Anand & Carlsen reach Arctic final
Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen today play the final of the Arctic Securities Chess Stars in Kristiansund, Norway. The bronze final will be played between Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer, who beat Carlsen with White yesterday.This rapid event takes place August 28-30 in Kristiansund, Norway. Anand, Carlsen, Polgar and Hammer first played a double round robin on Saturday and Sunday; today the final and bronze final start at 14:00 CET. The time control is 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move. More info in our previous report.We didn't really have a look at the games of the first day yet, so let's just see how Anand and Carlsen, naturally the two big favourites, reached the final. In short: Anand reigned supreme and scored 5/6, while Carlsen dropped 2.5 points, but still qualified.Day 1
On the first day both Carlsen and Anand played the Berlin Defence against Polgar. In the first round the Hungarian went for the main line - the famous ending:
Polgar now seeks adventure with 15. Nb5!? a6 16. Nd6+! cxd6 17. exd6 Nd5 18. c4 Nxf4 19. d7+ Kd8 20. Ne5 Be7 21. axb6 Ne2+ 22. Kf1 Nd4 23. dxc8Q+ Kxc8
24. b4? (24. Re1! and now 24... Nc2 25. Nxf7 Nxe1 26. Rxe1 Re8 27. Nd6+ Bxd6 28. Rxe8+ Kd7 29. Rh8 h6 might be a bit better for White while 25... Rf8 25. Ng6 fxg6! 26. Rxe7 Rf6 would have been unclear. 24... f6 25. Nd3 cxb4 26. c5 Nc6 and Black was just up material.
Hammer had been doing alright all the time, partly because Anand had played his Giuoco Piano very pianissimo. If Black plays 50...Nf8 here, it's probably a draw. However, he cracked in the end with 50...f5? 51. exf5 e4 52. Kc6 Ne5+ 53. Kd5 Nd3 54. Bd2 Nf2 55. Bxg5 Nxh3 56. Be3 1-0Like Carlsen, Anand wanted to play the Berlin Defence against Polgar, but this time she went for the quiet 4.d3 line. After 4...Bc5 5.0-0 Nd4! Black has almost equalized there, and after a few more moves Anand was already better, and then nicely outplayed his opponent, adding threat after threat in an ending. A very instructive game.You've probably already seen what happened in the following game, but we'll show it for the ones who haven't. Even for rapid it's a rare example of mutual chess blindness.
39. Rd2?? Rhxd2?? 40. Bxd2 and White won.The last two games on Saturday, Hammer-Polgar and Anand-Carlsen, ended in a draw. The latter was a Sicilian Dragon where 'Black probably always had enough counterplay', according to the World Champion. Let's move on to what happened on Sunday.
Day 2
Again, Hammer played a fine game against Anand, but at some point it all became a comedy of errors.
30. h3?! Good for White is 30. Qh5! and now after 30...Qc6 (30... Qxa2 31. Qe8!) 31. Bb4 Bb7 White can try to win the ending after 32. Re8+ Kh7 33. Qf5+ g6 34. Qxd7+ Qxd7 35. Re7+ Qxe7 36. Bxe7 without running any risk. 30... Bb7!
31. c4?? Here White should probably have taken the draw with 31. Bxg7! 31... Qxa2? 31... Qe6! wins on the spot. 32. Qf5? Qa4?! Again 32... Qe2! would have decided the game instantly, e.g. 33. Qb1 Qf3. 33. Qe6+ Kh7 34. Kh2 Qc2 35. Bc5 Rd2 36. Kg1 Qd3
37. g4? 37. Qe3 Qd7 38. f3! still holds. 37... Rd1! Now Black is winning again. 38. Bb4 Rxe1+ 39. Bxe1 Qxh3 40. Qf5+ Kh8 41. f3 Qxf3 42. Qxf3 Bxf3 0-1
In this fourth round Carlsen drew with Polgar, using the non-theoretical set-up 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 b6 4. Bd3 Bb7 5. O-O Ne7 6. Re1 Ng6 7. Bb2. Now after 7... Nc6
the Norwegian went 8. Na3!? and the point was eventually split at move 108, after Carlsen had taken too much risk trying to win, and then successfully defended a worse position. The next round Anand copied the setup, but went 8. Bf1 and easily beat Polgar with it.Hammer got a second chance against Carlsen, and this time he didn't falter:
45... Qd4?? 45... Qg6 46. Bxe5 Nxe5 47. Qxd6 Nf3+ 48. Kg2 Nxg5 49. Rhf1 should end in a draw. 46. Qc2 Oops. 46... Nxg5 47. Qg6+ Bg7 48. Qxg5 Rf7 49. Qg6 Rcc7 50. Kg2 Rxf4 51. Qh7+ Kf7 52. Rxf4+ Qxf4 53. Rf1 Qxf1+ 54. Kxf1 Rc5 55. Ne4 1-0Round 6 saw two relatively quiet draws in Polgar-Hammer and Carlsen-Anand, and so the final standings of the preliminary fase looks like this.
Games day 2
Game viewer by ChessTempoEmanuel Berg won the top group of the 6-round open tournament which was held alongside the rapid event, from Thursday the 26th to Sunday the 29th. The Swede edged out Vladimir Georgiev and Evgeny Romanov on tiebreak.
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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