Cheparinov and Carlsen convincing winners

Ivan Cheparinov and Magnus Carlsen have won their tournaments in Malm?ɬ? and Gausdal in a convincing and quite similar manner. Both ended clear first by staying unbeaten with four draws and five victories. The Bulgarian did so at the Sigeman & Co, where shared second were Emanuel Berg, Tiger Hillarp Persson and a in the second half much better scoring Jan Timman. On his homeland Carlsen grabbed some more rating points and will surely pass the 2700 border on the July list. Rozentalis, Portisch and Krasenkov finished shared second.

First we'll have a look at Sigeman. We left the tournament after the fifth round when Cheparinov was leading with 4 out of 5. In round six he beat Kotronias in a tactically wild game. Timman was on the way back by first beating Carlsson easily and then also Berg and Hillarp Persson. In round 8 Cheparinov could enjoy himself while playing a long-term kingside attack against Negi. The sportive boy from India let himself be mated and the Bulgarian was sure of the sole tournament victory.

The games selection is not small, since a lot of games are worth replaying in my opinion!



Final standings:

 1. Cheparinov, Ivan       g BUL 2646 7.0
 2. Timman, Jan H          g NED 2545 5.5
 3. Hillarp Persson, Tiger g SWE 2552 5.5
 4. Berg, Emanuel          g SWE 2574 5.5
 5. Carlsson, Pontus       m SWE 2506 5.0
 6. Kotronias, Vasilios    g GRE 2570 4.5
 7. L'Ami, Erwin           g NED 2617 4.0
 8. Negi, Parimarjan       g IND 2515 4.0
 9. Hermansson, Emil       m SWE 2475 2.0
10. Hector, Jonny          g SWE 2537 2.0

Ivan Cheparinov

Hermansson-Hector

Hermansson-l'Ami

l'Ami-Cheparinov

Kotronias

Tiger & Timman playing

Tiger & Timman analysing

All participants afterwards

Photos: Anders Hansen

Now we tune in to Gausdal, which we left after round six. Carlsen had collected 4.5 points and Portisch was doing well with 4. The seventh round saw the clash between them and it was the young Norwegian beating the old Hungarian relatively easy, actually out of the opening. Then Portisch beat Moskow, who didn't come close to an IM norm this tournament, and Irina Krush played an excellent draw against Carlsen. How Magnus beat Krasenkow in the last round is a mystery to me. What a difficult game!

Game selection:



Final standings:

 1. Carlsen, Magnus      g NOR 2693 7.0
 2. Rozentalis, Eduardas g LTU 2578 5.5
 3. Portisch, Lajos      g HUN 2512 5.5
 4. Krasenkow, Michal    g POL 2661 5.5
 5. Kulaots, Kaido       g EST 2525 5.0
 6. Dreev, Alexey        g RUS 2633 4.5
 7. Krush, Irina         m USA 2464 4.5
 8. Lie, Kjetil A        g NOR 2529 4.0
 9. Jones, Gawain C B    m ENG 2518 2.5
10. Moskow, Eric           USA 2260 1.0

Magnus Carlsen