Norway Chess: Carlsen dominant!

Magnus with 2875 performance rating in 2018

In the previous Norway Chess tournaments, Magnus Carlsen seemed to be struggling more than once with his "home advantage". But this year the Norwegian champion seems to be in shining form in front of the home crowd. In round one he showed a strong strategic performance against Fabiano Caruana, his challenger in the upcoming World Championship match, while in round two he easily drew with Black against Sergey Karjakin, his challenger at the previous title fight in New York. In his second white game in Norway, Carlsen scored another victory: a remarkable win in just 31 moves against Levon Aronian.

Aronian already looks worried | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen 1-0 Aronian

Carlsen has had problems with Aronian in many games throughout his career. But in round three of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament, he managed a little gem. After a quiet opening, in a theoretically balanced position, he put Aronian increasingly under pressure with seemingly simple moves. Aronian struggled to find a concept, spent a lot of time and then made a mistake in a difficult position on the 28th move, which allowed Carlsen a petite combinaison, after which the game was over.

How to crack the Berlin Wall with 5.Re1

Alexei Shirov shows on this DVD how White can develop pressure and seize the initiative with 5.Re1 against the Berlin Wall.

Magnus rarely lets this sort of a lead go since he became world number one.

Mamedyarov ½ - ½ Karjakin

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin played the shortest game of the round. After just over an hour, there was a perpetual check on the board and the scoresheets were signed. The game was rich in content, theoretically interesting, tactically complicated, but probably also the result of home preparation, especially considering that in the end, the computer's precision score for Karjakin was 100% and Mamedyarov's was 92%.

My Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is fortunately over his toothache | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Anand ½ - ½ Ding

The second draw of the round came between Vishy Anand and Ding Liren. In a Ruy Lopez line that Ding had already had on the board at the Candidates Tournament in Berlin in March, Anand tried an interesting positional pawn sacrifice. But Ding seemed unimpressed and his active defence ensured a half point without much problems.

Winning with the Ruy Lopez Vol. 1: Berlin Wall and others

Among the open games the only opening with which White can really fight for an advantage in the long term is the Ruy Lopez. But in order to make this serious effort, he has buckle down and learn a whole series of sub-variations. That is what the professionals do, including of course Viktor Bologan, who now reveals the secrets of his own grandmaster repertoire.

Ding Liren, currently number four in the world on the live rating list

Vachier-Lagrave ½ - ½ Caruana

An unspectacular draw came about in the game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana. In the Petroff Defence with 6...Bd6 there was a brief tactical skirmish in the opening leading to a position in which White had the pair of bishops, but also considerable pawn weaknesses. This eventually led to multiple exchanges and a draw in forty moves.

So ½ - ½ Nakamura

The American duel between Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura was fiercely contested but also ended in a draw. In Queen's Gambit Lasker Defense, Nakamura sacrificed a pawn early to pressurize White and complicate the game. But before Nakamura could get too much compensation, So pulled the emergency brake and gave back the pawn resulting in a complicated but balanced endgame, which soon levelled out to a draw after 47 moves.

Queen's Gambit Declined - A repertoire for Black based on the Lasker Variation

On this DVD, Sam Collins presents a repertoire for Black based on the rock-solid Lasker variation, reinvigorated with new ideas by former World Champion Vishy Anand and forming the cornerstone of many strong GM repertoires today.

Standings after three rounds

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	TB	Perf.
1	GM	Carlsen,M GM Carlsen,M 2843 1 GM Caruana,F 2822 1 2 GM Karjakin,S 2782 ½ 3 GM Aronian,L 2764 1 Ø 2789 2.5/3	2843		2.5	3		½			1			1		2.75	3062
2	GM	Karjakin,S GM Karjakin,S 2782 1 GM So,W 2778 ½ 2 GM Carlsen,M 2843 ½ 3 GM Mamedyarov,S 2808 ½ Ø 2810 1.5/3	2782		1.5	3	½		½	½						2.75	2810
3	GM	Mamedyarov,S GM Mamedyarov,S 2808 1 GM Vachier-Lagrave,M 2789 ½ 2 GM Caruana,F 2822 ½ 3 GM Karjakin,S 2782 ½ Ø 2798 1.5/3	2808		1.5	3		½			½	½				1.75	2798
4	GM	So,W GM So,W 2778 1 GM Karjakin,S 2782 ½ 2 GM Aronian,L 2764 ½ 3 GM Nakamura,H 2769 ½ Ø 2772 1.5/3	2778		1.5	3		½					½	½		1.75	2772
5	GM	Caruana,F GM Caruana,F 2822 1 GM Carlsen,M 2843 0 2 GM Mamedyarov,S 2808 ½ 3 GM Vachier-Lagrave,M 2789 ½ Ø 2813 1/3	2822		1.0	3	0		½			½				1.25	2688
6	GM	Vachier-Lagrave,M GM Vachier-Lagrave,M 2789 1 GM Mamedyarov,S 2808 ½ 3 GM Caruana,F 2822 ½ Ø 2815 1/2	2789		1.0	2			½		½					1.25	2815
7	GM	Nakamura,H GM Nakamura,H 2769 2 GM Anand,V 2760 ½ 3 GM So,W 2778 ½ Ø 2769 1/2	2769		1.0	2				½					½	1.25	2769
8	GM	Aronian,L GM Aronian,L 2764 1 GM Anand,V 2760 ½ 2 GM So,W 2778 ½ 3 GM Carlsen,M 2843 0 Ø 2794 1/3	2764		1.0	3	0			½					½	1.25	2669
9	GM	Anand,V GM Anand,V 2760 1 GM Aronian,L 2764 ½ 2 GM Nakamura,H 2769 ½ Ø 2767 1/2	2760		1.0	2							½	½		1.00	2767
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

All games of the round

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Links

• All stories about Norway Chess 2017
• Altibox Norway Chess 2018: So wins blitz tournament
• Round 1: Carlsen starts with the only win
• Round 2: Draw round for the die-hards