Norway Chess 2014

From June 3 to 13 one of the strongest tournaments of the year takes place in the Stavenger Region of the north-European country, homeland of the World Champion and Numero Uno, Magnus Carlsen. 

The line-up is incredibly strong:

 GM Magnus Carlsen     GM Levon Aronian        GM Alexander Grischuk 
 GM Vladimir Kramnik    GM Fabiano Caruana  GM Veselin Topalov 
 GM Sergey Karjakin       GM Peter Svidler           GM Anish Giri              
 GM Simen Agdestein

The event is a 9 rounds, all-play all once. There are several points that make this event  interesting: Grischuk is back;  Alexander is currently number three in the world, and although he's been absent from all major tournaments this year, his play at the Russian Team Championship offers reasons to be optimistic about his comeback in an elite event. GM Alex Yermolinsky has dedicated two videos to the strong Russian player, calling him "The Forgotten Man". Magnus Carlsen seems to belong to a different league; the Norwegian chess genius won the Gashimov Memorial by a full point, despite losing two games in a row - a very unusual occurrence for the champion. The question is: will anyone be able to keep Magnus from winning virtually every tournament he plays? Levon Aronian doesn't seem to have been in good  form lately, but for sure he will try to play better than he did recently. Veselin Topalov, after the disappointing performance at the Candidates, will be seeking his best play.

It's a tournament not to be missed, and ICC will follow it with LIVE commentary, a live stream on ICC TV, online TRIVIA and Game Of the Day Videos and Trivia questions.

Play starts at 9:30 EDT (New York Time); 15:30 local (Central Europe).
 

BROADCAST SCHEDULE

June
Tue	Wed	Thu	Sat	Sun
03	04	05	07	08
Mon	Tue	Thu	Fri
09	10	12	13

ROUND REPORTS

Round 1



Four hard-fought draws in the first round, and one decisive game, which is the subject of GM Larry Christiansen's Game Of the Day Video: Fabiano Cauana won his game against Alexander Grishuk. It was an interesting game, with ups and downs for both players, until the unfortunate blunder that forced Grischuk to resign. Caruana leads with 1 point, followed by all the rest of the pack with 0.5 and Grischuk with 0.

Round 2

Three decsive gmes in Round 2! Grischuk bounces back, winning his game against Topalov; you can find Alex yermolinsky's analysis of this game in today's GOTD. Fabiano the Fabulous Caruana wins again - against Svidler - and gets back in the super-elite of 2800+ players in the LIVE Rating list. Aronian beats Karjakin, and now is in secon dplace, alone, with 1.5/2.
Magnus draws  his second game in a row, and with 50% is in third pace, along with Grischuk, Kramnik, giri and Agdestein. The Norwegian #2 is having a very good start of tournament: yesterday he had a nice position against Aronian, and today he drew young GM Giri. tomorrow Carlsen vs. Caruana is the clou game to follow. 

Round 3

Another great round in Norway!
Grischuk defeats Aronian in an unbelievable game, where the number two in the world was totally lost at move 14, and gets up in the standings, half a point behind the leader, Fabiano Caruana, who's been fighting with Magnus in an interesting draw. Kramnik beats Giri and join Grischuk in second place. Carlsen, Aronian and the tourney's revelation sime Agdestein follow with 1.5 out of 3.

Round 4

Round 4 was interesting, with some slightly bizarre results: Veselin Topalov having a better position against World Champion Magnus Carslen, repeated moves and went for adraw; Adgestein held a good draw against Vladimir Kramnik; Caruana drew vs. giri and Aronian vs. Svidler was a draw too. the only decisive game was Karjakin vs. Grischuk. Gm Smerdon analyzes for us this game in his GOTD. Caruana still eads solo with 3.0 out of 4, followed by Kramnik with 2.5 and then Carlsen, Aronian, Agdestein, Karjakin and Grischuk with 2.0. Topalov, Giri and Svidler share last with 1.5.

Round 5

What an exciting round! Three decisive games, lots of ups and downs, Round 5 was a rollercoaster for the players, the spectators and the commentators. Young Dutchman Anish Giri got his first victory against former World Cahmpion Veselin Topalov; a fantstic game between Grischuk and the surprise of the tournament, Norwegian #2 Simen Agdestein; Vladimir Kramnik beating the tournament leader Fabiano Caruana,  and Magnus Carlsen winning his game against Aronian, in pure Magnus' style. Now Vladimir leads solo with 3.5, followed by Magnus and Fabiano, half a point behind; Grischuk, Giri, Karjakin and Agdestein are onepoint behind the leader.

Round 6

Today one game was the most interesting, for serveral reasons: Topalov vs. Kramnik. The two GMs don't like each other; Topalov was in last position whereas Kramnik was leading the tournament. Topalov won, and Timur Gareev analyzes the game in his Game Of the Day video. Topalov's win, with the other four games drawn, changed the standings dramatically: Carlsen for the first time in the tournament is now in the lead, joined by Caruana and Kramnik. Half a point behind the chasing "50%" pack with Grishuk, Karjakin, Giri and the fenomenal Agdestein. As Maxim Dlugy said today during the live commentary, each round can mix things up, making this one of the most intersting tournaments of the year.

Round 7



Four hard-fought draws and an amazing game between Giri and Karjakin. Giri tried everything to win the game, pushing it over his own possibilities. At move 131(!) the young Dutch GM blundered horribly (Rc4??), probably because of tiredness and tension. For Game Of the Day, GM Miguel Illescas preferred the interesting draw between Caruana and Topalov, which was a theoretical battle and a tense game. Karjakin, with this unexpected win, joins the three mosqueteers at the top of the standings: with 4.0/7 Carlsen, Caruana, Kramnik and Karjakin lead the tournament with two rounds to go; Grischuk and the amazing Agdestein (50%) follow half a point behind. With 3 points Aronian, Topalov, Svidler and Giri.

Round 8

It's been a fantastic round, which yet again gave us a new leader. In an epic struggle, Sergey Karjakin won his game against Vladimir Kramnik, while Carlsen and Caruana drew their games, respectively with Svidler and Aronian. Karjakin, with one round to go, is now in the sole lead, followed by Magnus and Fabiano half a point behind; then Grischuk, Kramnik and Topalov one point behind. Topalov today broke Agdestein's streak of 7 consecutive draws, winning convincingly. Now Simen shares last with Aronian, Svidler and Giri. Tomorrow last round starts an hour earlier, at 8:30 EDT (14:30 Central Europe).

Round 9

Sergey does it again! Karjakin wins the 2nd Norway chess super-tournament... for the 2nd time. Magnus Carlsen did what he was expected to do: beat his friend and former mentor simen agdstein, and then wait for the Italian stud to stop Karjakin, at least to draw the game, thus allowing the World Champion to go into the Blitz tiebreak to decide the winner of the event. But Caruana could not resist the strong Russian, and Sergey went on to win it all. Congratulations, Sergey! Kramnik lost the second game in a row, this time against Grischuk, something that doesn't happen too often to the former World Champion. It's been a very interesting tournament, which has seen many ups and downs and, for once, something different from the usual domination by Magnus Carlsen.

GAME OF THE DAY

Round	Date	Host	Play	PGN
1	June 03	GM Larry Christiansen   LarryC
2	June 04	GM Alex Yermolinsky   Sweere
3	June 05	GM Ronen Har-Zvi   Indiana-Jones
4	June 07	GM David Smerdon   smurfo
5	June 08	GM David Smerdon   smurfo
6	June 09	GM Timur Gareev   UzbekDragon
7	June 10	GM Miguel Illescas   Illescas
8	June 12	GM Jonathan Speelman   Speelman
9	June 13	GM Davor Palo   Rabudja