Chess960 advocates could not have wished for better advertising for their beloved variant: with Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, two very creative players are hard at work producing exciting games. This form of chess was once strongly promoted by German tournament organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt and his Chesstigers team in Frankfurt and Bad Soden and also put into practice in the Mainz Chess Classic which produced Nakamura as the "Chess960 World Champion", in 2009.
The ceremonial first move was made by artist Dag Alveng | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com
In classical chess, the fear of the supposed "draw death" crops up periodically, generally whenever there is a tournament featuring top players, but few decisive games. One reason for the drawing tendency among the top players is supposedly the intensive opening preparation required in "classical chess". Some openings seemed to be "analysed to the end". Many GMs consider the starting position to be a draw, in theory, including Garry Kasparov. So the idea arose, to expand the number of possible starting positions according to a defined set of rules. The pawns stay where they are, but the other pieces can be anywhere on the back rank, provided the bishops are balanced (one light-squared, one dark-squared). This scrambles opening preparation, and new plans and strategies arise in positions that are hardly explored.
The proposal for ramdomising the basic position came from Robert Fischer and so this form of chess was also called "Fischer Random" until the Chesstigers found the more neutral name "Chess960".
The Chess960 competition between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura forms the supporting program for an exhibition at the Henie Onstad Art Center, just outside Oslo (in Høvikodden). From February 9th to 13th, and Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are in the midst of a 16 game match. The first eight games are played at the rapid chess time control of 45 minutes for 40 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game. There is no increment, so at the end of each period there can be major time scrambles. The last eight games on Tuesday are played with a 10-minute plus 5 seconds per move.
The "long" games are worth double — that is two points for a win, one point for a draw. The "short" games are scored as usual: one point for a win, half a point for a draw. Of course zero points for a loss in both cases.
The arbiter of the competition is the well-known Norwegian writer and chess enthusiast Hans Olav Lahlum.
Hans Olav Lahlum with Eric van Reem from the Chesstiger's team | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com
The first three games of the competition ended in a draw. On Saturday Magnus Carlsen won the fourth game. Yesterday there were two very exciting games. Nakamura won the first game of the day and Carlsen claimed victory in the second game.
1.d4 d5 2.Nb3 e5 3.dxe5 Rxe5 4.Bf4 Re8 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Bd2 Nb6 7.e4 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 dxe4 9.Qd1 f5 10.Qd4 Ne6 11.Qe5 O-O
Play through the moves on the live diagram
12.Nc5 Re7 13.Rd1 (13.Be2 Rff7 14.O-O-O! would have been an interesting alternative way to get the rook to the d-file!) 13...Rff7 14.Be2 Nf8 15.Qf4 Ng6 16.Qg3 f4 17.Rd8+ Rf8 18.Rxf8+ Kxf8 19.Qg5 c6 20.h4 f3 21.gxf3 Nf4 22.Bf1 exf3 23.Nd3 Nxd3 24.Bxd3 h6 25.Qg3 Qxg3+ 26.fxg3 Na4
Carlsen played 27.Bd2 but 27.Bb4 c5 28.Ba3 would have been a better way to defend the b2 pawn. 27...Kg8 28.b3 (again 28...Bb4 is better, keeping the knight out) Nb2 29. Bg6 Nd1. It's pretty rare to get a knight on your opponent's first rank! 30.O-O
Hikaru Nakamura after winning game five, with Yasser Seirawan
Once again (as in game 3), neither player opted for castling in this game. Carlsen said after the game that he'd spent just a few minutes between games considering what to do after 1.e4 and decided that 1...e5 was the way to go, but his 2...c5 was already over-the-board inspiration.
Magnus Carlsen on game six, with IM Anna Rudolf
Nakamura extends his hand to end game six | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com
No change in the point margin as we head into the final pair of rapid games on Monday. Same time, new starting position!
Live commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Anna Rudolf
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
