Carlsen beats Anand, Hammer comes third
Magnus Carlsen won the Arctic Securities Chess Stars rapid tournament by beating Viswanathan Anand 1.5-0.5 in the final. Jon Ludvig Hammer came third after he won his minimatch against Judit Polgar with the same score.The Arctic Securities Chess Stars rapid tournament took place August 28-30 in Kristiansund, Norway. Anand, Carlsen, Polgar and Hammer first played a double round robin on Saturday and Sunday and then on Monday they played the final and bronze final.The time control was 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move. More info in our previous report.Day 3
Carlsen today started with a very powerful white game, which, it must be added, was also affected by an early mistake by Anand. The World Champion was very critical of himself at the press conference: "Obsiously it's a pity, because it would have been nice to play some decent games today, but essentially I threw way the game in one move. 21...a5 loses a pawn on the spot." It does indeed, but it looks like Carlsen didn't respond the best way.
In this position very strong looks 22.cxd5 exd5 23.Rc5, and indeed the pawn on a5 drops, because 23...Qc7 fails to 24.Bxd5. However, Carlsen played 22. Bc3 when 22... b6?! is obviously wrong because of 23. c5 bxc5 24. Bxa5, but in this position the simple 22... Qc7 seems possible. Anand continued 22...dxc4 23. Bxa5 cxb3 24. Rb2 Rdc8 25. Rxb3 and had to fight against annoying pressure along the b-file, and later also in the centre. After Carlsen had opened the centre with e3-e4, the Norwegian could deliver the decisive blow soon.
41. Bxh5! Now 41... gxh5 is answered by 42. Qh7+ and in most lines White will win back a full rook: a) 42... Kf8 43. Qh6+ Kg8 44. Qg5+; b) 42... Ke8 43. Qxh5+; c) 42... Kf6 43. Rg5! Rxg5 44. hxg5+ Kxg5 45. Qg7+ Kf5 46. Qf7+ Kg5 47. Rc5+ +-. In the game Anand tried 41... Rxe5 42. dxe5 Qd5+ 43. Bf3 Qxe5 which turned out to be pretty hopeless too. In the next game he got nothing with White in a Breyer Ruy Lopez and offered a draw at move 28.The bronze final started with an interesting Scotch Four Knights where Polgar had a slight advantage at some point, but Hammer held his own in the ending. Like the first game of the final, the second game of the bronze final was also decided more or less by a one-move mistake.
Here Polgar played 19... c4? and after 20. e4! the loss of a pawn was inevitable, because she had missed that after 20... Rd6 the move 21. exd5! comes with tempo and c4 hangs.
Hammer finished the game showing excellent technique, though Polgar perhaps could have put up a bit more resistance. For example at the very end:
Here she went 54... Kd8 and resigned after 55.c6. The move 54... Ke8 at least forces 55. Bxa2 though White is also winning after 55... Nxa2 56. Kf6.It seems that this Arctic Securities Chess Stars was to some extent part of the lobby for the possible Tromsø Olympiad in 2014. It was certainly an example of the growing interest in chess in Norway. It should also be mentioned that Arctic Securities is Carlsen's personal sponsor, so there's enough reason for the Norwegians to be happy today.As a nice bonus, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norsk Rikskringkasting – NRK) provided live coverage on its website through several video cameras. In our view this could have been done better, as for example there were no good close-ups of the players' faces. Maybe something for next year?
Games day 3
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Carlsen and Anand in their second game, just moments before Anand will admit defeat
Judit Polgar resigns against Jon Ludvig Hammer in game 2 | Screenhots from Norsk Rikskringkasting
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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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