Norway 2015 Rd5: Topalov is untouchable at 4.5/5

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.

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 5

Carlsen, Magnus 1-0 Grischuk, Alexander
What a respite for the World Champion! A much needed win after the rest day, and the atrocious start that Carlsen had. He played a decent game, that as he mentioned got interest only after a certain point. Grischuk seemed to have a decent position, but his time pressure trouble, which was completely unnecessary, basically cost him the game:

This guy won a game!

And Norway breathes a sigh of relief! And yet, the two bottom spots are still Norwegian players...

WGM Jennifer Shahade was sick, and today WGM Tatev Abrahamyan brought insightful commentary to the coverage at grandchesstour.com. Meanwhile the dude on the right turned 27 today. Wish him happy birthday below!

Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
Following a game between two non-elite grandmasters, Nakamura obtained a little bit of pressure in a symemtrical pawn structure out of this Nimzo-Indian. Anand's position was slightly unpleasant, but a mistake allowed his pieces, specifically his knights, to jump with incredibly momentum. Nakamura tanked, thinking about 30 minutes when he saw what he had done to his position. Wisely, he simplified into an easily drawn rook endgame.

A very mature decision from Nakamura after messing up his position

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½-½ Giri, Anish
Black equalized easily by out-preparing MVL. This was barely a game.

Aronian, Levon 1-0 Caruana, Fabiano
Another suicidal mission from Caruana. He had been holding solidly in an unpleasant endgame with an isolated pawn, but in another fateful 40th move today, he lost the thread of the game...

Hammer, Jon Ludvig 0-1 Topalov, Veselin
The game that everyone is talking about. Topalov takes a commanding lead in the tournament by beating Jon Ludvig Hammer.. but the way that he got there is simply unbelievable.

Maurice Ashley loved White's position from the opening

Topalov's opening was more than dubious, allowing the Norwegian an impressive initiative. With excellent understanding, White sacrificed a piece to obtain a bind that disallowed Black's pieces from moving. However, he started messing up after that. His unnecessarily passive play gave Topalov all the room he needed to develop his pieces. Hammer obtained three pawns for the piece, but was holding the balance and nothing more.

Just when it seemed everything was over and Hammer earned his hard-fought draw, the following happened:

Hammer was simply disgusted with himself after blundering in such a basic position

With this Topalov has been gifted at least two games with Black (Carlsen forfeiting on time against him from a won position, and Hammer giving up a completely drawn position in one move), while his other Black win was against a very poor showing against MVL. The Bulgarian leads by a full point over Nakamura now, who has a very tough pairings tomorrow as the American is Black against Carlsen!

Round Five Games

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Standings after five 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.