Norway Chess: Caruana wins to stand above the rest

by André Schulz
6/8/2018 – Tension to the end! After Carlsen and Vachier-Lagrave drew early and Nakamura and Aronian followed the example a bit later, it was up to Caruana and So to decide if we would see a clear winner or a five-way playoff. So attacked bravely, but in a wild time-scramble, Caruana gained the upper hand and thus became tournament winner. Games annotated by GMs DANIEL FERNANDEZ and DANIEL KING | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess

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Two consecutive tournament wins ahead of Carlsen

Four players were at the top in the Norway Chess tournament at the start of round nine: Wesley So, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Caruana and So met each other, while Carlsen was dealt black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Nakamura faced off against Levon Aronian, also with black. Even Viswanathan Anand, with 3½ points, had chances jump into a tie for first with a win, although the 15th World Champion was black as well, against Sergey Karjakin.

Last round excitement | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen, was in no mood to take any chances against Vachier-Lagrave. When the game was in full swing on just move 17, the players began repeating moves in a position reached several times before. It certainly played a role that the two players trained together for Carlsen's 2016 World Championship title defence, as Magnus himself pointed out in the "confession box" (in Norwegian):

Carlsen explained that they had studied this line and it was a bit boring (56 seconds, Norwegian)

The World Champion conceded half the point. Considering his chances to reach a tiebreak as about 50/50, he was content to watch his rivals fight it out.

Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura followed a variation of the Queen's Gambit which they had played once before, last year in London, through the 20th move.

 
Aronian vs Nakamura

With 20...Nge6, Black deviated from their previous encounter. The game continued for more than 20 moves, but there was no great tension. Gradually, most of the pieces disappeared and ultimately it made little sense to play the rook endgame.

 
Aronian vs Nakamura
Draw

A World Champion's Repertoire against the Queen's Gambit Declined

This DVD offers a complete repertoire for handling this solid opening, often featuring a dynamic approach to pose the opponent more practical problems. Both of the main continuations 3...Nf6 and 3...Be7 are covered in two separate parts.


Like Aronian and Nakamura, Karjakin and Anand also fought their game in the terrain of the of the Bf4 variation in the Queen's Gambit Declined. Karjakin chose a line with long castling and Anand answered with a plan Karjakin himself played against Ivanchuk last year. Karjakin, in contrast to Ivanchuk, followed an earlier stem game, Kasparov-Vaganian, 1992, when he played 13.Rxd5 (also the engine's top choice) and here Anand had a small innovation in store.

 
Karjakin vs Anand
Anand played 13...exf4 which is better than Vaganian's 13...f5.

Karjakin vs Anand

Karjakin and Anand

In a spirited game, chances were equal for some time, until Karjakin had a blackout.

 
Karjakin vs Anand
Position after 25...Qe2

Here White played 26.h4? and after 26...Ne5 the black knight has dual threats against c4 and also the more gruesome ugly 27... Ng4. The game lasted a few more moves, but White could not recover from the blow. A disappointing end to the tournament for Karjakin.

Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So entered an initially calm variation of the Ruy Lopez. Then So launched his g-pawn on the kingside, going for an attack whil castling on the opposite side, and the game's intensity begame to ramp up.

 
Caruana vs So
Position after 16...O-O-O

On the 32nd move, the pace quickened further as the players ran low on time. So sacrificed a pawn with 32...e4 and attacked the white king with Qe5 and Ng4. 

Caruana vs So

The game reaches a critical phase | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Caruana defended himself and, at move 40, he thought he was winning — but he had overlooked a perpetual check opportunity after 41...Rd2 (instead of 41...Rd3 as So played in the game). Here's that fateful moment as seen on the live webcast:

So played Rd3 almost instantly, despite having earned an extra 50 minutes on the clock to consider his options — a huge oversight.

When the dust settled, So found himself in a hopeless endgame with a queen against two rooks and a bishop — not enough to continue playing, and tournament victory for Caruana.

“It’s just a lucky break for me,” Caruana noted afterwards, adding that while two tournament wins ahead of Carlsen is fantastic, he was not as proud of this one as his April triumph in Baden-Baden. He credited the pleasant Norwegian summer weather as providing important distraction after his first-round loss to Carlsen, and also noted the irony that he had been teamed up with Karjakin in the friendly rest-day cooking competition, only to go on to beat the Russian in their direct encounter the following day.

Here were the winner's thoughts in full, shortly after the game:

Caruana with commentators GM Simen Agdestein and IM Anna Rudolf

Congratulations quickly poured in on Twitter, many of which resembled this from Danish FM Carsten Hansen:


Final standings

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Round 9 round-up show

GM Daniel King provides our final daily video review


Games of Round 9 (annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez)

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Berlin invited and declined. Now Black has a reasonable range of options. Bc5 4...Ne7!? is a nice 'tricky' line, trying to play as if this was an Italian and not a Spanish. Black will continue ...Ng6, ...Bc5, ...0-0, ...a6, ...d6 if allowed, and abstain from ... c6. 4...d6 is of course normal: 5.c3 g6 6.0-0 Bg7 7.Re1 0-0 8.Nbd2 a6 8...Nb8!? is playable, and according to my database has been chosen exclusively by the Soviet grandmaster Yemelin (a total of 5 occurrences!) 9.Ba4 b5 10.Bc2 Bb7 11.Nf1 Nb8!? For me this is a trademark Howell manoeuvre. Black went on to win in McShane,L -Howell,D London 2017. 5.0-0 Nd4!? Partly 'telegraphed' by the previous move (though 4...d6 is still more common.) My understanding used to be that Black was slightly worse after this move, but maybe after annotating the present game and seeing a comprehensive list of world elite players having taken the Black side, that will have to change. 5...0-0? 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Nxe5± is now essentially just a pawn. 6.Nxd4 Bxd4 7.Ba4 Presumably there is some move-order subtlety going on here beneath the surface. My best guess is that White is 'threatening' Nd2 with this move, and Black faces problems preserving his d4-bishop. 7.c3 Bb6 8.Na3 0-0 8...c6!? would be the 'Yugoslav approach': 9.Ba4 h6 10.d4 d6= and as usual Black should not really fear the misplacement of his king in such lines with a queen exchange. 9.Bg5 c6 10.Ba4 h6 11.Bh4 d6 11...d5!? seems to equalise, though it is harder to play Black with the loose central pawns: 12.exd5 cxd5 13.Re1 Bc7 12.Nc4 Bc7 13.Ne3 Bb6 14.Qf3 Karjakin as Black limped to a draw a pawn down against Anand here in the blitz section of last year's Norway chess event. 7...c6 7...0-0 looks perfectly playable: while it is usually advisable for Black to go ...c6 in such lines, it is not a biblical commandment. 8.Nd2 d6! 9.c3 Bb6 10.Nc4! Presumably this was Black's problem- these configurations with a bishop pair that White can take 'on demand' are generally a little inauspicious. However in this case, I doubt Black is worse after Be6 11.Nxb6 axb6 and now White's most natural choice 12.f4 is met by the computerish b5! 13.Bxb5 c6 14.Ba4 Qb6+ 15.Kh1 Ng4= 8.c3 Bb6 9.Na3 d6 9...0-0 transposes to the note to White's 7th. 10.Bc2 10.Bb3 is very 'Italian', but does seem like a second semi-waste of a tempo, this bishop not having been obligated to move at all. a5 11.Nc4 Ba7! Also in Italian style. 12.a4 0-0 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bxf6?! 14.Bh4 g5 15.Bg3 Bg4= 14...Qxf6 15.Nxa5 d5! Black had obtained his preparation and was ultimately successful in Carlsen-Aronian, European Team Championships 2015. 10...Be6 11.Qe2 h6 11...0-0 was more modest, and probably best, since a madcap kingside attack is unlikely to work well at this level, but the text does make the game interesting. 12.Kh1 g5 13.Nc4 Bc7 14.Ne3 Around this phase I was unable to find many reasons to play one move first rather than another, since in any case it is impossible to discourage Black from playing ...d5. 14.a4 is another generally useful move that features in most of White's plans. 14.Rd1!? followed by d4 is independent, but maybe now Black would revert to the original plan and play 0-0 15.Ne3 15.d4 Bxc4 16.Qxc4 d5= 15...d5= 14...d5 15.Re1 Qe7 15...d4 16.Nf5 Bxf5 17.exf5 Kf8= was the engine suggestion, the rationale being that Black is probably going to eventually trade this pair of minor pieces on f5 in any case. 16.a4 0-0-0 17.Rb1?! 17.exd5 Nxd5 18.Nxd5 Bxd5 19.Be3= might have been better, with approximate equality. The text was an indication that White believed himself to be better, possibly significantly so. 17...d4 18.Nf1 Bb6?! This is a hard move to explain with any sort of rationale other than possibly being excessively obsessed with how to take back on d4. 18...Nd7 is my engine choice, maybe thinking about an eventual ...f5. The irony of this position is that it is Black's c7-bishop rather than White's c2-bishop which might be opened soon in a 'Spanish' way. 18...g4! is the move that makes most sense to me. Probably what Wesley didn't like was 19.cxd4 exd4 20.f4?! when it looks like there is a risk of being outflanked, but after a solid continuation like gxf3 21.Qxf3 Ng4! Black is doing extremely well. 19.Bd2 Bg4 20.f3 Be6 21.Ng3 So Black has created his 'hook' in White's position, but it is all a bit slow and there is a real risk of getting outflanked along the f-file. Rhg8 21...Ne8 22.c4 Ng7 23.b4 h5 might have been an interesting race, but the engine opines that White can play 24.Nf5 anyway and be better. 22.b4 Now White has near-total control over the events to come. g4 23.a5 23.cxd4 Bxd4 24.f4 is another way, and maybe the best one. 23...dxc3! A very good practical decision. 23...Bc7 24.Rf1 24.Bxc3 Bd4 25.Bxd4 Rxd4 26.b5 Losing claim to an advantage in my opinion. 26.f4 exf4 27.Qf2 Rgd8 28.Ne2 g3 29.Qxf4 Nh5 30.Qe5 Qh4 31.Nxg3 Nxg3+ 32.Qxg3 Qxg3 33.hxg3= Black is not totally out of the woods yet, even if he might appear to have great compensation. 26...c5 26...cxb5 27.Rxb5 Rb4= is relatively okay for Black. 27.Bb3 27.b6 a6 28.Rf1 led to a significant plus, as after the feared c4 there is 29.f4! among other things. 27...h5 28.Nf5 Bxf5 29.exf5 Re8 29...gxf3 30.Qxf3 Ng4 was a scary option to choose in a game, as White can choose no fewer than three pawns to push to the 6th rank, but the engine is unfazed and claims Black has equalised. 30.Rbc1 gxf3?! Now this is a dubious decision. Chess is such a fickle game sometimes. 30...Kb8 31.Bc4 Nd5 31.Qxf3 Red8 32.Bc4 32.a6! Rxd3 33.axb7+ Kb8 34.Qc6 Rxb3 35.Rxc5± White wins back the piece with a strong attack. 32...e4 33.dxe4 Qe5 33...Rxe4 34.Be6+!± 34.Bxf7 Rd3 35.Qf2 R8d4 36.Bd5 Kd7 37.b6?! Now Black gets back in the game a little. 37.Rxc5! was playable, quite natural, and very close to winning. 37...axb6 38.axb6 Ng4 38...Rd2 39.Qg1 Nxd5 40.exd5 Qxd5± is the engine choice. 39.Qg1 Kd8 Possibly quite a big objective mistake, but move 40 was still to come... 39...Rd2 40.Rf1 h4 41.h3 Qg3 White might still win somehow, but it will be hard with his queen boxed in in this way. 40.h3?? 40.Bxb7+- was safe for instance. 40...Rxh3+ 41.gxh3 Rd3?? Black had a miracle draw. 41...Rd2‼ 42.hxg4 hxg4 and White has no way to avoid mate other than giving up his queen. 43.Qg2 Qh8+ 44.Kg1 Rxg2+ 45.Kxg2 Qh3+= 42.Qg2 Rg3 43.hxg4 Rxg2 44.Kxg2 h4 45.Kf3! Now there is no perpetual check and White converts without problems. Qg3+ 46.Ke2 h3 47.Rg1 Qh4 48.e5 A truly dramatic game! 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Caruana,F2822So,W27781–02018C656th Altibox Norway Chess 20189.3
Karjakin,S2782Anand,V27600–12018D376th Altibox Norway Chess 20189.4
Vachier-Lagrave,M2789Carlsen,M2843½–½20186th Altibox Norway Chess 20189.2
Aronian,L2764Nakamura,H2769½–½2018D376th Altibox Norway Chess 20189.5

Translation and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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