Hammer Qualifies For Norway Chess, Brings Chess Drama To TV

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer has qualified for the 2015 Norway Chess tournament by winning the EnterCard Chess Qualifier in Oslo on Friday night. A four-move draw in the final round was a small letdown in an otherwise very successful event.

Photo Tarjei J. Svensen.

Let's pick up the tournament where we left it: after three rounds top seeds GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and GM Laurent Fressinet were sharing the lead with 2.5/3. That should be 5/3 in fact, because for the classical games the points were counted double.

Both continued to do well on Wednesday. Fressinet faced GM Simen Agdestein, who played the Dutch like GM Simon Williams likes to play it. But maybe it takes a Ginger GM to get that attack on the kingside going, because here Fressinet was dealing the cards from A to Z.

Also playing with the white pieces, Hammer got a slight advantage against GM Nils Grandelius in a Fianchetto Grünfeld. The pawn structure was symmetrical but Hammer's pieces were much more active, and then it's easy to fall into a tactic like in the game.

Danish GM Curt Hansen, who lost his first three games, drew with IM Aryan Tari and then won his first game in round five on Thursday. Agdestein actually missed a win right in the opening and then, well, simply didn't play a very good game.

Both Hammer and Fressinet drew their game and so the standings after five games of classical chess were as follows:

2015 EnterCard | Round 5 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts	SB
1	Hammer,Jon Ludvig	2665	2860		½	1	½	1	1	8.0/5	8.00
2	Fressinet,Laurent	2712	2850	½		½	1	1	1	8.0/5	7.75
3	Grandelius,Nils	2623	2627	0	½		½	1	½	5.0/5
4	Tari,Aryan	2520	2577	½	0	½		½	½	4.0/5
5	Hansen,Curt	2621	2481	0	0	0	½		1	3.0/5
6	Agdestein,Simen	2620	2388	0	0	½	½	0		2.0/5

On Friday the “second half” of the tournament was held, with five rounds of rapid chess. Here, the points were counted normally, which meant that the fight was really only between Hammer and Fressinet.

Hammer gave himself some more confidence before judgement day.

Today's egoboosting fun fact: In our last two rapid encounters, I have two wins against Carlsen. #2sjakk

— Jon Ludvig Hammer (@gmjlh) May 15, 2015

The Norwegian GM comfortably beat Hansen as Black, but Fressinet dropped half a point right away. Tari played well, except for on moment, but the French GM didn't grab his chance.

The seventh round saw the big clash, Fressinet vs Hammer, and the game provided the kind of drama well suited for a TV audience! After a complicated middlegame it was Fressinet who got the advantage, and after a big mistake from Hammer he was completely winning.

With both players in terrible timetrouble (without increment!) it was all about nerves. Missing several decisive blows, Fressinet eventually blundered a piece and was then even checkmated. What a turnaround!

Miracle - Hammer shows there is life after death. #EnterCardChess Wins lost position after horrific Fressinet blunder.

— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) May 15, 2015

Right after the game Hammer went to the “confession box,” a room next to the playing hall where the players were encouraged to give some thoughts about their ongoing game. Co-organizer and webmaster Tarjei J. Svensen explained:

“They could do this whenever they wanted and it was a completely voluntary thing, but all the players had used the opportunity to do it, sometimes even more than once per game. The idea was suggested by Team Carlsen for TV2. It has been rather well received by the players and the viewers.”

People are already nominatiing @gmjlh's appearance in the "confession box" as "2015 TV moment of the year" #EnterCardChess

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) May 16, 2015

This meant that Fressinet need to make up 1.5 points in the last three rounds to catch Hammer. He beat Hansen and Agdestein (who turned 48 that day) in the next two rounds, but Hammer scored 1.5/2 against Agdestein and Grandelius.

The local hero only needed a draw in the final round to become the 10th name on the starting list of Norway Chess.

This is turning into an amazing event for chess on TV, Norway's non-Magnus elite, and innovative #2sjakk coverage. #EnterCardChess

— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) May 15, 2015

So much spectacle, all broadcast live on TV2's sports channel and online, was a great advertisement for chess. However, the Norwegian audience also learnt about one of the more problematic aspects of our game: the quick draw.

In an otherwise splendid event the organizers had made one mistake: including some kind of anti-quick-draw rule. Here's how Hammer secured his first place:

Hammer was not to blame obviously, the rules were. But it's something to think about for next year.

2015 EnterCard | Final Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts
1	Hammer,Jon Ludvig	2665	2860		½1	½½	1½	11	11	12.0/15
2	Fressinet,Laurent	2712	2756	½0		1½	½½	11	11	11.0/15
3	Tari,Aryan	2520	2683	½½	0½		½½	½1	½1	7.5/15
4	Grandelius,Nils	2623	2558	0½	½½	½½		110	½0	6.5/15
5	Hansen,Curt	2621	2481	00	00	½0	01		1½	4.5/15
6	Agdestein,Simen	2620	2438	00	00	½0	½1	0½		3.5/15

The tournament was held in a TV2 Studio in the center of Oslo, Norway. Right in front, a glass cube was built where commentary was provided by TV2's Kaja Marie Snare together with GM Magnus Carlsen.

Hammer won the 50,000 Norwegian kroner (€6,000/$6,800) first prize and will earn at least 110,000 kroner for his participation in Norway Chess. There, besides Carlsen, he will meet Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.