THE LIFE IS IN YOUR HAND

After lots of excitement and drama the Armageddon games delivered something else in round six of the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess tournament: big blunders. Magnus Carlsen maintained his 1.5-point lead going into the second rest day.

With a shortened time control the quality of play automatically drops, but in round six that development hit rock bottom. It's not even clear whose blunder was bigger: Ding Liren dropping a rook, Wesley So allowing a mate in one, or Alexander Grischuk putting a bishop en prise.

The players can hardly be blamed for making what looks like a rookie's mistake. They have been put in a relatively new situation, where having to win as White or to a draw as Black can disturb the mindset.

And while several players are somewhat under the weather, the clock pressure can be huge as well, especially because today's top grandmasters are used to getting increment, even in blitz. In these Armageddon games they get three seconds per move but only starting from move 61.

In Grischuk's case something else was going on. Playing Fabiano Caruana, he made his blunder with eight minutes on the clock, so here it was a rare case of chess blindness for a man who stated that he has already given up on his tournament. Grischuk is just completely out of it, and wants it to be over as quickly as possible.