Norway Chess Tournament 2015
Posted: 27 October 2014 07:18 PM  
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The first of the three elite tournaments which are part of the recently born “Grand Chess Tour” takes off on June the 15th, with a Blitz event that precedes the classic tournament.

In Norway, four players with a FIDE rating over 2800 will make the tournament one of the strongest ever, rating-wise.

The Classical Tournament starts June the 16th, at 4PM EDT (New York) - 16:00 Berlin - 15:00 London - 17:00 Moscow - 19:30 New Delhi
The tournament is a 9 Rounds Round Robin; Rest day on June the 20th;
Time Control is: Start with 120 minutes - Add 60 minutes after move 40 - Add 15 minutes +30 sec. increment after move 60

Participants: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2876); Fabiano Caruana (ITA, 2805); Viswanathan Anand (IND, 2804); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2802); Veselin Topalov (BUL, 2798); Alexander Grischuk (RUS, 2781); Levon Aronian (ARM, 2780); Anish Giri (NED, 2773); Maxim Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2723); John Ludvig Hammer (NOR, 2677).

The Grand Chess Tour was created with just one goal in mind: Demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world’s best players,” said Tony Rich, Executive Director of the CCSCSL.
There is $1,000,050,000 at stake, with each of the three events awarding individual prize funds of $300,000. Based on their results, the competitors will also tally points toward a tour prize fund of $150,000, with the Grand Chess Tour champion receiving an additional $75,000.

Eight of the top ten players who were invited accepted to participate in all the three events.

ICC will cover the event with LIVE commentary, Game Of the Day video for each round and the TRIVIA contests.

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Posted: 27 October 2014 08:57 PM   [ # 1 ]  
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Round 2

MVL, the young Frenchman, won the second game in a row, and now leads solo with 2 out of 2. Nakamura and Andreikin drew their respective games, and now share second place half a point behind the leader. Caruana did not manage to win a game that gave him some chances; all the other games were also drawn. Ronen asks himself whether Caruana is playing a bit too much, and his form is now inevitably in a descending phase. We’ll see. The tournament is a long one and the number two in the world has got plenty of time to recover from a bad start.

GM Ronen Har-Zvi recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-2

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Posted: 27 October 2014 08:58 PM   [ # 2 ]  
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Round 3

MVL draws with Radjabov to keep the lead after three rounds. Trailing him, half a point behind, Nakamura, Karjakin and Andreikin. Today two notable games have made it to Larry’s recap: Mamedyarov defeating Gelfand in an interesting endgame, and Jobava - known as an eccentric attacker - playing a masterly defense against Kasimdzhanov.

GM Larry Christiansen recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-3

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Posted: 27 October 2014 09:00 PM   [ # 3 ]  
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Round 4

Six draws today, in what we can call an uneventful round, standings-wise. But there were a couple of interesting games, which IM Rahal shows us in his video recap: Mamedyarov vs. Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave vs. Karjakin. After 4 rounds, and going into the first rest day, MLV is in the lead with 3.0/4, followed by the strong trio with Nakamura, Karjakin and Andreikin, half a point behind.

IM Michael Rahal recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-4

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Posted: 27 October 2014 09:01 PM   [ # 4 ]  
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Round 5

Today it was probably the most interesting round so far in this second FIDE GP. The leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost to Jakovenko, while Nakamura won his game with Boris Gelfand, taking over the lead. Jobava played a dubious (but effective!) piece sacrifice in his game vs. Karjakin - one of those sacrifices we often see in Bullet games!

GM Ben Finegold recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-5

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Posted: 27 October 2014 09:02 PM   [ # 5 ]  
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Round 6

Another interesting round, with instructive and intruguing games. Nakamura and Caruana drew a hard-fought game; Andreikin defeated Karjakin, to join Hikaru in the lead; Mamedyarov won his game with Kasimdhanov, to join Vahier-Lagrave and Jobava in second place, half a point behind the leaders.

GM Larry Christiansen recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-6

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Posted: 28 October 2014 01:35 PM   [ # 6 ]  
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Round 7

Today’s round started slow, with a couple of uneventful draws in the games Radjabov vs. Jakovendo and Mamedyarov vs. Andreikin, to heaten up quickly when the remaining games got interesting. Gelfand blundered a pawn against Caruana, and that was enough for the number two in the world to win his first game in Tashkent, getting back to 50%. Nakamura, playing against Kasimdzhanov, went for the Leningrad variation of the Dutch defense, leading to a complicated and fascinating struggle which ended in a draw. Karjakin won convincingly against Giri, joining the group of players with 50%. After 7 rounds, Nakamura and Andreikin are still in the lead, followed by the trio with Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave and Jobava, half a point behind.

GM Lars Bo Hansen recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-7

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Posted: 29 October 2014 03:23 PM   [ # 7 ]  
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Round 8

Only one decisive game in round 8: Jobava defeated Gelfand, to join the lead of the tournament together with Nakamura and Andreikin. After winning - with Caruana - the first leg of the GP series, Gelfand seems to have lost his good form; it’s quite impressive to see the super-strong Israeli GM last in the standings, with a disatrous score of minus 4. -Tomorrow is a rest day, then the last three rounds, to decide who’s the winner of the Tashkent event. Half a point behind the leading trio, Mamedyarov and MVL, and then one point from the top, four players: Caruana, Radjabov, Karjakin and Jakovenko. All of these can still theoretically win the Second Grand Prix. The last three rounds will be fun to follow!

GM Ronen Har-Zvi recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-8

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Posted: 31 October 2014 02:18 PM   [ # 8 ]  
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Round 9

GM Joel Benjamin recaps Round 9. Only a couple of weeks ago Andreikin was struggling in Baku, playing the first stage of the FIDE Grand Prix. Dmitry finshed second last, with 4.5 points out of 11 rounds. Then he moved to Tashkent, and magic happened. He’s now in the sole lead after 9 rounds, with 6 points. Today he won the important game with Jobava, who he shared first with, along with Nakamura. Nakamura drew his game, so now Andreikin is in the sole lead. Another game of interest was Mamedyarov’s win against Jakovenko. Jako, known for playing risky variations, this time got beaten right in the opening by the strong Azeri, who now shares second with Hikaru Nakamura.

GM Joel Benjamin recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-9

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Posted: 01 November 2014 02:36 PM   [ # 9 ]  
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Round 10

All draws today. The final verdict is postponed: the last round will tell us who is the winners of the second stage of the FIDE Grand Prix. Andreikin keeps the lead of the tournament, with Nakamura and Mamedyarov half a point behind. GM Fedorowicz shows us two hard-fought draws from today’s round:Caruana vs. Karjakin and Gelfand vs. Andreikin.

GM John Fedorowicz recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-10

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Posted: 02 November 2014 12:53 PM   [ # 10 ]  
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Round 11

From worst to first! Dmitry Andreikin, who struggled in Baku only three weeks ago, finishing second last, won the second stage of the Grand Prix in Tashkent. Last round was very interesting, especially because both Nakamura and Mamedyarov could have taken the lead, had they won their games. The Azeri and the American drew two hard-fought games, and Andreikin - also with a draw - kept the lead. Caruana won his game against Jakovenko, to land in third place - shared with Karjakin, Vachier-Lagrave and Jobava - which allows Fabiano to keep the lead in the Grand Prix Series overall standings. Nakamura, with two good second places, follows the Italian stud. The two leaders won’t play the next GP in Tbilisi; therefore Andreikin, who is in third place, could spring to the lead, at least temporarily, until the final chapter in Khanty-Mansiysk.

GM Max Dlugy recaps the round: https://www.chessclub.com/videos/fide-gp-tashkent-2014-round-11

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