Altibox Norway R1: Nakamura victorious

Altibox Norway Chess has in only a matter of a few years grown to be one of the world’s biggest chess tournaments. Altibox Norway Chess has proven from the start to be a world-class event and is celebrating its 5th anniversary in 2017. This super-tournament had the aim of inviting the ten strongest chess players in the World, and they proclaim themselves as the strongest tournament in the World.

The events began with a 3+2 blitz tournament, won by Magnus Carlsen, to determine the pairing order.

The time control is 100 min for 40 moves + 50 min for 20 moves, + 15 min for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move 61. The prize fund for the main event is 249,000 Euros.

Round One

All photos by Lennart Ootes for the Official Website

Despite the numerous draws, it was quite an interesting day in Norway. Kramnik and Aronian were putting very strong pressure on Karjakin and Caruana respectively, but had to settle for a draw. The only win came from a long endgame squeeze by Nakamura over Giri.

Round one, go!

We kick off with the sole victory. It wasn't the flashiest of games, but it really does showcase Nakamura, who in the past was known for his crazy and aggressive style, as a solid technical player:

A magnificent display of the superiority of bishop over knight by Hikaru

Photo taken before the Rook/Knight vs. Rook/Bishop endgame

MVL was unable to find very much against Vishy Anand in a Caro-Kann, and though the game was rather interesting, it didn't seem as if Black had any real problems. Simplifications led to a drawn pawn endgame.

The Frenchman hit a solid wall in Vishy's Caro-Kann

Carlsen was always the one putting pressure, but it wasn't good enough

Carlsen came out with the Italian looking for a victory against So, but the American proved to be too solid. Despite winning a pawn, the resulting knight endgame was impossible to win for Carlsen due to the reduced amount of pawns and the activity of Black's pieces. The final tactic that simplified into a drawn pawn endgame is rather instructive.

What happens when you lose your no-losses streak? You start counting again!

The other Italian of the day was between Kramnik and Karjakin, a Russian duel that was a close call for the recent challenger for the World Championship

Big Vlad put enormous pressure on his opponent

Caruana essayed the Queen's Gambit Accepted against Aronian, an opening that is not in vogue but has never quite died. This game will do little to bolster its reputation, as the pressure that White exerted straight from the opening was considerable. Aronian, however, played a few inaccurate moves and allowed Black's pieces to reposition. Caruana was able to build a solid configuration, and the presence of opposite colored bishops sealed the draw.

Aronian, who was described by Caruana in the post-mortem as a "cheapo artist". Levon agreed, but today it wasn't enough to reel the full point in.

A tournament wouldn't be complete without a giant chess set

Today's commentators from Norway were Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Nigel Short

Replay games of the round

Pairings and results of Norway Chess 2017

Links

• Official tournament site
• All Blitz 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.