Mamedyarov Beats Anand In Standard Game, Leads Norway Chess
Just when the players started to enjoy their Armageddons, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov showed what it's worth to win the standard game. He beat Vishy Anand, got two points and is now the sole leader of the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess tournament after two rounds.
Fabiano Caruana also won his classical game vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while the other three matchups did see Armageddons.
When the Norwegian organizers announced their Armageddon system, they said that they were hoping for "fewer draws per game" and to "create more excitement for spectators and put more pressure on the players."
Alexander Grischuk and Wesley So drawing their classical game under 10 minutes was perhaps not what they intended.
Grischuk used a well known drawing mechanism in the Berlin Ruy Lopez: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. 0-0 Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. dxe5 Nxb5 7. a4 Nbd4 8. Nxd4 d5 9. exd6 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd6
11. Qe4+ Qe6 12. Qd4 Qd6 13. Qe4+ Qe6 14. Qd4 Qd6 15. Qe4+ Qe6 ½-½
After he also lost his second Armageddon of the tournament, Grischuk joined the TV2 show where he explained that he was lacking energy. We have to thank Norwegian reporter Tarjei Svensen once again for providing the quotes:
"I feel bad of course. I lost. But I just felt I could not play. You could see in the Armageddon, that's why I made a quick draw. I thought after 20 minutes I could find some energy."
As it turned out, Grischuk still hadn't full recovered from his loss on time to Aronian yesterday.
"Definitely in top 3 of most disappointing losses in my life." #NorwayChess
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) June 5, 2019
Grischuk played a reversed King's Indian and seemed to be doing well, but So countered at the right time and took over completely on the queenside. That he didn't win the game a queen up was the most surprising of it all.
It seems Grischuk gambled, and lost. "If you draw so quickly as White, fate will punish you," said Aronian's second IM Ashot Nadanian.
This time two players managed to win their standard game, thus avoiding the Armageddon and getting the full two points. The first one was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who beat Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces in a Rossolimo Sicilian.
It was a painful loss for the Indian grandmaster, who had managed to avoid complications, kept a positional plus and was better in the endgame but then lost track and blundered material.
Fabiano Caruana made a jump in the standings as well as he beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in his favorite Najdorf. For this, Caruana had cooked up a novelty on move 15 in the Poisoned Pawn variation, where he deviated from the recent game Wei Yi-Nepomniachtchi at the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix.
Here Caruana played 15.Bc4N where 15.Bb3 and 15.Bf5 had been tried before.
MVL said he had checked, but couldn't remember how to react against 15.Bc4. To completely surprise the opponent is hard these days!
In the confession box he admitted that he was "caught in serious prep" as he went for a line where he won a piece, but his king got stuck in the center. He had underestimated White's chances there.
However, Caruana didn't get the most out of his board and clock advantage, and at some point Vachier-Lagrave was close to equal again, but then he went wrong in the rook endgame.
Caruana: "I thought I had spoilt it which was a big disappointment but the result is excellent. It's like winning two games."
Yu Yangyi seems to be the first disciple of Ding Liren's strategy to play solid in the standard game as White, and then continue aggressively in the Armageddon (although it's not rocket science, as White needs a win in that Armageddon).
Yu adopted it successfully against Ding himself, playing a sharp line vs. the Nimzo-Indian and eventually winning an opposite-colored bishop endgame with an extra pawn in great style:
It was "some you win, some you lose" for Levon Aronian, who was fortunate to get 1.5 points out of his encounter with Grischuk the other day, only to get 0.5 points out of his clash with Magnus Carlsen, where that should have been two.
The Armenian number one would have been tied for first with Mamedyarov if he had won the standard game with Carlsen, which was indeed completely winning. Carlsen once said that nobody has outplayed him more than Aronian, and it happened again.
Carlsen kept fighting, and miraculously escaped, channeling his inner Houdini:
Carlsen: "This is a type of position you expect to lose, but you never stop fighting. As long as there are still some chances, as long as there is no clear win for him, I will go on." #NorwayChess
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) June 5, 2019
Imagine you have the world champion on the ropes, let him slip away and then 15 minutes later you have to play another game—a must-win game. Not easy at all.
This time Carlsen's opening went much better, and Aronian never really came to close to an advantage. The world champion smoothly finished it off, watched by Grischuk (among others), who had returned to the playing hall as a spectator.
Carlsen: "It's of course a dream to get so much out of this. I didn't in any way deserve it. But this is how it is, and now I have my chances. I am very optimistic about tomorrow. " #NorwayChess
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) June 5, 2019
2019 Altibox Norway Chess | Round 2 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts |
| 1 | Mamedyarov | 2774 | ½ 1 | 2 | 3.5/4 | |||||||||
| 2 | Carlsen | 2875 | ½ 1 | ½ 1 | 3.0/4 | |||||||||
| 3 | Yu Yangyi | 2738 | ½ 1 | ½ 1 | 3.0/4 | |||||||||
| 4 | Caruana | 2819 | ½ 0 | 2 | 2.5/4 | |||||||||
| 5 | Ding Liren | 2805 | ½ 0 | ½ 1 | 2.0/4 | |||||||||
| 6 | Aronian | 2752 | ½ 0 | ½ 1 | 2.0/4 | |||||||||
| 7 | So | 2754 | ½ 0 | ½ 1 | 2.0/4 | |||||||||
| 8 | Grischuk | 2775 | ½ 0 | ½ 0 | 1.0/4 | |||||||||
| 9 | Vachier-Lagrave | 2779 | ½ 0 | 0 | 0.5/4 | |||||||||
| 10 | Anand | 2767 | 0 | ½ 0 | 0.5/4 |
It was a pleasure to be part of the Norway Summit together with Ulrich Paquet developer of Alpha Zero and Arkady Dvorkovich discussing the future possibilities of Chess and AI#Chess #AlphaZero #education #NorwaySummit #NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/42kcSLzdgW
— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) June 5, 2019
Once again the Norway Summit is held alongside the tournament.
The Altibox Norway Chess tournament takes place June 3-12 in the Clarion Hotel Energy and June 12-14 in the Stavanger Concert hall in Stavanger, Norway. New this year is that players who draw their game will play an Armageddon game right after (with the same colors).
Armageddon at Norway Chess
White gets 10 minutes on the clock; Black gets seven minutes but has draw odds. Only after move 60 the players get three seconds increment per move.
- Win, main game: 2 points
- Loss, main game: 0 points
- Draw, main game and loss, Armageddon: 0.5 point
- Draw, main game and win, Armageddon: 1.5 points
Also new is a shorter the time control in the classical games: two hours for the whole game, with an increment of 10 seconds after move 40.
The games start 5 p.m. local time (CEST) which is 11 a.m. Eastern and 8 a.m. Pacific. You can follow the games here as part of our live portal with daily commentary by the Chessbrahs.
Round 2 by the Chessbrahs.
Previous reports:
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