2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

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Chris Rice
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2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Chris Rice » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:31 pm

The Altibox event in Stavanger, Norway looks set to be one of the strongest tournaments in history with the entire top 10 in an all-play-all. Although I guess the organisers will have to keep their fingers crossed that these are still the top 10 in a few months time. http://www.2700chess.com/

1. World chess champion, Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
2. Wesley So (USA)
3. Fabiano Caruana (USA)
4. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)
5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)
6. Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
7. Viswanathan Anand (India)
8. Levon Aronian (Armenia)
9. Sergey Karjakin (Russia)
10. Anish Giri (The Netherlands)

http://norwaychess.no/en/2017/02/14/top ... -stavanger

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:47 pm

Chris Rice wrote:one of the strongest tournaments in history
They say they aim to be among "the top 3 strongest chess tournaments in the world".

Cue debate about current strongest tournaments and historically strong tournaments.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/what-was- ... -all-time-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ... ournaments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVRO_1938 ... tournament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinquefie ... d_Cup_2014

Related quiz question: which tournaments have had the most past, present and future world champions participating?

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Mike W. Richardt
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Mike W. Richardt » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:58 pm

hmm, without checking anything anywhere my educated guess would be Wijk aan Zee???
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:08 pm

Mike W. Richardt wrote:hmm, without checking anything anywhere my educated guess would be Wijk aan Zee???
Was that about past, present and future world champions? (Of course, this can change as more people become world champion!) I also didn't include women's world champions, as I am referring to the classical title of world champion. What I meant was participating in the same edition of a particular tournament, rather than adding up who has participated over several years and different editions of a tournament (though that would be an interesting question as well).

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:22 pm

AVRO 1938's eight competitors included Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe and Botvinnik, so the number to beat is at least four.

(Hastings probably holds the record for the most world champions over the years.)

Mick Norris
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:24 pm

Chris Rice wrote:The Altibox event in Stavanger, Norway looks set to be one of the strongest tournaments in history
Average rating of 2800, which it is currently, would make it the strongest ever presumably
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:56 pm

Mick Norris wrote: Average rating of 2800, which it is currently, would make it the strongest ever presumably
Most highly rated, anyway.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:00 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:AVRO 1938's eight competitors included Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe and Botvinnik, so the number to beat is at least four.

(Hastings probably holds the record for the most world champions over the years.)
Nottingham 1936 had five. Also Moscow 1971 and the 1973 Soviet Chess Championship. (All three examples mentioned in the Wikipedia page on the 1936 tournament, but are there more modern examples? Anything with Carlsen, Kramnik and Anand has three, but we may have to wait a while until we get five again, and Kramnik and Anand may retire before anyone succeeds Carlsen.)

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:05 pm

Didn't AVRO 1938 at least arguably contain the world's top 8 at the time?
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:26 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:Didn't AVRO 1938 at least arguably contain the world's top 8 at the time?
The chessmetrics site has the AVRO players as the top 8 in October 1938.

http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Sing ... 0000010100
#1 Alexander Alekhine 2754 46y0m (#6 all-time among players aged 46y0m)
#2 Mikhail Botvinnik 2747 27y2m (#22 all-time among players aged 27y2m)
#3 Samuel Reshevsky 2744 26y11m (#22 all-time among players aged 26y11m)
#4 Reuben Fine 2736 24y0m (#18 all-time among players aged 24y0m)
#5 José Capablanca 2732 49y11m (#8 all-time among players aged 49y11m)
#6 Salo Flohr 2728 29y11m (#28 all-time among players aged 29y11m)
#7 Paul Keres 2715 22y9m (#25 all-time among players aged 22y9m)
#8 Max Euwe 2715 37y5m (#36 all-time among players aged 37y5m)
#9 Erich Eliskases 2687 25y8m (#63 all-time among players aged 25y8m)
#10 Vasja Pirc 2670 30y10m (#108 all-time among players aged 30y10m)
#11 Grigory Levenfish 2660 49y7m (#28 all-time among players aged 49y7m)
#12 Efim Bogoljubow 2658 49y6m (#31 all-time among players aged 49y6m)
#13 Gideon Ståhlberg 2651 30y9m (#140 all-time among players aged 30y9m)
#14 Carlos Guimard 2635 25y6m (#146 all-time among players aged 25y6m)
#15 Lajos Steiner 2633 35y4m (#166 all-time among players aged 35y4m)
#16 Vladimirs Petrovs 2632 31y1m (#187 all-time among players aged 31y1m)
#17 Viacheslav Ragozin 2632 30y0m (#193 all-time among players aged 30y0m)
#18 Saviely Tartakower 2628 51y8m (#42 all-time among players aged 51y8m)
#19 Endre Steiner 2621 37y4m (#163 all-time among players aged 37y4m)
#20 Isaac Kashdan 2619 32y11m (#229 all-time among players aged 32y11m)
I've long felt the chessmetrics ratings are cooked in an absolute sense, as the top players always come out in the 2750 to 2800 range. The relative positions, being based on relative results should be more reliable, and indeed show a tightly packed field, somewhat aheadof players 9 and 10.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Feb 22, 2017 5:58 pm

Chris Rice wrote:The Altibox event in Stavanger, Norway looks set to be one of the strongest tournaments in history with the entire top 10 in an all-play-all. Although I guess the organisers will have to keep their fingers crossed that these are still the top 10 in a few months time. http://www.2700chess.com/

1. World chess champion, Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
2. Wesley So (USA)
3. Fabiano Caruana (USA)
4. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)
5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)
6. Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
7. Viswanathan Anand (India)
8. Levon Aronian (Armenia)
9. Sergey Karjakin (Russia)
10. Anish Giri (The Netherlands)

http://norwaychess.no/en/2017/02/14/top ... -stavanger
As has been pointed out elsewhere, Mamedyarov has gatecrashed the top ten. He might stay there, might not. Still three months of rating lists to go before the event starts.

What will the world top ten look like after the Norway event? Will anyone charge up the list (or fall down it), or will things stay pretty much the same?

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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Mick Norris » Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:50 pm

Carlsen will still be ranked number 1, but there will be a change at number 3
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Chris Rice
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Chris Rice » Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:20 pm

Magnus gearing up for next week https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/statu ... 34/photo/1

Not quite the top ten line up due to the interference of Mamedyarov at #5 and Ding Liren at #10 but certainly in rating terms this has to be one, if not the strongest, tournaments of all time.

1. World chess champion, Magnus Carlsen (Norway)
2. Wesley So (USA)
3. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)
4. Fabiano Caruana (USA)
6. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)
7. Levon Aronian (Armenia)
8. Viswanathan Anand (India)
9. Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
11. Sergey Karjakin (Russia)
12. Anish Giri (The Netherlands)

Chris Rice
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Jun 05, 2017 9:16 am

Peter Doggers report on the build up. Blitz today at 5.30pm BST.

""The world's strongest chess tournament 2017" is the new tagline on the official website and that seems fair. There's not going to be a stronger one this year, as noted by the world champion, who will be defending his title on home soil. With an average rating of 2797 it's not the strongest tournament in history. 2014 saw two tournaments with an average Elo above 2800: the Zurich Chess Challenge (2801) and the Sinquefield Cup (2802). The feat of AVRO 1938, which had the world's eight best players, still hasn't been bested. But what a great field it is, this year. There's four 2800+ players, three world champions and basically not a single player who doesn't have a decent chance to win this one."

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: 2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Jun 05, 2017 10:17 am

Chris Rice (quoting Peter Doggers) wrote:There's four 2800+ players, three world champions and basically not a single player who doesn't have a decent chance to win this one."
Possibly. But you can still separate the field slightly by their past record against top-10 players (or some similar criterion - the key being to eliminate performance against 'weaker' players). In that regard, I'd say Giri is least likely to win the tournament. I'd also be surprised if Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won this tournament. Another way to look at it is to ask how many times the ten players have managed to win elite round-robin tournaments? Is there an easy way to check this for each player?