Magnus Carlsen wins Norway Chess for a fourth straight time

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
6/11/2022 – Magnus Carlsen won the Norway Chess Tournament for a fourth time in a row after beating Veselin Topalov in Armageddon on Friday. The world champion would not have grabbed the title had Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Teimour Radjabov in their classical game. Radjabov held the draw despite having almost no time on the clock, allowing Carlsen to once again win his home event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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Mamedyarov falls just short

Magnus Carlsen clinched his fifth Norway Chess title on Friday. This was his fourth consecutive victory in his home event, which had its tenth anniversary this year. The world champion beat Veselin Topalov in Armageddon to finish the tournament with 16½ points, leaving Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in sole second place, a full point behind.

For a while, it seemed likely that Mamedyarov would overtake the eventual champion in the standing, as he had the initiative in his classical game against Teimour Radjabov. Importantly, the latter was under pressure both on the board and on the clock.

At some point, Radjabov had less than 3 minutes with 14 moves to go before reaching move 40, when 10-second increments are implemented — i.e. he had to make difficult decisions which could lead to him being physically unable to reach the control.

 
Mamedyarov vs. Radjabov - Classical

Black clearly needs to be careful in this position. Mamedyarov, who had played faster than his opponent, spent over 5 minutes before deciding on 29.Ng5 here, when 29.gxh5 was a tempting alternative. The cold-blooded engines evaluate this position as equal, but for Radjabov, finding all the right moves under the circumstances was certainly a difficult task.

Radjabov, who will be playing the Candidates starting next week, was up to the task, and managed to hold the draw, which was agreed six moves later — Mamedyarov was an exchange down, and chose to take the mini-match to tiebreakers instead of risking a loss.

By that point, Carlsen had drawn his classical game against Topalov, which meant he had already secured tournament victory.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov

Old friends — Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen has played in every single edition of the Norway Chess super-tournament, an event that has been held yearly since 2013. Notably — given the world champion’s track record — he did not manage a single tournament win until the fourth edition, in 2016. He finished ninth and fourth in 2017 and 2018 respectively, and has won every edition since then.

Thus, the man from Tønsberg has won 5 out of the 10 editions of the Stavanger event. This year, he won three classical games and drew the rest, getting a TRP slightly above his stratospheric 2865 Elo rating. Remarkably, he lost 3 out of 6 Armageddon deciders, and nonetheless managed to win the whole thing.

The world champion explained:

Winning on classical score rather than because I won Armageddon is quite satisfying. I think my play was pretty good for most of the tournament, and then I just completely ran out of steam at the end.

Talking specifically about his last-round classical game against Topalov, Carlsen referred to his decision to simplify in the following position.

 
Topalov vs. Carlsen - Classical

When asked if he had considered playing a move other than 30...Rxd4 here to keep the game going, Carlsen noted, “I think I should take the draw with both hands at this point”.

Moreover, the world champion thought Mamedyarov would win his classical game. Carlsen agreed that he was lucky in the end, but, as mentioned above, he was also mostly satisfied with his performance in the classical games. Fatigue definitely played a role for him, who is now set to take a break until the Olympiad in Chennai. His short-term plans?

I’ll be following the Candidates full-time for the next couple of weeks.

It was yet another great performance for the world number one, who is not only strong making moves over the board, but also has proven to be an excellent interviewee. After a thrilling final round which saw him win a fourth consecutive title with a bit of luck, he said with a smile:

It’s always better to have a break after you caught a break.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen won 5/10 editions of the Norway Chess Tournament | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Once the fight for first place was settled, both Carlsen and Radjabov drew with black in Armageddon to grab an extra half point in the standings table. For the first time in the tournament, all five classical games finished drawn.

Vishy Anand got third place after beating Aryan Tari in the sudden-death decider.

 
Tari vs. Anand - Armageddon

Playing black, the former world champion showed the proper technique to hold a draw in this theoretical position. As GM Karsten Müller explains in his analysis (find it in the replayer below), 57...c5 loses for Black, while Anand’s 57...Ra6 is one of two moves that keeps the balance, as 57...Ra4 also gets the job done.

After his great showing at the Superbet Poland event, Anand once again showed he is still very much capable of playing on equal terms with the very best in the world. The 52-year-old scored 5 out of 9 in his classical games, with only one loss to his name in the slow encounters — his painful blunder from round 8 was the culprit. Remarkably, he won 5 out of 6 Armageddon deciders, including his round-5 victory over Carlsen.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.h3 h6 7.Na4 Bb6 8.a3 Be6 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.0-0 0-0 11.b4 Qe8 12.c3 Nh5 13.Nxb6 axb6 14.Be3 Nf4 15.Kh2 Qh5 16.Ng1 Qxd1 17.Rfxd1 Ra4 18.Bc1 Nh5 19.f3 b5 20.Ne2 Raa8 21.Bb2 Nf4 22.Nxf4 exf4 23.c4 bxc4 24.dxc4 e5 25.Rac1 b6 26.c5 dxc5 27.bxc5 b5 28.Rd5 Rfe8 29.Rd7 Ra7 30.Rcd1 Kf8 31.h4 Re7 32.Kh3 Ke8 33.R7d5 Ra4 34.Kg4 g6 35.h5 gxh5+ 36.Kxh5 b4 37.axb4 Rxb4 38.Bc3 Rc4 39.Be1 Rd4 40.Ra1 Rd7 41.Rxd7 Kxd7 42.Kxh6 Rc4 43.Bf2 Rc2 44.Rf1 Ke6 45.Kg5 Nb4 46.g4 fxg3 47.Bxg3 Nd3 48.Rh1 Rxc5 49.Rh6+ Kd7 50.Kf5 Rc3 51.Rh7+ Kd6 52.Rh8 Kd7 53.Rh3 Ra3 54.Bxe5 Ra5 55.Rh7+ Ke8 56.f4 Nxe5 57.fxe5 All rook endings are drawn. And the 15th World Champion Vishy Anand shows that he knows all basic positions by heart: Ra6!? This leads to a typical book draw. 57...Ra4 is the only other drawing move. Black's c-pawn has no advantages, only disadvantages, e.g. after 57...c5? 58.Kf6 Ra6+ 59.e6 Kd8 60.Rh8+ Kc7 61.Ke5+- it serves as umbrella and shelters White's king from the rain of rook checks. 58.Rxc7 Rh6 59.Rg7 Ra6 60.Rg6 Ra4 Of course not 60...Rxg6?? 61.Kxg6 Ke7 62.Kf5 Kf7 63.e6+ Ke7 64.Ke5 Ke8 65.Kf6 Kf8 66.e7+ Ke8 and now comes 67.e5+- 61.Rb6 Ke7 62.Rb7+ Ke8 63.Kf6 Rxe4 64.Rb8+ Kd7 65.Rb7+ Ke8 66.Rh7 Re1 67.Rh8+ Kd7 68.Rh7+ Ke8 69.Ke6 Kd8 The books recommend going to the short side with 69...Kf8 so that Black's rook can give checks from the long side. 70.Rh8+ Kc7 71.Kf6 71.Re8 is met by Rh1 and Black defends despite the fact that the checking distance of his rook is only two squares and so too short, as after 72.Kf6 Rh6+ 73.Kg7 he has Kd7= 71...Kd7 72.Rh7+ Ke8 73.Ke6 Kf8!? Now Anand takes the short side defense, which is favored by the endgame textbooks. 74.Rh8+ Kg7 75.Re8 Ra1 76.Rd8 Ra6+ Anad can play like this as he kows the coming book draws. 76...Re1!? 77.Kd6 Kf7 with Karstedt's draw is easier and favored by the books. 77.Ke7 Ra7+ 78.Rd7 Ra8 78...Ra6 is the other drawing move and after 79.Rd6 Ra8 80.e6 the only drawing move Kg6!= is worth knowing. 79.e6 Kg6 80.Rd2 Ra7+ 81.Rd7 Ra8 82.Rc7 Kg7 83.Rc2 Ra7+ The only move. 84.Kd6 Ra6+ 85.Kd7 Ra7+ 86.Rc7 Ra8! The only move. 87.Rb7 Kf6 87...Kf6 88.e7 Kf7 leads to a typical book draw by last rank defense, e.g. 89.Rc7 Re8 90.Kd6 Ra8= 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Tari,A2654Anand,V27510–12022C5010th Norway Chess 20229.2

Norway Chess 2022

The future of Norwegian chess? | Photo: Lennart Ootes


Final standings

  Name Points
1 Magnus Carlsen 16½
2 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 15½
3 Viswanathan Anand 14½
4 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 14
5 Wesley So 12½
6 Anish Giri 12
7 Aryan Tari
8 Veselin Topalov
9 Teimour Radjabov 8
10 Wang Hao

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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