Norwegian Rapid and Blitz Championships

by Holger Blauhut
1/13/2016 – Magnus Carlsen, Norway's number one, did not start in the Norwegian Blitz- and Rapid Championships that were played in Fredrikstad at the beginning of January, and attracted a record number of participants. But Norway's number two Jon Ludvig Hammer and Norwegian talent Tari Aryan played. Hammer won the blitz tournament, Aryan the rapid tournament.
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At the beginning of January the Open Norwegian Blitz- and Rapid Championships were played in Fredrikstad. Despite the sudden onset of winter a lot of players traveled to the southeast of Norway to take part in the Championships. 154 players started in the blitz tournament, 240 in the rapid tournament, that's a new record. The Magnus-Boom continues.

The venue was packed

Tari Aryan (front left) and Jon Ludvig Hammer (in the rear, right) in action

Both tournaments were played in three groups:

A > 1750 > B > 1250 > C.

Favorites were GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway), GM Normunds Miezis (Latvia), and the 16-year-old GM-elect Aryan Tari (Norway). All three came directly from the Rilton Cup in Sweden.

Jon Ludvig Hammer started the blitz championship with 7.0/7 before suffering his first loss against the young IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen in round eight. But with a last round win Hammer clinched the title with the impressive score of 8.0/9. With 7.0/9 Tari and Christiansen followed one point behind.

Results: A- and C-Tournament...

Results B-Tournament...

After the blitz-tournament on Friday followed the rapid tournament on Saturday (six rounds) and Sunday (four rounds). After the first day Hammer led the field with 5.5/6, followed by Aryan Tari with 5.0/6. In round six Tari was lucky because his opponent GM Kjetil Lie blundered a rook in an endgame with two extra pawns.

However, on day two Hammer blew his winning chances by losing against Tari and Christiansen, allowing Tari to become Norwegian Rapid Champion 2016 with a score of 8.0/10. IM Frode Urkedal also scored 8.0/10 but had the worse tie-break. Hammer finished with 7.5/10 and became third.

Hammer-Aryan

 
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1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e3 Nf6 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4 d5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qb3 e6 9.Bb5 Bg7 10.0-0 0-0 11.Bxc6 bxc6 12.Na4 Qc7 This posistion has arisen three times before. All the games have been played by Grandmasters. 13.Nc5N 13.Bd2 The move that happened in all the games Ne7!?N Black wants to move his knight to f5 to arrange counterplay against the d4-pawn. 13...Rb8 14.Qa3 Played successfully by Nepomniachtchi recently against Areschenko in European teams. 14.Qc2 is also possible 14.Rac1 Nf5 15.Qc3 Rd8 16.Be3 a5∞ is a possible line 13...Rb8 Seemed logical to improve the rook and gain a tempo on the queen. 14.Qd1 Came as a surprise. Based on the games I've seen White usually puts the queen on c2 or a3 in these variatons. 14.Qa3 Nb4!? 14...Ne7 I played this move instantly. My plan was basically go to f5 with the knight and start pressing on d4. 14...Rd8 was also possible 15.Nd3!? Nd5 15...Rb5! was more to prefer, but I didn't like White getting in Bf4, but Black seems to have no problems after: 16.Bf4 Qd8 For instance: 17.Be5 17.Rc1 Nf5 17...f6 18.Bg3 g5! Where things have gone wrong for White. 16.Re1 Rd8 17.Bg5 Provoking a weakness before playing Bd2. f6 18.Bd2 Bf8 19.Rc1 So far both of us have done quite natural moves. In this posistion I thought for some minutes and found it difficult to find a plan. The way Black usually gets counterplay is by the pawn breaks e5 or c5, but here White is controlling everything. Rb5 I want to play a5 and basically ask White how he is going to improve his posistion. I refused 19...a5 In account of 20.Qa4 Rb5? 21.Qxb5! cxb5 22.Rxc7 Nxc7 23.Bxa5+- 20.b3 a5 21.a4 Rb8 22.Nc5 Kf7? I thought this move was natural to defend the e6-pawn in this way. But the king is just misplaced on f7 in many variatons! For instance: 22...Re8 was a better move. The game is about unclear, but the posistion should be more easy to play with White. He has more space and nice coordination of the pieces. 23.h4 Qb6 24.h5 g5! 23.h4 Also strong. White should basically try to arrange an attack. 23.g4! would punish me. Threatening the deadly g5! g5 24.h4 h6 25.Rc4± 23...Qb6 Trying to get counterplay by threatening Bxc5 followed by Qxb3 in some variatons. 24.Nh2? This move surprised me, and is a big mistake. The knight was perfectly placed on f3 and there was no reason to remove it. 24.h5 White should have continued pushing his pawn, and the posistion is difficult for Black. Bxc5 24...e5 25.Ne4 Qxb3 26.Qe2+- 25.Rxc5 Qxb3 26.Qe2! Just ignoring the queen on b3 and planning Qe4, where the queen joins the attack against Black's king. 24...e5! This now works as White misplaced his knight. 25.Ng4?! 25.Rc4! was much stronger exd4 26.Qc1 And White has compensation. But of course difficult to find such moves under the pressure in rapid. 25...exd4 26.Ne4 Qxb3 26...c5! Would have also been strong and just keeps a healthy pawn up. 27.Qe2?! 27.Ngxf6! Nxf6 28.Nxf6 Qxd1 29.Rexd1 Bb4 But still Black is having a large advantage. 27...Bf5?! 27...d3 28.Qf3 Bxg4 29.Qxg4 f5 simple 30.Ng5+ Kg8-+ Where Black is just two pawns up, with no compensation for White. 28.Rxc6 Re8? 29.Nh6+?? After this move White is just lost. 29.Ngxf6! Nxf6 30.Rxf6+ Kg7 31.Rxf8! What I missed Kxf8 31...Rxf8 32.Nd6+- Where Black cannot defend his king without giving material. 32.Bh6+ Ke7! looks extremely dangrous, but White has no useful checks with the knight. 33.Rc1 Rb6∞ with unclear play 29...Kg7 30.f3 Bb4 31.Qf2 Bxe4 32.fxe4 Bxd2 33.Qxd2 Qg3! 34.Ng4 34.exd5? Rxe1+ 34...Rb2! 35.Qxb2 Qxe1+ 36.Kh2 Qxh4+ 37.Kg1 Qe1+ 38.Kh2 Qh4+ 39.Kg1 Qxg4 40.exd5 Qd1+ 41.Kh2 Qh5+ 42.Kg1 Re1+ 43.Kf2 Qh4+ This was a very important win for me to have the chance of becoming the champion :) 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hammer,J2695Tari,A25560–12016A35Norwegian Rapid Championship7

 

Final standings

Pl. Name NWZ FIDE-Elo Club Points Avg. FIDE Leistung
1 
 IM Aryan Tari Vålerenga
8.0
2395
  2614 ( +0)
2 
 IM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal 1911
8.0
2340
  2565 ( +0)
3 
 GM Jon Ludvig Hammer OSS
7.5
2390
  2567 ( +0)
4 
 IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen Vålerenga
7.0
2326
  2452 ( +0)
5 
 FM Lars Oskar Hauge OSS
7.0
2250
  2375 ( +0)
6 
 GM Kjetil A. Lie Asker
6.5
2375
  2465 ( +0)
7 
 FM Sebastian Mihajlov OSS
6.5
2373
  2464 ( +0)
8 
 IM Atle Grønn OSS
6.5
2325
  2373 ( +0)
9 
 GM Normunds Miezis  
6.5
2304
  2395 ( +0)
10 
 IM Eirik Gullaksen Bergens
6.5
2298
  2353 ( +0)
11 
 Andreas G Tryggestad Nordstrand
6.0
2265
  2284 ( +0)
12 
 IM Erik Fossan Stavanger
6.0
2229
  2276 ( +0)
13 
 IM Maxim L Devereaux Black Knights
6.0
2171
  2209 ( +0)
14 
 FM Jøran Aulin-Jansson Asker
6.0
2163
  2170 ( +0)
15 
 FM Ole Christian Moen OSS
6.0
2134
  2153 ( +0)
16 
 Håkon Bentsen Molde
6.0
2131
  2141 ( +0)
17 
 Isak Sjøberg Nordstrand
6.0
2101
  2149 ( +0)
18 
 FM Petter Fossan Stavanger
5.5
2268
  2278 ( +0)
19 
 Holger Blauhut Fredriksstad
5.5
2168
  2161 ( +0)
19 
 Vegar Koi Gandrud Hønefoss
5.5
2168
  2169 ( +0)

... 55 players

 

Winners of group A in the Rapid Championship

The winners of group B

The winners of group C

Despite the many participants who played in a somewhat crowded venue in the Scandic Hotel Fredrikstad the tournament went rather smoothly. The main arbiter Øyvind Bentsen mentioned only a couple of cases in which players did not want to accept that nowadays in rapid (just as in blitz) an illegal move leads to the immediate loss of the game.

Results...



 

Author, publisher and office worker. Holger Blauhut lives in Fredrikstad in Norway.

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