Norway Chess 2013

The Norway Chess 2013 Super Tournament is one of the strongest super tournaments ever and is held from May 7th to 18th 2013 in several different locations in the Stavanger-region of Norway: Quality Residence Hotel, Sandnes (six rounds); Stavanger Konserthus, Stavanger (one round); Fabrikkhallen til Aarbakke AS, Bryne (one round); Flor & Fjære, Sør-Hidle (one round).

Tourney structure: nine-round round robin Time control: 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 minutes/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the first move Game start: daily 15:00 (server time), last round 12:00 Rest day: 11th May and 16th May Rules & Tiebreak Rules: The “Sofia rules” will apply. A tie for first place will be decided by a blitz match.

Round six

The spectators enjoy a very intimate view of the elite event

If the sixth round could be summed up in a word, it would be ‘intense’, but to try and define it with one word, would be a slight of no small proportions to the players who gave it their all. They took risks, poured their inspiration and perspiration on the board, and essentially held nothing back. The poor commentators usually have only a game or two to center their focus on, giving brief highlights of the others as they progress, had no such luck today. GM Daniel King trying to make sense of so many sharp positions quailed jokingly “My brain is hurting.”

The first game to end was not a draw as one might expect, but an explosive Gruenfeld between Levon Aronian and Jon Hammer in which the Norwegian entered a line considered dubious, and paid the price for his temerity. Usually the price in such situations is significant suffering, but the Armenian took it on himself to get an early rest as he brought his d-pawn to the seventh rank by move 23 forcing resignation the move after.

A representative of the sponsor Lyse makes the first move

Veselin Topalov and Wang Hao played the only game that did not require warnings to people with heart conditions and played a main line Queen’s Gambit Accepted that led to nothing for either side. This ended in a draw after they had exhausted their options.

The soft-spoken Veselin Topalov and Wang Hao

Although Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler played a draw that lasted one move less than the aforementioned game, it was an entirely different story. The American sprang the very rare grandmaster guest: the Ponziani, which although he has played before in 2007, and was even essayed by Carlsen this year at Wijk, could not have been the prime focus of Svidler’s preparation.

Hikaru Nakamura shows his support of his football team

As it turned out, the Russian was quite familiar with it, but was alarmed at the way his opponent was blitzing out his moves and kept trying to find a way to break away from theory without actually doing anything suicidal. His choice was 9…Bg4, which looked decidedly odd, but the result was an extremely sharp game that had ‘anything can happen’ written all over it. With both kings highly exposed, it was no shock to see it end in a forced repetition after a sacrifice.

The game by Viswanathan Anand and Sergey Karjakin was one of both beauty and tragedy. After his loss yesterday, a big question mark was how the Russian would respond to the setback. In a sense this seemed to presume he was calling the shots, and ignored his illustrious opponent, but the world champion quickly stamped his authority and who was who. Karjakin played the Ruy Lopez Berlin, usually synonymous of exchanged queens and a lot of maneuvering, but Anand was having none of it, and 4.d3 said the queens were invited to stay at the party.

It was an inspired game by Vishy Anand, who came 'oh so close' to
drubbing Sergey Karjakin

The position was nevertheless quite controlled for the first twenty moves, and Vishy was the first to show his hand with a none-too-subtle 22.g4 followed by 23.Rg1, and the Russian responded well with Kf7 and g5 taking his king out of the line of fire, trying to blockade the belligerent intentions of the Indian. It was an inspired performance by Anand as he worked the position with great verve, and seemed headed towards a small masterpiece. Many of the threatened lines, as well as those supporting the moves played, were of great beauty, but a tragic oversight with 48.Rh1 allowed the one tempo Sergey needed to get his balance and after 48…Qb5 threatening …Qb3, the win was no more. A bittersweet moment for Anand who has been showing his brilliance but was unable to close the deal, and a huge relief for Karjakin who had been staring at a second defeat in a row, which he might not have recovered from.

Magnus Carlsen played a game against Teimour Radjabov that can easily be recognized as Classic Carlsen. He played an opening, a Tarrasch, and middlegame that garnered him little to nothing, and entered an endgame where he had a microscopic pull to work with and from there began to brew his potion. It took him no fewer than 40 moves to squeeze blood from a stone, but in the end he moved forward within just a half-point behind Sergey Karjakin and three rounds to go.

Magnus Carlsen has nearly caught up with Sergey Karjakin

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Carlsen vs Radjabov

Replay all games

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Pictures by the official site

Standings after six rounds

Playchess commentary schedule

Pairings and results of Norway Chess 2013

Links Official tournament site All 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.