Norway Chess Women: Vaishali remains sole leader

The brother-sister leading duo

A bit over a month after Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa were the first-ever brother-sister duo to participate concurrently in Candidates Tournaments, the siblings are leading the standings in the women’s and the open section of the Norway Chess events. While Pragg beat Magnus Carlsen, Vaishali managed to keep the sole lead she had grabbed in round 2 by drawing her Armageddon encounter against Anna Muzychuk.

Vaishali has a 1-point lead over women’s world champion Ju Wenjun, who has prevailed in the three Armageddon tiebreakers she has played so far in Stavanger. On Wednesday, she was fortunate in the fact that her opponent, Pia Cramling, failed to find a knight jump that would have ended their classical game at once.

Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.1 - 9

In this Video-Course we deal with different dynamic decisions involving pawns. The aim of this Course is to arm club/tournament players with fresh ideas which they can use in their own practice.

Ju’s 49...Nxe3 was a losing blunder amid a drawn endgame, as White now counts with 50.Nf5+, with a beautiful geometric motif — e.g. 50...Kf6 51.Nxe3 both grabs the knight and defends the rook on c4.

However, Cramling missed this shot and played 50.Rxc2 instead. The game was agreed drawn after 50...Nxc2 51.Kg3. Ju then held a draw with black in the tiebreaker to grab 1½ points for a third day in a row.

Pia Cramling facing Ju Wenjun | Photo: Stev Bonhage

The one decisive game of the day was seen in the Armageddon encounter between Humpy Koneru and Lei Tingjie. In a must-win situation, the Indian GM looked for imbalances from the get-go and showed her technical prowess once the position was simplified into a complex rook and knight endgame.

Koneru, Humpy2545

1–0

Lei, Tingjie2548

Norway Chess Women Armageddon 2024 Stavanger29.05.2024[CC]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5 Ne4 4.Bh4 h5 5.Nfd2 g5 6.Nxe4 gxh4 7.Ned2 Bf5 8.e3 A novelty - c2-c4 had been played previously. Humpy intends to castle queenside in this must-win situation. 8.c4 e6 9.Qb3 Nc6 had been played previously. 8...e6 9.Nf3 Rg8 10.Rg1

Humpy is now fully committed. 10...Nd7 11.Bd3 Bg6 12.g3 Bxd3 13.Qxd3 hxg3 14.hxg3 Qf6 15.Nbd2 0-0-0 16.0-0-0 Be7 17.Rh1 Qg6 18.Rh3 Bd6 19.Rdh1 Nf6 20.Qe2 Rh8 Somewhat passive, as the knight is defending the h5-pawn. Black only needs a draw in Armageddon, though. 21.Nh4 Qg4 22.Qf1 Rdg8 23.Ng2 Qf5 24.Qe2 Ng4 25.Nf4 Bxf4 26.exf4 Nf6 27.Nf3 Ne4 This natural-looking move is an imprecision, as demonstrated by the fact that the knight returned to f6 on the very next move. 27...a6 28.Ng5 Qg6 and White still needs to find a way to make progress. 28.Ne5 Nf6

A blunder - but Humpy fails to play the refutation. 29.a4 Strangely, Humpy did not find 29.Nxf7 and there is no strong reply for Black, who has simply given up a pawn, while the pawn on e6 is now very weak. Rh7 30.Ng5 Re7+- 29...Rg7 30.b3 Qe4 31.Qxe4 Trading queens is not the best move here, but it makes sense under the circumstances. White forces Black to double his pawns, and the pawn on h5 is still weak. Both players had around 1 minute on the clock at this point. 31.Qd2 Qf5 32.Kb2 etcetera. 31...dxe4 32.Kd2 c6 33.c4 Kc7 34.Ke3 a5 35.Rh4 Rd8 36.c5 Rb8

37.Nc4 Humpy, a great technical player, begins to manoeuvre his pieces around the temporarily-closed pawn structure. Rd8 38.Nd2 Ng4+ 39.Ke2 Rxd4 40.Rxh5 Nxf2 41.Rh7 Nxh1 42.Rxg7 Lei has managed to force the trade of a pair of rooks and a few pawns. She is getting closer to the draw she needs to prevail in Armageddon. Rd3 But the Chinese star falters here - she needed to defend the f7-pawn to prevent the white rook from gaining activity. 42...Rd7 43.Nxe4 f5 44.Rxd7+ Kxd7 45.Nd6 Nxg3+ 46.Ke3 with a balanced position. 43.Rxf7+

43.Nxe4 is stronger, e.g.: Rxb3 44.g4 Ng3+ 45.Nxg3 Rxg3 46.Kf2 and White is quicker on the kingside, while the black king is quite passive Ra3 47.Rxf7+ Kc8 48.g5+- 43...Kc8 44.Nxe4 Rxb3 45.Nd6+ Kd8 46.g4 White's g-pawn has survived. Black is doomed. Ng3+ 47.Kf2 b6 48.cxb6 Nh1+ 49.Kg2 1–0

Improve your Tactics

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Humpy Koneru | Photo: Stev Bonhage

Standings after round 3

All games - Classical

All games - Armageddon

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

Links

• Official site
• Nakamura beats Caruana to win Norway Chess (2023)
• Magnus Carlsen wins Norway Chess for a fourth straight time (2022)
• Carlsen wins Norway Chess, Firouzja shines (2021)