First, Second, Third, Fourth: Snapshots from the 2022 Norway Chess Tournament

Magnus Carlsen once again showed why he is and has been the World’s #1 player for over a decade, and the World Champion for nine years. While the race for first in the recently completed Norway Chess tournament was closely contested, it was Carlsen who kept his nerve when it mattered most, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (second), Viswanathan Anand (third), and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (fourth) all had their lapses when it mattered most. It’s not that Carlsen’s play was perfect by any means; rather, he made more of his opportunities than his opponents did with theirs, especially in the critical moments.

We begin with the Anand-Carlsen “match” in round 5. First, a little explanation is in order. The scoring system in the tournament was unusual. The players would contest a classical game with 3-1-0 scoring (three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss), with a further twist. In case of a draw there would be an Armageddon blitz game, with the players keeping the same colors, with a further half point going to the winner (or to Black in case of a draw). Anand played very well against Carlsen in their classical game, and was on the way to a well-deserved win…until he let it slip. Carlsen held the draw and forced an Armageddon game, which Anand, to his credit, managed to win. Nevertheless, that cost Anand a point and a half - and two and a half points relative to Carlsen. That result alone would have been enough for Anand to win the tournament, had everything else remained the same.

Next up, round 6. Carlsen was pressing for a long time against Mamedyarov, who defended well and kept the game within the bounds of a draw. It wasn’t an easy defense, but he was doing a fine job…until a mental lapse on move 46. Mamedyarov blundered a critical pawn to an elementary tactic, after which Carlsen converted his advantage to a victory with little difficulty.

In round 8, two more critical results followed. Anand was still doing well, but with White in the classical game against Mamedyarov made an absolute howler of a blunder, and resigned without waiting to see Mamedyarov make the winning move. It was a nice tactic, and one that could be overlooked by mere mortals at any time. It’s not even that hard to see a great player missing the trick in a blitz game. But it is surprising to see one of the all-time greats, and a legend when it comes to chess calculation, miss it in a classical game. Errare humanum est!

Meanwhile, Carlsen was suffering against Vachier-Lagrave somewhat analogously to the way Mamedyarov suffered against him in the earlier game. He too had a momentary lapse…but MVL failed to take advantage of it, and they went to Armageddon. In this game too Vachier-Lagrave had the advantage, but content with a draw (he had Black, and in Armageddon a draw is as good as a win for the second player) he chose a very impractical way to force it. The game could have been saved, but without enough time to think he failed to do so, losing another half a point. Had MVL won the classical game and everything else remained the same, he would have come in clear first rather than fourth.

The margins in top-level chess can be razor-thin. My hope for the coming Candidates tournament - starting tomorrow! - is that the player who wins, wins convincingly. It’s not that I don’t want to see a competitive event - I do. But for the sake of the sanity of the runner(s)-up, I hope that he or they won’t be torturing themselves for the rest of their lives with the question, “What if I had only found that one move?”

To see the games mentioned above, and a discussion of the critical moments therein, click here.

Oslo Esports Cup 2022

The Oslo Esports Cup is the opening event for the 2022 Meltwater Champions Tour, and as you'd expect from last year's Tour it's a very strong tournament. Magnus Carlsen leads the parade of stars, which also includes top-name players like Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. It's an eight player round robin, with each round a best-of-four game match with a 15'+10" time control.

Round 1 was on Friday, with these results: 

• Carlsen 2.5 - Duda .5
• Giri 2.5 - Eric Hansen 1.5
• Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (P.R.) 2.5 - Jorden Van Foreest .5
• Mamedyarov 2.5 - Le Quang Liem 1.5 

Many of these results were turned upside down in round 2, on Saturday: 

• Le 2.5 - Carlsen 1.5
• P.R. 2.5 - Mamedyarov .5
• Van Foreest 2.5 - Hansen 1.5
• Duda 4 - Giri 2 

Everyone is 1-1 except for Hansen, who lost twice, and Praggnanandhaa, who has not only won twice but crushed his opponents.

Tournament site here; games here.

Wijk aan Zee, Round 8: Mamedyarov Catches Carlsen

Going into the tournament's second rest day, two players are tied for first with five rounds to go: Magnus Carlsen, who drew with the semi-correct Von Hennig-Schara Gambit against Sam Shankland; and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who easily outplayed Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in an offbeat English. (The youngster is gaining "experience", i.e., what you get when you don't get what you want.) And two other players have also gained half a point on Carlsen, to close to within half a point of the lead: Anish Giri, who won an ending with three pawns against a knight against Andrey Esipenko; and the early leader Vidit Gujrathi, who also kindly contributed to Nils Grandelius' stock of "experience".

The remaining games were drawn, with White failing to show anything in any of them.

A note about the Challengers event: one of the rising stars of 2021 has gotten the new year off to a bang: Arjun Erigaisi has 7/8 and is leading by a point and a half, with a 2898 TPR. That's better than the TPR of the leaders of the main event, and while it's one thing to do that against a field of 2500s and 2600s than against one with (almost) all 2700s, it's still extremely impressive. On the Live Rating List, Erigaisi has gained almost 24 points so far, and gone up 45(!!) places in the rating list. He's coming.

Here, with my comments, are today's games; here are the pairings for round 9, on Tuesday (it's pretty easy to see what will be the game of the round):

• Giri (5) - Shankland (3.5)
• Duda (3.5) - Esipenko (4)
• Van Foreest (4) - Dubov (3)
• Grandelius (2) - Caruana (4)
• Rapport (4.5) - Vidit (5)
• Praggnanandhaa (2.5) - Karjakin (4)
• Carlsen (5.5) - Mamedyarov (5.5)

Wijk aan Zee, Round 5 & 6: A Three-Way Tie for First, Including Carlsen

The tournament has continued to be competitive and generally aggressive, with 16 decisive games so far out of 42, with plenty of other games seeing players miss significant chances for the full point. It has also tightened at the top, and Vidit Gujrathi is no longer the sole leader, though he continues to enjoy a share of the lead.

In round 5 he was caught by Richard Rapport and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Jorden Van Foreest, respectively. Rapport mishandled the opening against Pragg, but in the sharp middlegame that ensued his opponent lost the thread and was soon lost (though the game went on for a long time). As for Mamedyarov, JVF got too optimistic, and his 21.Nf7 seemed to be a blunder - he probably just missed 21...Rxf7 or, perhaps more likely, missed 24...Nxf5. Whatever the case, he was lost, but Shakh gave him a chance to escape. 35.Qb7+ would have drawn, but 35.Rc1? allowed Black to coordinate everything for a final attack, and Black won.

As for Vidit, he was fortunate to draw with Anish Giri in round 5, and in round 6 he achieved a more normal draw with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Mamedyarov remained tied for first after his short but shaky draw with Nils Grandelius, but the third member of the triumvirate changed. Magnus Carlsen defeated Rapport to take his place in shared first. Rapport was within a move or two of solving his problems on the black side of a Catalan, but didn't manage to find the best moves at the key moments. (20...Ne5 probably would have resulted in a quick draw, for instance.)

There were two other decisive results. One saw Fabiano Caruana lose a horrible game to Giri. The weirdness started with the baffling 18.Kh1 and concluded with the unbelievable 40.Rb6. Sometimes, one's brain goes on strike, and when that happens all you can do is shrug it off and hope it feels like returning to work the next day. Speaking of going on strike, your blogger has decided to give himself a pass when it comes to examining games in the Giuoco Piano. So (almost) all I can tell you about Sergey Karjakin's game with JVF was that it was a Giuoco and that he won it.

All the other games from these two rounds have more robust comments from yours truly, and you can replay them here. And here are the pairings for round 7, today (Saturday):

• Esipenko (3.5) - Shankland (2.5)
• Giri (3) - Dubov (2.5)
• Duda (3) - Caruana (2.5)
• Van Foreest (2.5) - Vidit (4)
• Grandelius (1.5) - Karjakin (3)
• Rapport (3.5) - Mamedyarov (4)
• Praggnanandhaa (2.5) - Carlsen (4)

Wijk aan Zee, Round 4: Vidit Continues in Clear First

Vidit Gujrathi still leads the 2022 edition of Wijk aan Zee (the Tata Steel Masters) with three points after four rounds, but his tenure at the top was threatened today. With White against Andrey Esipenko he was in good shape through most of the short (32 move) game, but at the end he was worse when the draw was agreed and especially before Esipenko's last move. With a win Esipenko would have leapfrogged Vidit, but he was satisfied with a draw.

More surprisingly, he wasn't caught by Magnus Carlsen, who was winning more than once in a tricky game with Jorden Van Foreest. Van Foreest played very enterprising chess, and despite a couple of lapses his combative approach was (on balance) correct.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda was another player who could have caught Vidit with a win, and he was most certainly winning against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In time trouble, however, he got bamboozled, and with successive errors went from winning to better to equal to worse to lost over the space of nine moves.

The only other player who could have caught Vidit with a win was Richard Rapport, but he was fortunate to bailed out of a bad position when Sam Shankland played the hasty 17.e6 (rather than, say, 17.f4). That game finished in a quick draw - only 24 moves.

Fabiano Caruana vs. Daniil Dubov was a relatively uneventful but real draw, while Sergey Karjakin's "game" against Anish Giri was a joke. Karjakin, with White, repeated a line that allows Black to force a repetition - one which has already occurred more than 30 times in tournament play - and the game finished in just 14 moves. Unless Karjakin is sick, it's hard to understand why he would do this.

Finally, someone who is interested in playing is the youngster, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who nicely outplayed Nils Grandelius that went from an Exchange Gruenfeld to a sort of disastrous King's Indian for Black. The game lasted a long time, but Grandelius's position was just about hopeless by the game's halfway point.

The games, with my comments, are here. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a rest day; this is what we have to look forward to on Thursday, in round 5 (of 13):

• Dubov (2) - Shankland (1.5)
• Esipenko (2.5) - Caruana (2)
• Giri (1.5) - Vidit (3)
• Duda (2) - Karjakin (1.5)
• Van Foreest (2.5) - Mamedyarov (2.5)
• Grandelius (.5) - Carlsen (2.5)
• Rapport (2.5) - Praggnanandhaa (2)

Sinquefield Cup, Round 9: Five More Draws Means MVL Wins the Tournament

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew his game with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but it wasn't for a lack of effort on Mamedyarov's part! Just kidding: the game barely lasted five minutes and repeated a draw that has been used at least seven times since it first showed up last December. The draw guaranteed that MVL would at worst finish in a tie for first, while it also increased the likelihood that Mamedyarov would finish third in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings, thereby picking up a $25,000 bonus.

If Fabiano Caruana had won his last game (which was also the last game to finish), with Black against Richard Rapport, he would have tied for first with Vachier-Lagrave and would have let him leapfrog Mamedyarov into third in the GCT. He tried hard from the very beginning, and outplayed Rapport to achieve some winning chances in the second time control. Rapport defended well enough, however, and so Caruana came up just short in both his quests. (He did, however, *just* manage to keep his rating at 2800--2799.7, to be exact, which will be rounded up at the end of the month.)

Also coming short in the race for first place in the tournament were Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez. If either player won their head-to-head game they'd join MVL in first, but after a brief but genuine game they split the point. For So, it was the loss of one battle, but he won the war: he took first in the overall GCT race, winning the $100,000 bonus; MVL came in second and made an extra $50k.

In the games that weren't relevant to the race for first, Peter Svidler was winning in the opening against Jeffery Xiong, but repeatedly let the youngster slip away. He didn't seem to have the energy he needed to finish the job. By contrast, I don't think Sam Shankland or Dariusz Swiercz ever had a substantial advantage against each other before the game petered out into a drawn opposite-colored bishop ending.

The last round games, with my comments, are here; these are the final standings:

• 1. Vachier-Lagrave 6 (out of 9)
• 2-4. Caruana, Dominguez, So 5.5
• 5. Rapport 4.5
• 6-8. Xiong, Mamedyarov, Shankland 4
• 9. Svidler 3.5
• 10. Swiercz 2.5

The next events on the calendar both start on September 7. There's Norway Chess, starring both Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi; and there's also a Chess960 event in St. Louis with Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Garry Kasparov and six other players.

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 8: Mamedyarov on the Verge of Tournament Victory

One round remains, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov retains a full point lead over his closest pursuers. Mamedyarov decided not to take any risks today against Anish Giri, choosing a variation that has already been used to assure White of a speedy drawn in seven games - including (move for move) the Teimour Radjabov vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave game from round 3 of this tournament.

That opened the door for Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk to come within half a point of the lead, if they could manage to defeat Vachier-Lagrave or Caruana, respectively. Neither did. Wesley So enjoyed a very small edge against MVL's comical knight's tour of an opening, but the latter defended well and made a comfortable draw. Grischuk's game was more complex. With Black, Caruana had a big advantage early on, and Grischuk had a significant advantage later in the game, but neither player could finish off the other: draw.

A fourth game finished in a draw as well: Radjabov vs. Constantin Lupulescu. Radjabov has enjoyed a "perfect" score so far - eight draws in eight games - and that apparently took precedence over Lupulescu's -2 score. There was one win on the day, however, and it featured the other Romanian: Bogdan-Daniel Deac. He entered the round at 50%, but slipped to -1 when he lost a long game to Levon Aronian. Deac had a big advantage early on, and while Aronian was making steady progress the game was still objectively drawn almost to the very end. With the win, Aronian joins So and Grischuk, a point behind Mamedyarov with one round to go.

Today's games, with comments to all but the Grischuk-Caruana game, are here. And these are the final round pairings:

• Lupulescu (3) - So (4.5)
• Aronian (4.5) - Radjabov (4)
• Caruana (3.5) - Deac (3.5)
• Giri (4) - Grischuk (4.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (3) - Mamedyarov (5.5)

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 7: Mamedyarov Wins, Leads by a Point

At last, there is some stratification at the Superbet Chess Classic. In round 6, the leading triumvirate lost one of its members, and now Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is alone in first place with two rounds to go, thanks to his third consecutive win and Alexander Grischuk's loss.

Today's action saw three decisive games, none of which featured Romanian players. Mamedyarov defeated no less a player than Fabiano Caruana, and with the black pieces. White played 4.d3 against the Berlin, and his subsequent 0-0 and h3 may have reminded Shakh of Aronian-Kramnik from the 2018 Candidates. He reacted similarly, and while the play continued in a different fashion than that earlier game the plan of ...g5 and ...Rg8 also struck paydirt. That said, while Kramnik's version was correct (and something he prepared long before), Caruana did have an opportunity to punish Mamedyarov's clever but ad hoc idea. He missed it, and things went steadily downhill for him from then on.

Had Grischuk won against Levon Aronian he'd have maintained a share of the lead, but he lost - badly - thanks most likely to his dubious time usage. In a position that wasn't unknown, Grischuk with Black played the first new move of the game, an interesting and (as far as I can tell) dubious exchange sac. At that point, he had just 13 minutes left to make the time control on move 40. After Aronian declined the offer the position was approximately equal but very sharp, and for all his ability, good nerves and blitz skills it still proved too great a challenge for Grischuk. His 21st move was an error, and any remaining hopes were put to bed after a further mistake on move 23. The final position after 29.Rd7 is the sort of position we might expect to suffer against Aronian, but apparently it can also happen to a super-GM who mismanages his time.

Finally (in terms of the decisive games), Anish Giri defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the white side of a Symmetrical English/Quasi-Gruenfeld. MVL offered a typical pawn sac that Giri accepted, and they headed to a drawish but not drawn ending. Vachier-Lagrave had to make a couple of critical decisions in that ending. First, whether to keep his bishop pair or to go for opposite-colored bishops; he opted for the latter. Later, he had to decide whether to force the last pair of rooks off the board at the cost of letting White's pawn advance a couple of squares, or whether to keep it blockaded further back; he chose the former. I think the former decision was something like a coin flip, and mostly a matter of taste. In the second case it seems he may have chosen wrongly, but even then the ending may still have been a draw. The final error was 42...Kf6 (42...f6 was a must, when White remains much better but [probably] not winning). Giri found a nice, forcing way to finish the game, and got back to an even score in the tournament.

The other games, Radjabov-So and Lupulescu-Deac finished peacefully.

The games, with my comments to the decisive games, are here. And these are the pairings for round 8:

• So (4) - Vachier-Lagrave (2.5)
• Mamedyarov (5) - Giri (3.5)
• Grischuk (4) - Caruana (3)
• Deac (3.5) - Aronian (3.5)
• Radjabov (3.5) - Lupulescu (2.5)

Superbet Chess Classic, Round 6: Mamedyarov & Grischuk Win, Lead

Per usual, a Romanian player - Constantin Lupulescu again - was involved in the day's decisive games, but for the second time in the tournament a non-Romanian was involved in one of the decisive games.

Wesley So made Anish Giri defend for a long time, but was unable to win. Knight and four pawns vs. knight and three pawns is typically winning for the strong side, but because Black had 48...g5 available at the start of the ending it was objectively drawn. Good "d" by Giri.

Alexander Grischuk won convincingly on the white side of a Classical Sicilian against Lupulescu. His preparation was good, and his opponent's wasn't. A surprisingly easy win for White.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave seemed to mix up his move order against Fabiano Caruana in a sharp Ruy Lopez, and was soon lost. Fortunately for him, Caruana failed to play 22...Qf6, which would have kept a winning advantage, and the game soon ended in a repetition.

Finally, Deac-Radjabov was an uninspired draw that probably suited both players. 'nuff said.

The games, with my notes to the two decisive games and MVL-Caruana, are here. These are tomorrow's pairings:

• Radjabov (3) - So (3.5)
• Lupulescu (2) - Deac (3)
• Aronian (2.5) - Grischuk (4)
• Caruana (3) - Mamedyarov (4)
• Giri (2.5) - MVL (2.5)

The Superbet Chess Classic, Round 5: Mamedyarov Makes it a Triumvirate

Now it's five out of six decisive games that involve the Romanian players, as Constantin Lupulescu dropped to -1 after losing to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who now shares the lead with Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk. The game was interesting from start to finish, and the initiative went back and forth, but at a certain point Lupulescu lost the thread of the game. Mamedyarov built up a kingside attack, and when Lupulescu missed a nice tactical trick his game was instantly lost, and his opponent had no trouble bringing home the full point.

The players are off on Thursday, and on Friday we have these pairings:

• So (3) - Giri (2)
• Vachier-Lagrave (2) - Caruana 2.5
• Mamedyarov (3) - Aronian (2.5)
• Grischuk (3) - Lupulescu (2)
• Deac (2.5) - Radjabov (2.5)

Today's games, with my comments to Lupulescu-Mamedyarov, are here.