advantage, until Duda erred inexplicably on move 23:

 
Position after 23.b5

23...b6 was followed by 24.Na6, and Black was in deep trouble strategically. As Caruana explained:

I mean, 23...Nbd7 was forced. [...] 23...b6 — I couldn’t really believe it with my eyes when he did it, because it looks completely dead lost. 

However, after finding himself in a tough spot, Duda started showing resilience in defence, creating small tactical tricks every chance he got. In the end, Caruana needed 94 moves to get the win. Referring to his 57th pawn push to e4, the American confessed:

I was expecting the game to end immediately; then I didn’t see a clear way to do it.

 
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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.e3 Nf6 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.Nc3 a6 8.Bd3 Bg4 9.Nge2 e6 10.0-0 10.f3 gains popularity. Played by David Navara in July 2020. D10: Slav Defence: 3 cxd5 (without early Nf3) and 3 Nc3. Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Be7 12.a3!? White is slightly better. Exploring less charted territory. 0-0 13.Na4
13...h6N Predecessor: 13...Qa5 14.Qc2 Rfc8 15.Nc5 Qd8 16.Nxb7 Nxd4 17.exd4 Rxc2 18.Nxd8 Rxb2 19.Nc6 1-0 (18) Rapport,R (2649)-Bogosavljevic,B (2520) Bar 2015 14.Bg3 Nd7 15.h3 Qa5 16.Qd1 Rfc8 17.b4 Qd8 18.Rb1 Ra7 19.Nc5 Ncb8 20.Qe2 a5 21.Rfc1 axb4 22.axb4 Nf6 23.b5 Black must now prevent b6. White has good play. b6 23...Nbd7 24.Na6± Hoping for Rxc8. Rxc1+ 25.Rxc1 Nbd7 26.Rc6 Qf8 27.Qc2 Rc8 is the strong threat. Ra8 28.Rc7 Bd6 28...Bd8± 29.Bxd6+- Qxd6 30.Qc6 Qf8 31.Rxd7 Nxd7 32.Qxd7 Rc8 33.g3 Rc3 34.Bf1 Qc8 35.Qxc8+! Rxc8 36.h4 g5 37.Nb4 Kf8 38.Nc6 Ra8 39.Be2 Ra2 40.Kf1 Ra1+ 41.Kg2 Ra2 42.Bd3 Rd2 43.Bf1 f6 44.hxg5 hxg5 45.g4 White should try 45.Kg1!± 45...Ke8 45...Rb2= 46.Kg3 46.Kg1!± 46...Rd1!= 47.Be2 Rg1+ 48.Kh2 Re1 49.Bd3 Rd1 49...Rc1= keeps the balance. 50.Nb4± Kd7 51.Kg2 Ra1 52.f4 Ra3 52...gxf4± 53.exf4 Ra4 53.fxg5+- fxg5 54.Nc6 Kd6 55.Ne5 Ke7 55...Ra2+ 56.Kf3 Ra3 56.Kf3 Ra2 57.e4! Ra1 58.Ke3 Re1+ 59.Be2 Rg1 60.Kf2 Ra1 61.Nf3 Kf6 62.Ke3 Ra8 63.Bd3 Rg8 64.Bb1 Ke7 65.Ne5 Ra8 65...Kd6 66.Nf3 Ke7 66.Bd3 Rc8 67.Nc6+ Kd6 68.Ne5? White should play 68.Kd2+- 68...Rf8? 68...Ke7!= and Black has nothing to worry. 69.exd5 exd5 70.Bf5 Re8 71.Kd3 aiming for Nf7+. Re7 72.Bg6 Ra7 73.Ke3 Ke6 74.Bf5+ Kd6 75.Kd2 Ra2+ 76.Kc3 Ra3+ 77.Kb4 Ra7 78.Bc2 Ke6 79.Nc6 Ra2 79...Ra8± keeps fighting. 80.Bd3 Kd6 80.Kb3 Ra1?
Now Black is done in. 80...Ra8± might work better. 81.Ne5 Ra7 82.Bf5+ Kd6 81.Kc3 81.Bf5+!+- is the precise move to win. Kd6 82.Nd8 81...Rc1 81...Kd6± was worth a try. 82.Bf5 Ra8 82.Ne5 Rg1? 82...Ke7 83.Nf3 Kf6 83.Bf5+ Ke7
84.Nd7! Rc1+ 85.Kb3 Rc4 86.Nxb6 Double Attack Rxd4 87.Kc3 Rd1 88.Nc8+ Kd8 89.b6 d4+ 90.Kc2 90.Kb2+- Rd2+ 91.Kb3 90...Re1 91.Nd6 91.Na7 d3+ 92.Kb2 Re2+ 93.Kb3 Rc2 94.Bxd3 Rh2 95.Nc6+ Kc8 96.Ba6+ Kd7 97.b7 91...Re3 92.Nf7+ Double Attack. White mates. Ke7 93.b7 d3+ 94.Kd1 Accuracy: White = 76%, Black = 63%.
1–0
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Caruana,F2828Duda,J27571–020208th Altibox Norway Chess 20202

Fabiano Caruana

Sole leader Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Aronian 3:0 Tari

Surely Aryan Tari, the lowest-rated player in the field, must have prepared heavily to face such strong opposition in this tournament. Playing black against Aronian, he went for the Marshall Attack, a system he used for the first time in his life on Tuesday:

 
Aronian vs. Tari
Position after 28...Be4

In this system, Black gives a pawn early on to get a strong initiative against White’s king. Unfortunately for Tari, though, Aronian has played this so much with the black pieces that he knows — and remembered, despite probably not having prepared it specifically for this game — how to tamper the attack. 

In the diagrammed position, White played 29.Qg4, and after 29...Qxg4 30.Nxg4 f5 31.Ne5 White has managed to consolidate his position a pawn up. From that point on, Aronian played precisely until getting his first victory of the event. The Armenian quipped:

I wasn’t worried at all, I’ve seen this happening so many times...

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Re1 Bd6 13.g3 Bf5 C89: Closed Ruy Lopez: Marshall Attack. 14.d4 Qf6 15.Be3 Qg6 White is slightly better. 16.Nd2 Rae8 17.Qf3
17...Bg4N Predecessor: 17...h5 18.a4 b4 19.Bxd5 cxd5 20.Qxd5 bxc3 21.bxc3 h4 22.Qg2 hxg3 23.fxg3 Rc8 1-0 (47) Fernandez Cardoso,A (2445)-Marrero Lopez,Y (2242) Matanzas 2017 18.Qg2 Qh5 19.h4 Be2 20.Nf1 Re6 21.Bd2 Rfe8 22.a4 Bf3 23.Rxe6! Rxe6 24.Qh3 Bg4 25.Qh2 h6 26.axb5 axb5 27.Ne3 Bf3 Black cannot hold the game after this. Better is 27...Nxe3! 28.Bxe6 28.fxe3 Re7= 28.Bxe3 Re8 28...Bxe6 29.Bxe3 Qe2 28.Qh3 White is in control. Be4 29.Qg4 Qxg4 30.Nxg4 f5
31.Ne5! Bxe5 32.dxe5 Kf8 32...Bf3± 33.f4+- Re7 34.Bxd5 cxd5 Endgame KRB-KRB 35.Be3
And now Bc5 would win. 35...Rc7 36.Ra5 Bd3 37.Bd4 Rc6 38.Kf2 h5 39.Ke3 Bc4 40.Ra3 Rg6? 40...Bf1 41.Ra7 Kg8 41.b3 Bf1 42.Bc5+ Ke8 43.Bb4 Bg2? 43...d4+ 44.Kf2 Bd3 45.cxd4 Be4 44.Kd4 White is clearly winning. Rc6 45.Ra7 g6 46.Re7+ Kd8 47.e6 Rc7 48.Rf7 Accuracy: White = 93%, Black = 51%.
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aronian,L2767Tari,A26331–020208th Altibox Norway Chess 20202

Levon Aronian

Birthday boy Levon Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes


Standings after Round 2

1. Caruana 6
2-3. Aronian, Firouzja 4
4. Carlsen 3
5-6.  Duda, Tari 0

Round 3 pairings

Aryan Tari – Magnus Carlsen
Jan-Krzysztof Duda – Levon Aronian
Alireza Firouzja – Fabiano Caruana


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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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