Norway 07: All drawn

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. Not only one of the strongest tournaments in the World, Norway 2015 is also part of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour, which includes the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic later this year.

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Grischuk, Alexander
Nakamura wanted to up the pressure on Topalov by winning his game against Grischuk. His variation of the symmetrical English led to an interesting position, and his quick movements put the Russian player against the wall in terms of time management. However, Grischuk played precisely and even obtained a very slight edge. Nakamura neutralized it, by but that point the game was simplified into a draw.

A hard-fought draw

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Carlsen, Magnus
A short game, but one that was relatively interesting. Carlsen, tongue in cheek, mentioned that people "should not try this at home" - mentioning that the variation that he chose was extremely risky. Ironic, for two reasons: first that it was obvious he had played this position in his home during an analysis session, and second because he played it in Norway!

Analyzing this game the pawn sacrifice jumped at me as a possibility

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
Sixteen moves of theory, in which the Armenian supposedly had a new idea. However Anand equalized without problems. Aronian accepted a repetition of moves in a position that could have been played on, but offered no better chances for White.

Levon was not too happy with a quick draw in his game

Hammer, Jon Ludvig ½-½ Giri, Anish
Trying to win with black is always risky, as against a strong opponent it is easy to fall into a worse position when one violates certain opening principles. This is exactly what happened today as the Norwegian player was better throughout the entire game. Giri's Modern defense certainly did not pay off. Hammer did not play too accurately in the endgame, however, and his exchange of a bishop for a knight was not precise. Giri set up a fortress that could not be penetrated, though Hammer was readying himself to torture Giri for a long time. A slip by Hammer allowed a three-fold repetition that was far from obvious (the first position occurred ten moves before the second iteration) and the game was drawn.

Hammer was about to try to break Giri's fortress... but he walked into three-fold repetition!
The game was objectively drawn anyway.

Topalov, Veselin ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
A very solid Grunfeld that could have been drawn easily in the following position, but Topalov made it hard on himself:

Topalov never thought he had any issues, but that is arguable

Blitz Marathon

photo courtesy of Norway Chess

This might look like a random blitz game, but that is not the case! The match Magne Sagafos vs. Joachim Berg Jousen is a long one! Trying to break the Guiness World Record of consecutive blitz chess between two players, they are prepared to go for a total of 80 hours straight! The record currently sits at only 40 (only?!). The rules are that the players must continuously play chess for the duration of the event. They have five minute breaks every hour that accrue (so after twelve hours they accumulate one hour of rest). An amazing achievement if they can manage!

Round Seven Games

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Standings after seven rounds

Playchess commentator schedule

Tournament schedule

Links Official tournament site Grand Tour official site and commentary Blitz games in PGN Classical 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.