Norway Chess: Wesley So wins the blitz tournament

Carlsen is World Champion and the best player on the planet – and he wants to win every tournament, in which he starts. Even more so when playing on home turf in Norway.

Traditionally, in Norway a blitz tournament is played before the classical tournament, which is not quite classical because after a draw the organisers ask the players to play an Armageddon game. A win in the classical game yields 3 points, a draw in the classical game and a win in the Armageddon gives 1.5 points while a draw in the classical game and a loss in Armageddon yields 1 point.

According to the current FIDE blitz rankings, Carlsen is "only" number two behind Hikaru Nakamura while Wesley So is number three. And the World Champion's blitz rating of 2832 is worse than his classical rating (2864), which is hard to comprehend. In the live-list there are even three players ahead of the World Champion: Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana because Caruana and Aronian won a lot of points in the Rapid & Blitz in Warsaw.

However, Nakamura, Aronian and Caruana do not play in Stavanger, but So does.

The blitz tournament started well for Carlsen. He drew with Teimour Radjabov, won against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, drew with Anish Giri, caught Aryan Tari's queen and also won against Wang Hao, who after his announced retirement for health reasons is back and plays in an official tournament.

After five rounds Carsen led with four points ahead of Giri (3.5), Mamedyarov and So (3). In the sixth round the World Champion played against Wesley So and after opening the game with 1.a4 he blundered in the middlegame. So gladly accepted the gift.

 

Carlsen, Magnus2864

0–1

So, Wesley2766

10th Norway Chess Blitz 2022 Stavanger30.05.2022[Schulz,A]

1.a4 In his blitz games the World Champion sometimes seems to show only little respect for his opponents. At the Chessable Masters Carlsen tried 1.h4 against Wei Yi and at the Esports Cup he tried 1.f3 against Duda. Or maybe Carlsen is just tired to play the same old openings again and again? Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.d4 d5 6.0-0 The game transposed into an absolutely normal position of the financhetto Grünfeld. c5 7.dxc5 Na6 8.Nc3 Nxc5 9.Be3 b6 10.a5 Bb7 11.Bd4 e6 11...Ncd7 12.Qd3 Re8 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.Bxe5 e6 15.Rfd1= 1-0 (45) Moradiabadi,E (2528)-Chu,R (2267) Chess.com INT 2018 12.Ra3 Qe7 13.Qa1 Ncd7 14.Ne5 Nxe5 15.Bxe5 Bc6 16.axb6 Otherwise Black plays ...b5. But now Black seizes the a-file. axb6 17.Rxa8 Rxa8 18.Qd1 Bf8 19.Qd3 Nd7 20.Bd4 Qb4 21.Rb1 Rc8=

22.Nd1?? A careless move after which White's position quickly collapses. 22.e4 Nc5 23.Bxc5 Qxc5 24.exd5 Bxd5 25.Nxd5 exd5= 22...Bb5 23.Qe3 Or 23.Qb3 Qxb3 24.cxb3 e5 25.Bc3 d4 26.Be1 Bxe2-+ 23...Rxc2 24.Bc3 Qc5 24...Qc4! 25.Bf1 e5 26.Qxc5? Leading to a quick end. More tenacious was 26.Bxe5 Nxe5 27.Qxe5 d4 28.Qxc5 bxc5 29.b3 26...Bxc5 27.e3 Bxf1 28.Kxf1 d4 29.exd4 exd4 30.Be1 Ne5 31.b4 Bd6 32.Rb3 Rc1 33.Nb2 d3 34.Nxd3 Nxd3 0–1

So had now drawn level with Carlsen in the standings. Giri also came to four points after a draw against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In round seven Carlsen had to play with Black against an old rival, former World Champion Vishy Anand. Carlsen opted for the Modern Defence and both players tried to win. Anand chose an aggressive setup, in which White castles queenside to mate the opponent on the kingside. But Carlsen defended well, which led to an exciting game, in which Anand made the penultimate mistake.

 

Anand, Viswanathan2751

1–0

Carlsen, Magnus2864

10th Norway Chess Blitz 2022 Stavanger30.05.2022[Schulz,A]

1.e4 g6 2.d4 d6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 a6 5.h4 5.a4 b6 6.Nf3 e6 7.Bc4 Ne7 8.0-0 h6 9.h3 Bb7 10.Re1 Nd7 11.Bb3 g5 12.d5 e5 13.Nd2 Ng6 14.Ne2 h5 15.Ng3 g4 16.Nf5 Bf8 17.hxg4 hxg4 18.Qxg4 Nf6 19.Qf3 Bc8 20.Bg5 Bxf5 21.exf5 Nh4 22.Qd3 Rh5 23.Ne4 Be7 24.Bxf6 Bxf6 25.g3 Nxf5 26.Qf3 Rh6 27.Qxf5 Ke7 28.Kg2 Qd7 29.Qxd7+ Kxd7 30.Rh1 1-0 (30) Firouzja,A (2749)-Carlsen,M (2862) Lichess.org INT 2021 5...Nf6 6.f3 b5 7.Qd2 h5 8.Nh3 Bxh3 8...Nbd7 9.Ng5 and Black will have problems to chase White's knight away from its dominant position. 9.Rxh3 Nbd7 10.0-0-0 Qc8 10...c6 11.Kb1 Qc7 12.Ne2 Nb6= 1-0 (50) Zhou,Y (2419)-Hillarp Persson, T (2546) London 2012 11.Kb1 c5 11...Nb6 12.Bd3 b4 13.Ne2 c5 14.dxc5 dxc5 15.e5 Nfd5 16.Be4 e6 17.Qd3 0-0 18.Bc1? Rd8 19.Ka1 Qc7 20.Rhh1 Nc3 0-1 (20) Sekar,B (2247)-Neelotpal,D (2438) Mumbai 2017 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.Ne2 13.e5!? dxe5 14.g4 hxg4 15.fxg4 with the idea Nxg4?? 16.Bxc5 Qxc5 17.Qd7+ Kf8 18.Qd8+ Rxd8 19.Rxd8# 13...0-0 14.Bh6 a5?

14...Rd8 15.Nd4= 15.Bxg7?! Strong was the immediate 15.Nd4! b4 16.Nf5± with an attack. gxf5 17.Rg3 17.Qg5?? Ne6 17...Ng4 17...Ne6 18.exf5 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.Qg5+ 15...Kxg7 16.Rg3= b4 17.Nd4 Threatening Nf5. Ncxe4! With this sacrifice Black seizes the initiative. However, the engines think that chances are still roughly even. 17...Kh7= 18.fxe4 Nxe4 19.Qe3 Nxg3 20.Qxg3 Qg4= 21.Qe1 Rac8 22.g3 22.Nf3 Rfe8 23.b3= 22...Rc5 23.Be2 Qe4 24.Qd2 Re5 25.Bf3 Qe3 26.Qg2 After 26.Qxe3 Rxe3 Black is clearly better in the endgame. 26...a4 After 26...Rc8! (with the idea Rc4) Black keeps his advantage. 27.Nc6= Rf5 28.Rd3 Qe1+ 29.Rd1 Qe3 30.Rd3 Qc5 Carlsen wants to win. 30...Qe1+ leads to a draw. 31.Nxe7 Re5 32.Nd5 Re1+ 33.Bd1 Rfe8 34.Qd2? 34.Qf3 a3 35.Qf6+ Kg8 36.Qg5 and White has counterplay. 34...a3 34...Qg1! and 35.-- Rxd1+ 36.Qxd1 Re1 wins. 35.Qxb4?! 35.bxa3 bxa3 36.Kc1= and White holds. 35...R8e4?! 35...Qxb4 36.Nxb4 R8e3 37.Rxd6 Rxg3 is still slightly better for Black. 36.Qxc5 dxc5 37.bxa3 White is back in the game. c4 38.Rd2 Rg1 39.Nc3 Re6 Necessary was 39...Re3 e.g. 40.Ne2 Rxd1+ 41.Rxd1 Rxe2= 40.a4 Rxg3

41.Nb5 White prepares to advance with the a-pawn and Black carelessly ignores this threat. Re4? 41...c3 42.Rd3 Rxd3 43.cxd3 Ra6 44.Nxc3 g5 45.hxg5 h4= 42.c3 Rxh4 43.a5 Rh1 The a-pawn runs. 43...Rh1 44.a6 Re1 45.a7 Re8 46.Nc7 43...Re4 does not help: 44.a6 Re8 45.Nc7 And after 43...Rg5 White simply plays 44.a4 1–0

So now took the lead by winning against Topalov while Anand was on second place.

Now there were just two rounds left to play, in which Carlsen beat Topalov but couldn't get more than a draw against Mamedyarov. Thus, in the end Carlsen had to content himself with second placet while So won the tournament.

Karsten Müller came across an exciting endgame:

Final standings

Games

Links

• Official site
• All reports on previous editions: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018