Norway Chess R3: Carlsen wins in style

by André Schulz
4/21/2016 – In round three of the Altibox Chess Tournament Magnus Carlsen played against Nils Grandelius. In the opening blitz tournament Carlsen drew against the Swedish grandmaster, but in classical chess Grandelius lost clearly. In an unusual opening Carlsen sacrificed a piece for which he had tremendous pressure that Grandelius could not shake off. The four other games were drawn. Carlsen now leads with 2.5/3.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

Follow the games live on playchess.com

In the third round Magnus Carlsen played with White against Nils Grandelius, who tried the Nimzowitsch-Sicilian against the World Champion. This line is a rare guest in top tournaments but probably did not Carlsen by surprise because Grandelius had played it before.

After a couple of unusual moves (6…Qb6 7.Qc1) Grandelius decided to push his pawns on the kingside to put pressure on White's pawn on e5. This early pawn push on the kingside provoked a piece sacrifice by Carlsen. White obtained tremendous pressure while Black suffered from a serious lack of development. With powerful moves Carlsen won the game in fine style.

 

Pentala Harikrishna had White against Veselin Topalov, who opted for a Nimzo-Indian. An early exchange on d5 led to an unusual position, in which Black was settled with an isolated pawn on d5. However, after 19 moves both players indicated peaceful tendencies by finding a repetition of moves.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Pavel Eljanov discussed the pros and cons of the Berlin Defense, which is much more popular with the players than with the public. In the main line Eljanov chose a line with an early Be7 followed by Nh4 to swap the white knight on f3. In the further course of the game more and more pieces vanished from the board until a drawn endgame with opposite-colored bishops was reached.

 

Playing with Black against Levon Aronian Li Chao chose the Schlechter Variation of the Slav, which is rather popular among some Chinese top players. After an exchange on d5 Aronian obtained a slight space advantage on the queenside and later managed to settle Black with a pawn weakness on c6. However, Black's pieces were active enough to compensate this weak pawn and the game soon ended in a draw.

Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri discussed the intricacies of the Grünfeld Fianchetto line. After 7.b3 by Kramnik Giri took on c4 and continued with ...c5, which led to a balanced position. After an early exchange of queens Kramnik tried for a long time to get an advantage but could not make any progress against Giri's precise defense.

Results of round 3

Br. Tit Name Coun ELO Ergebnis Titel Name Coun ELO
1 GM Penteala Harikrishna
 
2753 ½ - ½ GM Veselin Topalov
 
2780
2 GM Levon Aronian
 
2786 ½ - ½ GM Chao B Li
 
2751
3 GM Magnus Carlsen
 
2844 1 - 0 GM Nils Grandelius
 
2637
4 GM Vladimir Kramnik
 
2801 ½ - ½ GM Anish Giri
 
2793
5 GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave
 
2785 ½ - ½ GM Pavel Eljanov
 
2760

 

Games of rounds 1 to 3

 

Standings

 

Tournament page...

 


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

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register