This Week's Free ChessLecture Show: Carlsen-Tari from Norway Chess

Each week ChessLecture.com makes one of its videos available for free, on-demand, for two weeks, and this week it's one of my recent videos that's available. The game is Magnus Carlsen's smooth positional win over his countryman Aryan Tari, and it's a model of the good knight vs. bad bishop middlegame. (Note when you're watching such games not only the damage that gets done once the imbalance is constructed and the knight reaches an ideal square like d5, but also pay careful attention to the setup. What did the player do to get the knight to its ideal square? What exchanges were made to create that favorable imbalance? And what should the loser of the game have done to disallow that unfavorable situation in the first place?)

You'll need a ChessLecture.com account to watch, but as you can sign up for a free one if you don't have one already, that should only be a minor hurdle. Happy viewing!

Norway Chess, Round 10: Carlsen First, Firouzja Second, Aronian Third

The last round was a bit of an anti-climax, and a major source of "What if?" for Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja convincingly defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the last round, while Magnus Carlsen played poorly and lost against Levon Aronian. As a result, Carlsen finished just one point ahead of Firouzja - a very slim margin. Had Firouzja held the "dead" drawn pawn ending to Carlsen in round 9 he would have won the event (assuming the same last round results, which is not a given), or even avoided the wholly unnecessary Armageddon loss to Carlsen in their "match" from the first cycle, they'd have finished in a tie for first. Even so, it was a fantastic event for the youngster, and not a bad result for Carlsen either, coming in first despite playing less than his best chess - though he also played some excellent chess.

It was a pretty good event for Aronian as well, who finished just a point behind Firouzja. In fourth, there was Fabiano Caruana, who only drew the classical game with Aryan Tari before defeating him in impressive style in the Armageddon game. Duda came in fifth, and Tari wound up in last, getting a good deal of experience from this very challenging event. ("Experience" has been defined as what one gets when not getting what one wants.)

It was an enjoyable event, and hopefully there will be another in-person event soon. Wrapping things up on this one, here is Carlsen-Aronian, with my notes.

Final Standings:

1. Carlsen 19.5 (out of 30)
2. Firouzja 18.5
3. Aronian 17.5
4. Caruana 15.5
5. Duda 9.5
6. Tari 3.5

Norway Chess, Round 9: Carlsen Wins the Tournament After Firouzja Blunders

Alireza Firouzja is one of the strongest 17-year-olds in history. Very few other players are in the conversation with him: Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen were comparably strong at that age. And Firouzja is already #18 in the world. He's an amazing player, and he seems to be afraid of no one...

Or almost no one. Today Firouzja lost in mind-blowing fashion against Carlsen, and it was the third such mind-blower in the last 10 months. The first was his inexplicable loss to Carlsen in the World Rapid & Blitz last December, the second was his loss in the Armageddon game in the first cycle of this event, and the third came today. Somehow Firouzja lost in a king and pawn ending that many mid-level club players could draw in their sleep, an ending I could have drawn as a pre-teen many years ago. This isn't a sign of my precocity, but of just how elementary the ending was*. So what happened today was either an amazing gap in his knowledge--possible, I guess, but really hard to believe for a mid-2700 player--or a case of terrible nerves, or some combination of the two. He's still very young, and getting stronger every day, but he must work on his nerves before this becomes a habit that prevents him from reaching that last rung.

As a result of Carlsen's win, he clinched tournament victory with a round to spare. He would have won even if his other closest pursuers, Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana, had likewise won their classical games, but they didn't. They both won their Armageddon games, against Aryan Tari and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, respectively, but fell further behind Carlsen and failed to overtake Firouzja.

The tournament ends tomorrow/today (Friday), and these are the last-round pairings:

• Carlsen (19.5) - Aronian (14.5)
• Firouzja (15.5) - Duda (9.5)
• Caruana (14) - Tari (2.5)

Here's the Firouzja-Carlsen game.

* Those who watched the live broadcast and the commentary from Vladimir Kramnik and Judit Polgar may wonder if it was really that obvious, as Kramnik in particular thought that it would have been easier to keep the minor pieces on the board. (The video is here, with the decision to head for the pawn ending around the 3:57 (that's hours and minutes) mark. There is discussion of it before that, however, so if you're really curious you can go back before that.) This strikes me as completely nuts - the pawn ending is mind-numbingly simple, as you'll see in the notes, while I think there are ways for Black to keep pushing with the minor pieces on the board. To my mind, the main issue is nerves - look at how Firouzja is shaking almost uncontrollably at the end (starting around 4:01:35, ramping every few seconds until his hands are flapping like a fish in a boat).

Norway Chess, Round 8: Carlsen Leads Again

It's pretty hard to keep the champion down for very long. Today Magnus Carlsen won a model game against Aryan Tari, showing that even though the trope of an ideal knight on d5 against a bad bishop on e7 is fodder for the textbooks, it doesn't prevent even very strong GMs like Tari from falling prey to such ideas. (Nor is he the strongest player to stumble into that sort of mess: see Judit Polgar's beautiful win over Vishwanathan Anand from Wijk aan Zee in 1998.)

With his confident win, Carlsen leapt back into the lead, as Alireza Firouzja drew his classical game with Fabiano Caruana. The draw was not a bad result against the world's #2, and with the black pieces, but it meant that he fell behind. He would have trailed even if he had succeeded in the Armageddon game, but he didn't - Caruana won. Firouzja thus trails the champ by a point.

Levon Aronian failed to make up any ground on the leaders, as he was unable to make enough of his edge as White in a Maroczy Bind, and his classical game with Jan-Krzysztof Duda finished in a draw. Aronian pressed for a long time in the Armageddon game, but never managed to achieve anything tangible. As a draw with White in an Armageddon game is no better than a loss, he was eventually forced to take extreme risks, and in the end Duda won that game.

Aronian and Caruana are not quite out of the running, but the hour is getting late. Fortunately for Aronian, he is facing Tari in round 9, and while that's no guaranteed point - especially since he has Black against him - it's a very good chance on paper. Caruana will face the resurgent Duda - also with Black. That leaves the battle that will very likely determine the tournament winner if someone wins the classical game; in fact, it's guaranteed to do so if Carlsen wins. Here are the pairings:

• Firouzja (15.5) - Carlsen (16.5)
• Duda (8.5) - Caruana (12.5)
• Tari (1.5) - Aronian (13)

Finally, here's today's Carlsen-Tari game, with brief notes.

Norway Chess, Round 7: Firouzja, Carlsen Win Armageddon Games, Continue as 1-2

If the top two matches finished in Armageddon wins by the players with the lower scores instead of the higher scores (as happened), it would have really tightened things up. Even so, it's still a four-horse race with three rounds to go, with Alireza Firouzja in first with 14.5 points, a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen, two and a half points ahead of Levon Aronian and three and a half ahead of Fabiano Caruana.

Firouzja enjoyed an initiative against Aronian in the classical game, but the latter defended extremely well. Firouzja reached a pawn-up rook ending, but never came close to achieving anything. Aronian's defense was so good that it's worth studying and emulating. Their Armageddon was a tragedy or a farce, depending on one's view of the one-second increment. Aronian was fine almost from start to finish, but a pawn up and safe in the final position couldn't physically move fast enough to get the draw his played (more than) merited, and he lost on time.

Caruana had some terrific preparation against Carlsen, and obtained a significant advantage and a very large advantage on the clock as well. But at some point he couldn't find the precise moves he needed to maintain that plus, and Carlsen's fine defense led to a draw. The opening of Armageddon game didn't go as well for Caruana. Carlsen had a winning advantage soon after the opening, and while Caruana fought his way back to equality he was never close to winning. Caruana eventually lost on time (I think), but he had the nominally worse side of an almost hopelessly drawn position. There was no way he was going to win it, so it didn't matter if it was a loss or a draw.

Finally, Jan-Krzysztof Duda won a very short and lively game against Aryan Tari, and is slowly crawling away from the cellar and towards the leading group. It's too late for him to win the event, but not too late to catch one of the top 4 and to score a major upset along the way.

Here are today's pairings:

• Carlsen (13.5) - Tari (1.5)
• Aronian (12) - Duda (7)
• Caruana (11) - Firouzja (14.5)

Norway Chess, Round 6: Caruana Topples Aronian, Firouzja Leads!

This makes four different leaders in four rounds. After rounds 1 & 2, Fabiano Caruana led the tournament. After round 3, he shared the lead with Levon Aronian, while after round 4 Magnus Carlsen was the sole leader. After round 5 Aronian took over the sole lead, but now Alireza Firouzja is in clear first after six rounds. Only Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Aryan Tari haven't experienced first place in this tournament (and are extremely unlikely to do so, if it it's even mathematically possibility [it may be for Duda, but not for Tari]).

Round 6 was a reprise of round 5, but with colors reversed, and 2/3 of the results were also a reversal. Magnus Carlsen bounced back from his loss to Duda by crushing him handily, but Caruaan was in trouble with Black against Aronian until the latter went a bit nuts with 23.g4. This both gave away his advantage and introduced risk to his position where they had been none - and spent so much time on that move and the two preceding and succeeding it that he entered serious time trouble as well. Had he played 23.Ng5 he would have enjoyed a great advantage; instead, the position was equal (though very sharp). Aronian played very well after that to hold the balance in an insane position with almost no time on his clock, but he finally cracked. His 34th move was inaccurate, and his 35th move - which he probably had in mind when playing his 34th - was the losing move. Perhaps he overlooked Caruana's final move of the game - if Caruana didn't have that resource, Aronian would have won - or maybe he thought that 38.Nd6 would win, but then 38...h6 would keep Caruana on top.

Aronian is still a point ahead of Caruana, but trails Carlsen by a point. The tournament leader, however, is none other than the 17-year-old Firouzja, who did not copy the pattern of the other matches; instead, he finished his sweep of Tari, and he now leads by a point.

The next round continues the arpeggio pairing system, repeating the round 4 pairings with colors reversed:

• Caruana (10) - Carlsen (12)
• Firouzja (13) - Aronian (11)
• Duda (4) - Tari (1.5)

Norway Chess, Round 5: Duda Beats Carlsen; Aronian Takes the Lead

Today (ok, yesterday, as I write this) was a highly eventful day at the Norway Chess tournament, as the leader, world champion, and possessor of a record 125-game undefeated streak in classical chess - namely, Magnus Carlsen - suffered defeat at long last. It only took 26 1/3 months for someone to do it, but someone did; oddly, it was tournament tailender Jan-Krzysztof who did the honors.

Or maybe it wasn't so odd. Despite being the tailender, he is a very strong, enterprising player, and his poor results in the tournament up to that point may have encouraged Carlsen to take more risks than he should have. His play was indeed very risky, from the provocative opening to his sacrifice of a pawn and then of the exchange, but when he started to go astray the culprit may have been that he didn't play energetically enough at a key moment.

You can check the details for yourself where I annotate the game, but the bottom line is that his streak is over, and more than that, he's out of first. Levon Aronian defeated Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in their classical game (in fact, all three matches were decided in classical chess) and is alone in first place, a point ahead of Alireza Firouzja (who defeated Aryan Tari with the white pieces), who is in turn a point ahead of Carlsen.

The games are here (with my comments to Duda's win over Carlsen), and here are the pairings...which are exactly the same as today's, but with colors reversed. That those pairings would occur at some point is unsurprising, as this is a double round robin, but it is very unusual for it to happen in back-to-back rounds. Anyway, here are the pairings, with player scores in parentheses:

• Carlsen (9) - Duda (4)
• Tari (1.5) - Firouzja (10)
• Aronian (11) - Caruana (7)

Norway Chess, Round 4: Carlsen Beats Caruana, Leapfrogs Into First

This Magnus Carlsen guy's pretty good, it seems.

He has won just about everything he has entered this year, and defeating Fabiano Caruana in the classical game was a meaningful step in the direction of adding this year's Norway Chess tournament to the collection. It was a very clean victory, too, outplaying his opponent a bit at a time to collect the full point.

Had Levon Aronian won his classical game with Alireza Firouzja, he would have found himself in clear first. He only managed a draw, however, and then squandered a seriously winning position and eventually lost the Armageddon battle. The result of these two games is that Carlsen now leads with 9/12, Aronian has 8, and Firouzja and Caruana are tied for 3rd-4th with 7 points apiece.

In the battle of the goose eggs, Aryan Tari and Jan-Krzysztof drew their classical game, putting them both on the scoreboard. (Hopefully that gives them both a boost of confidence for their next rounds.) Someone had to get an extra half point in the Armageddon blitz, and while Duda was the first to acquire a winning advantage, it was Tari who managed to finish the job and win.

The players have Friday off, which may give me a chance to catch up on the games, and on Saturday they resume with round 5, with these pairings:

• Duda (1) - Carlsen (9)
• Firouzja (7) - Tari (1.5)
• Caruana (7) - Aronian (8)

Norway Chess, Round 3: Carlsen & Aronian Win in Classical, Firouzja Defeats Caruana in the Armageddon Game

A busy day, so I'm afraid that this entry will be limited to results. (It may or may not be supplemented in a day or two.) It was a day where the rich got richer and the poor stayed poor. Magnus Carlsen started out in serious trouble on the black side of a Classical Sicilian (the Rauzer Variation) against Aryan Tari, but at some point Tari lost the thread and fell victim to a vicious queenside counterattack. Levon Aronian also had the black pieces, also against a player yet to get on the scoreboard - in this case Jan-Krzysztof Duda - and he also won. He wasn't in trouble, unlike Carlsen, but it also seemed that the game was petering out to a routine draw in a rook ending. Apparently it wasn't routine enough for Duda, and Aronian scraped out a win.

That win put him into a tie for first with Fabiano Caruana, a point ahead of Carlsen, thanks to Alireza Firouzja's "match" win over Caruana. Firouzja had White in their games. Their classical game was fairly short, and it was Caruana who was doing the pressing. Then it was time for blitz, and this just isn't Caruana's forte, especially relative to Firouzja. The game wasn't a rout by any means, but as time ran low Caruana couldn't maintain as high a level of play as his opponent, and Firouzja won the game and closed to within a point and a half of the leaders.

Here are the round 4 pairings:

• Carlsen (6) - Caruana (7)
• Aronian (7) - Firouzja (5.5)
• Tari (0) - Duda (0)

This is obviously going to be a big round for the standings, and at least one of the tailenders (and possibly both) will finally eliminate the unsightly goose egg from the scoretable.

Norway Chess, Round 2: Caruana and Aronian Win in Classical, Carlsen Survives Armageddon

So far, the man of the tournament is Fabiano Caruana, who is now 2-0 - 6-0 on the tournament's scoring. (3 points for a classical win, 1.5 points for a draw in classical followed by an Armageddon win, 1 point for a classical draw and not succeeding in Armageddon, and 0 for a loss in classical.) He was pressing against Jan-Krzysztof Duda from early on, and after Duda's 23...b6? he enjoyed a winning advantage. It took him a very long time to convert, and Duda had a couple of subtle chances to hold, but for the most part it was a fine performance by the world's #2, who was the deserved winner.

Levon Aronian bounced back from yesterday's Armageddon loss to the world champion, defeating Aryan Tari on the white side of a Marshall. He grabbed the pawn, and when Tari failed to maintain his kingside bind Aronian suddenly enjoyed an overwhelming advantage that he smoothly converted.

The match between Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja was anything but smooth. Carlsen was outplaying Firouzja in the classical game, but slipped up. Firouzja found some nice tricks to save the game, and it was on to Armageddon. There Firouzja had an overwhelming advantage with Black, and even caught up on time (White starts the Armageddon with 10 minutes, Black with seven). But then he started to crack up, and even lost on time in what was still a drawn position (but he had been clearly winning earlier). He was clearly struggling with his nerves, reminiscent of his tragic loss to Carlsen in last year's World Blitz Championship. It was a very lucky escape by Carlsen, notwithstanding the truth of the dictum that good players are always lucky.

Caruana thus leads with a 6-0 score, two points ahead of Aronian and Firouzja, both of whom won the classical game in one round while losing the Armageddon game to Carlsen in the other. Carlsen's two Armageddon wins leave him with 3 points, and Tari and Duda are still waiting to get on the scoreboard.

Today's games, with my brief notes, are here. Here are the round 3 pairings:

• Tari-Carlsen
• Duda-Aronian
• Firouzja-Caruana