Carlsen and Svidler qualify for final in Gjøvik

Chess Festival in Gjøvik, Norway

The Aker Chess Challenge is being played in the main auditorium of Gjøvik cinema, under the same roof as Thon Hotel, where Simen Agdestein in 1991 played a 2-2 drawn match with classic time controls against the long reigning world champion Anatolij Karpov.

The event consists of a double-round robin tournament, followed by a bronze final and a final. That is a total of eight rounds, plus if necessary sudden death blitz games. Time controls are 25 minutes per game, with 5 seconds increment per move. The games have a running commentary for spectators in an adjoining auditorium, and are also being transmitted live on Playchess and by the official web site (link below).

Results of rounds 5 + 6 (and tiebreaks)

Carlsen,M (2776) - Svidler,P (2723) [C88]
Aker CC Rapid Gjovik NOR (5), 04.01.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 b4 9.d3 d6 10.Nbd2 Be6 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Nf1 Qd7 13.Ng3 Nd8 14.c3 bxc3 15.bxc3 c5 16.d4 exd4 17.cxd4 Nc6 18.Ba3 Rac8 19.dxc5 dxc5 20.Qe2

20...Nb4? 21.Qc4 Rfd8 22.Ne5 Qe8 23.Qxe6+ Kf8 24.Qc4 Bd6 25.Nf3 Bxg3 26.hxg3 Qf7 27.Qe2 Qe6 28.Ng5 Qe5 29.f4 Qd4+ 30.Kh1 Rc6 31.Bxb4 cxb4 32.Rad1 Qb6 33.e5 Nd5 34.e6 Ke7 35.Qh5 1-0.

Lie,K (2539) - Nakamura,Hi (2699) [B00]
Aker CC Rapid Gjovik NOR (5), 04.01.2009
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 a6 4.a4 Bg7 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2 Nd7 7.Be3 Rc8 8.0-0 c5 9.d5 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Ngf6 11.a5 0-0 12.Be2 Ne8 13.Qd2 Nc7 14.Rab1 b5 15.axb6 Nxb6 16.b4 cxb4 17.Na2 Nb5 18.Rxb4 Nd7 19.Bxb5 axb5 20.Rxb5 Qc7 21.Nb4 Qc4 22.Qd3 Ne5 23.Qxc4 Rxc4 24.f3 f5 25.Bg5 Re8 26.exf5 gxf5

27.f4 Ng6 28.h4 h6 29.h5 hxg5 30.hxg6 Bd4+ 31.Kh2 gxf4 32.Nd3 Kg7

33.Nxf4? Be5 34.Kg3 Rec8 35.Rb3 Rxf4 and now if 36.Rxf4 Rc4 37.Rbf3 Kxg6 and 38...Kg5 wins the pinned rook. 0-1.

Start of round six: Peter Svidler vs Kjetil Lie and Hikaru Nakamura vs Magnus Carlsen

Nakamura,Hi (2699) - Carlsen,M (2776) [D14]
Aker CC Rapid Gjovik NOR (6), 04.01.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.d4 d5 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bf4 Bf5 7.e3 e6 8.Bd3 Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Bd6 10.Bxd6 Qxd6 11.0-0 0-0 12.Rac1 ½-½. No diagrams or commentary. Nakamura, one of the most experienced blitz players in the world, apparently wants to settle things in the tiebreak.

Round six with Svidler-Lie under way, while Nakamura-Carlsen is over

Carlsen,M (2776) - Svidler,P (2723) [C76]
Aker CC Blitz Gjovik NOR (2), 04.01.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 g6 5.c3 d6 6.d4 Bd7 7.0-0 Bg7 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Be3 Nf6 10.Nbd2 0-0 11.Re1 Re8 12.h3 Qc8 13.Qe2 Nd8 14.Bxd7 Nxd7 15.Red1 Ne6 16.a4 Nb8 17.Qc4 Nc6 18.b4 Rd8 19.Nb3 Rxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Qe8 21.Ng5 Rd8 22.Rxd8 Ncxd8 23.Nxe6 Nxe6 24.Na5 b5 25.axb5 axb5 26.Qd5 Nf4 27.Qd2 h5 28.h4 Ne6 29.g3 Qa8 30.Qd5 Qxd5 31.exd5 Nd8 32.c4 bxc4 33.Nxc4 f6 34.b5 Bf8?

With his last move Black, who is under pressure, simply gives up a pawn: 35.Ba7 Kf7 36.Bb8 Ke7 37.Bxc7 Nb7 38.Kf1 Kd7 39.b6 e4 40.Ke2 Bc5 41.Nd2 f5 42.Nc4 1-0.

Standings after the qualification rounds

Schedule and results

The GM Swiss Tournament in Gjøvik

A strong and challenging tournament with many grandmasters, at least six above 2600, is taking place as part of the Chess Festival in Gjøvik. It offers good opportunities for title norms of all types. The tournament was open for players with GM-, IM-, WGM-, WIM-, FM- or WFM-titles, and anyone else with an official FIDE rating of at least 2100 at registration. A limited number of players with rating below 2100 were included. The tournament is being played at the Thon Hotel Gjøvik.

The event is a nine round Swiss, one round a day except at the free day Saturday January 3rd, when it was possible to participate in the Open Norwegian Rapid-chess Championship. Time limits: 40 moves in two hours, then 20 moves in one hour, and finally 30 minutes for the rest of the game (total seven hours). Money prizes: numbers 1-15 get Euro 2000, 1500, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 300, 250, 200, 175, 150, 140, 130, 120, 100, plus 250 Euro to the best female player, to the best player with rating 2200-2299 and the best player with rating under 2200. In total 8615 Euro.

Standings after six rounds

Gudmund Stenersen, 2189,vs top seed Sergey Tiviakov in round one (result: 0-1)

GM Kaido Kulaots, Estonia, vs second seed GM Boris Savchenko, Russia

A view of the GM Swiss Tournament in Gjøvik

Fifth seed GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, 2615

Wintry landscape of Gjøvik in Norway

The main shopping street – completely deserted on this 1st of January holiday

All photos provided by Galina Tiviakova

Links Official tournament site All games from the Aker Chess Challenge in PGN All games from the Gjøvik GM Swiss in zipped 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.