Norway Chess, Round 4: Caruana Continues To Lead After A Day Of Draws
Today's round at the Norway Chess tournament wasn't the most exciting one. Four of the five games were drawn, three pretty uneventfully. Fabiano Caruana had the most interesting draw of the day, and had some pressure against Anish Giri late in the first time control. In mutual time trouble he was unable to keep the advantage, and the game quickly petered out in the second time control.
Vladimir Kramnik entered and exited the day in second place after a draw with ostensible tournament rabbit Simen Agdestein. After Agdestein's 13.d5, however, Black was never going to win the game, absent many serious errors by White, and while Kramnik almost managed to scrape up something out of nothing, a few accurate moves by Agdestein late in the first time control sufficed to hold the balance.
Alexander Grischuk was tied with Kramnik for second entering the round, and when Sergey Karjakin offered a questionable exchange sac on move 17 Black (Grischuk) was objectively better. The position may have been easier for White to handle, and this was especially so after Grischuk's too-ambitious 22...b5. He hoped to achieve ...a5 and ...b4 from there, but by the time he made those moves White had achieved considerable activity. Instead, 22...b6 was more stable, keeping everything under control. Both players were in some time trouble, and by the time it was over Karjakin had managed to outplay him. It wasn't winning yet, but Grischuk failed to put up the best resistance in the second time control and lost decisively. With his fourth consecutive decisive result Grischuk fell to 50%, while Karjakin got back to 50% and won his first classical game since the Candidates' tournament.
The games featuring the two highest-rated players weren't very interesting. Magnus Carlsen had Black against Veselin Topalov, and was a little worse at the end. Topalov found a nice pawn sac in exchange for the bishop pair and something of a queenside bind, but rather than play it out he acceded to an early repetition of moves; the game ended in a draw after 28.Bc7. Not very Topalovian, and it's curious that both Carlsen and Agdestein have drawn all their games. As for Levon Aronian vs. Peter Svidler, Aronian had a very small pull for a while in a theoretically significant 8.Rb1 Gruenfeld, but Svidler held without much of a sweat. The players continued until the time control, and then called it a day.
The games are here (without notes); here are tomorrow's round 5 pairings:
- Grischuk (2) - Agdestein (2) (whose streak will continue?)
- Svidler (1.5) - Karjakin (2)
- Carlsen (2) - Aronian (2)
- Giri (1.5) - Topalov (1.5)
- Kramnik (2.5) - Caruana (3)
Reader Comments (2)
The Coming Man
If Caruana wins the tournament, he deserves the victory.
Caruana will have five games with the black pieces and four games with the white pieces and he played/plays the black pieces against the top half (by rating) of the tournament-Carlsen, Aronian, Grischuk, and Kramnik.
Keep in mind that Aronian and Kramnik usually demonstrate superb theoretical preparation when conducting the white pieces. On the other hand, Caruana's preparation and repertoire against 1.d4 seems good enough for a draw.
Carlsen needs a surge now to hope for tournament victory and Kramnik-Caruana in round five is a key match up for all three players. If Caruana wins with the black pieces versus Kramnik, the No Logo Norway Chess tournament is Caruana's to lose.
The final standings of the players will depend on nerves (mental/emotional stability), will to win, and stamina.
[DM: Gosh, I would have thought good moves would play a role. :)]
+3 likely wins the tournament and surely +4 wins the tournament. So, Carlsen wins the tournament only if he scores four or more points out of the remaining five games.
Based on Carlsen's performance in Norway, Anand should offer to help organize the upcoming World Championship Match in Norway!
[DM: Gosh, I would have thought good moves would play a role. :)] Dennis, thanks for the tongue-in-cheek truth you wrote! :)
Here's a bit of intrigue. Can we count on Agdestein to "lose" to Carlsen in round 9? Imagine "lose" means anything you please, but the presumption is that chess games are lost and not won.
Now here's the "philosophical" question (my undergraduate major was Philosophy and Religion): With "best" moves, is chess a draw?
[DM: I have a friend whose rating is around 2100 USCF who claims to disagree with the draw hypothesis, but I don't know any other player his rating or better - especially better - who doesn't think chess is ultimately a draw, or at least that that's by far the likeliest hypothesis.
A reminder: Please keep comments on-topic.]