Norway Chess Tournament 2016 - GOTD Round 3

Opening: B29: Sicilian: Nimzovich-Rubinstein variation

Player(s): Carlsen, Grandelius

It's Magnus' day. the only decisive result today was his victory over Grandelius. Grandelius chose a rare line in the Sicilian, which is almost never played at the top level. It probably caught Magnus off-guard, as the Norwegian thought for quite a long while after 2. …Nf6. but then Magnus went to the main line, allowing Grandelius to overextend his troops with g4 and g5. At that point Magnus decided to sac a piece, to get his King to safety and allow the queen to come out, backed up by a powerful bishop. Carlsen's pawn in f6 played an important role in the World Champion's attack, and the game looked difficult for Grandelius already at move 10! Carlsen, in his typical style, went ahead playing the best moves, calmly and with impressive precision. A great game by Magnus, who now loads solo with 2.5 points after 3 rounds. Everyone else drew, in what seems to be a trend in these super-tournaments, where almost invariably we get one decisive result and a lot of draws. Kramnik and MVL follow Magnus half a point behind, and tomorrow they face each other, with MVL as white. the tournament looks already grim for Eljanov, Harikrishna and Eljanov, but with 6 rounds to go they can surely improve their position. Round 4 starts at 10AM EDT, 16:00 CEST. ICC will have live commentary with GMs Pablo Zarnicki and Jonathan Speelman.

Teacher's library (50) B29 Carlsen Grandelius recap