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All photos by Tone Marie Haubrick
When first announced, the Norway Chess tournament was touted as the first tournament to feature the all the Top 10 players. This is still almost true, and the organizers cannot be blamed for lack of prescience as a couple of the top ten were moved around. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov surged incredibly with a monster 28 Elo gain in a single list, while Ding Liren continued his superb phase. Nevertheless, if two players ‘left’ the Top 10, it is by a handful of Elo, a bit like saying that the two-meter tall man is now beat by another who is one centimeter taller. The list of players is of course, mouthwatering for chess fans:
|
Rk |
Name |
FIDE Elo |
Blitz Elo |
Age |
| 1 | Carlsen | 2832.0 | 2943.8 | 26 |
| 2 | So | 2812.0 | 2784.2 | 23 |
| 3 | Kramnik | 2808.0 | 2759.8 | 41 |
| 4 | Caruana | 2808.0 | 2770.6 | 24 |
| 6 | Vachier-Lagrave | 2796.0 | 2828.8 | 26 |
| 7 | Aronian | 2793.0 | 2786.4 | 34 |
| 8 | Anand | 2786.0 | 2755.8 | 47 |
| 9 | Nakamura | 2785.0 | 2878.0 | 29 |
| 11 | Karjakin | 2781.0 | 2794.2 | 27 |
| 12 | Giri | 2771.0 | 2723.4 | 22 |
The list is hardly an entire makeover from previous years, at least not in spirit, but a few changes are worth noting: the rise of Wesley So to clear no.2 over the past year, bringing him a string of tournament wins, a superb 67 unbeaten game streak (just two shy of Sam Shankland’s 69-game run in 2014-15), and a serious narrowing of just 20 Elo from no.1 to no.2. There can be no question that behind Magnus Carlsen himself, Wesley So will be the player most closely followed, to see whether he can continue this streak.
Naturally, this is not to suggest that the only players of note are those two, nor that this is a two-horse race. Sergey Karjakin’s wins at the first editions of Norway Chess certainly should put that ludicrous idea to rest, but the fact remains, with a mere 20 Elo between the world no.1 and no.2 (and just 24 Elo separating him), any seriously divergent results could also mean a change in the top spots.
Magnus Carlsen is all too aware of this of course, and has never been one to shirk a challenge. His fighting spirit is unquestioned, and he began in the opening blitz tournament, organized to determine the pairings of the event. The top five players would get an extra white, but ‘top five’ was not what the World Champion had in mind, and he was in imperial form as he steamrolled the field with a fantastic 7.5/9, raising his FIDE Blitz rating to 2948.
World no.1, Magnus Carlsen's supremacy has never been challenged as seriously as this past year
The very first round of the blitz event was between top two blitz players, Carlsen and Nakamura. The game was hard-fought and seemed to favor Magnus, but Hikaru showed his trademark resilience and held on.
His form was impressive, as can be seen by his beautiful win over Sergey Karjakin below:
Levon Aronian has also been in good form, and had a fantastic event at Grenke, where he took first ahead of Carlsen. Wesley So (right) was not stellar in the blitz though, and came in 8th. He will face Carlsen in the first round.
Vishy Anand and Sergey Karjakin are two more players rounding up the roster. They are also the most recent challengers for the world title match against Magnus Carlsen.
Blitz crosstable
You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.
