2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

[LawrenceCooper]

Aronian-Anand also drawn so Aronian retains his half point lead.

[Tim Harding]

Magnus seems to be in trouble again today. He could lose with White to Karjakin. But there's going to be a time scramble so all results are possible.

EDIT: He seems to have made the time control and is now OK. Maybe Karjakin missed something?

The more likely chance of a decisive game is MVL who is a pawn up against Kramnik or Giri who is a pawn up against Caruana.

[LawrenceCooper]

Magnus seems to be in trouble again today. He could lose with White to Karjakin. But there's going to be a time scramble so all results are possible.

EDIT: He seems to have made the time control and is now OK. Maybe Karjakin missed something?

The more likely chance of a decisive game is MVL who is a pawn up against Kramnik or Giri who is a pawn up against Caruana.

MVL successfully converted a level material ending finishing with a nice trick.

[JustinHorton]

Which he has.

Something odd just happened in Giri-Caruana, if the computers are to be believed.

Karjakin thinking for more than half an hour now.

[Tim Harding]

Karjakin blundered at move 41, that long think, he's gonna lose now?
So after all three decisive results today probably.
Anish moves up to joint second, while Magnus leapfrogs the losers to leave Caruana and Karjakin joint last.
Mamedyarov and Ding Liren are probably happy to have missed all this madness.

[LawrenceCooper]

Magnus has won (finally) whilst the last game is likely to be a draw (according to the commentary team).

[LawrenceCooper]

Credit at least to Karjakin for putting in an appearance after the game with the commentators to talk through parts of the game.

[LawrenceCooper]

1 GM Kramnik, V. (4) 2808— — GM Giri, Anish (4½) 2771
2 GM Karjakin, S. (3) 2781— — GM Vachier-Lagr. (3½) 2796
3 GM Caruana, F. (3½) 2808— — GM Nakamura, H. (5) 2785
4 GM So, Wesley (4) 2812— — GM Aronian, L. (5½) 2793
5 GM Anand, V. (3½) 2786— — GM Carlsen, M. (3½) 2832

[Chris Rice]

On the live ratings Aronian is suddenly world no 3, see below, plus a possible explanation for the last minute personnel changes in the Russian team for the upcoming World Team Championships next week, Wei Yi's just getting better and better and David Howell's new membership of the 2700 club:

1 Carlsen 2822.9 −9.1
2 So 2810.1 −1.9
3 ↑4 Aronian 2808.2 +15.2
4 ↓1 Kramnik 2807.0 −1.0
5 ↓1 Caruana 2801.8 −6.2
6 ↓1 Mamedyarov 2800.0 0.0
7 ↑2 Nakamura 2796.4 +11.4
8 ↓2 Vachier-Lagrave 2791.5 −4.5
9 ↑1 Ding Liren 2783.0 0.0
10 ↓2 Anand 2781.9 −4.1
11 ↑1 Giri 2779.0 +8.0
12 ↓1 Karjakin 2773.2 −7.8
19 ↑6 Wei Yi 2738.1 +10.1
22 Adams 2736.0 0.0
30 ↑13 Matlakov 2723.6 +16.6
33 ↑14 Fedoseev 2717.7 +14.7
48 ↑5 Howell 2702.0 +10.0

[LawrenceCooper]

On the live ratings Aronian is suddenly world no 3, see below, plus a possible explanation for the last minute personnel changes in the Russian team for the upcoming World Team Championships next week, Wei Yi's just getting better and better and David Howell's new membership of the 2700 club:

1 Carlsen 2822.9 −9.1
2 So 2810.1 −1.9
3 ↑4 Aronian 2808.2 +15.2
4 ↓1 Kramnik 2807.0 −1.0
5 ↓1 Caruana 2801.8 −6.2
6 ↓1 Mamedyarov 2800.0 0.0
7 ↑2 Nakamura 2796.4 +11.4
8 ↓2 Vachier-Lagrave 2791.5 −4.5
9 ↑1 Ding Liren 2783.0 0.0
10 ↓2 Anand 2781.9 −4.1
11 ↑1 Giri 2779.0 +8.0
12 ↓1 Karjakin 2773.2 −7.8
19 ↑6 Wei Yi 2738.1 +10.1
22 Adams 2736.0 0.0
30 ↑13 Matlakov 2723.6 +16.6
33 ↑14 Fedoseev 2717.7 +14.7
48 ↑5 Howell 2702.0 +10.0

David has been over 2700 before but it's a welcome return.

[Chris Rice]

You're right of course Loz, renewed membership of the 2700 club would have been more accurate. The ChessBase report from Yermolinky is interesting as both he and Danny King analyse the Carlsen-Karjakin game. I was struck by the differences in how they saw it. Yermo for instance thought 27...Qxa2 was over stretching whereas Danny King thought it was perfectly all right. 32 Rxc4 is criticised by Yermo but not by Danny. 32...Ne8 is also seen as a mistake by Yermo whereas Danny King sees it as the most human move because it was only afterwards that the not too intuitive 32...Kg7 was seen as the saving move. Karjakin's error with 40...Qg5 was the last move before 50 minutes were added on and 41...Bd6 proved to be the final nail in the coffin in a game where he had chances to be better and certainly to draw. I agree with Danny King though that Carlsen played very bravely, there were a few opporunities for him to bail out with a perpetual but he was having none of it and just kept going for it. Guess that's why ultimately he's still the world number 1....at least for now.

Nice report from Chess24 which shows the critical points in all the games and features Nils Grandelius anaysing the Carlsen game as well.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I don't think the 12-point gap can be bridged by a So victory and Carlsen loss in the last round, as Carlsen would only lose about 5-6 points in a loss to Anand. Interestingly, the So-Aronian clash may decide who takes number 2 spot on the next list, as it is only Russian and Chinese players towards the top end of 2700 at the World Team Championship 2017 (which finishes before the end of June) - only Ding Liren really has the chance to make a big leap up there.

The world elite are playing rapid and blitz in Paris and Leuven for the rest of June and the start of July, so any battle for the world number one spot may have to wait until the Sinquefield Cup (31 July to 12 August), but there are two other tournaments as well.

Sinquefield Cup: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Viswanathan Anand, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian.

Very similar line-up to Norway Chess 2017. Just remove Kramnik and Giri and replace them with Nepomniachtchi.

The other two tournaments are Dortmund and the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix (in Geneva).

Kramnik or MVL could go on a hot streak at Dortmund (15-23 July) and challenge for number one.

MVL might flag a bit having played in all three of Norway Chess, Dortmund and Sinquefield Cup!

Who is playing in the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix in Geneva (5-16 July)? Is it the names not greyed-out here? I think Aronian is playing there, so that will be a critical chance for him to continue his good form. Though that may tire him out as well.

[LawrenceCooper]

Karjakin-MVL and Anand-Carlsen drawn.

[LawrenceCooper]

Kramnik 1 Giri 0 in 20 moves!

[Tim Harding]

Kramnik 1 Giri 0 in 20 moves!

Giri played like a beginner today, notwithstanding what the online engine may say about 5...c4.