2017 Altibox Norway Chess June 5-17

[Chris Rice]

ChessBase report on Round 6 including Danny King's analysis of the Aronian-Kramnik game.

Peter Doggers report sheds some light on Aronian's return to form "In an interview for our Russian YouTube channel, Aronian commented on the fact that he is without a second in Stavanger: "Recently I started to travel without seconds, and prepare by myself. Having [a] second is a good thing, but it’s also important to be responsible for your own preparation and to take it more seriously. You know, when there is no one to expect help from, you will be working more concentrated and determined."

Finally, there is the usual high quality analysis from Peter Svidler who also comments on the Queenslayer v Kramnik game.

[LawrenceCooper]

MVL 0 Giri 1 and plenty happening on the other boards.

[Tim Harding]

What a day indeed! Pakistan have crushed England in the cricket at Cardiff and Kramnik is about to KO Magnus.

Can Magnus's rating sink below 2800 soon?

Aronian looks like taking the outright lead.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looks like Magnus will lose and Kramnik may take second place on the live ratings. Carlsen will need to look elsewhere to win his first tournament of the year. Aronian winning as well.

[LawrenceCooper]

Looks like Magnus will lose and Kramnik may take second place on the live ratings. Carlsen will need to look elsewhere to win his first tournament of the year. Aronian winning as well.

Those two now confirmed, Kramnik beats Carlsen and Aronian wins with black against Karjakin.

[Tim Harding]

The question now is whether So can create winning chances against Caruana with extra pawn in R+B of opp. ending.
Vishy-Hikaru looks unbalanced but online engine says 0.0

When was the last time Magnus was on -2 in a tournament? Ever?

[NickFaulks]

Aronian's done it again. This is reminiscent of the period when Topalov was simply randomising positions against everyone and beating them.

[Tim Harding]

Hikaru thought half an hour at move 41. Instructive ending if he has found the right plan. He could have defended passively with 36...Re7 but it's usually right to use the R actively and so he played ...Rxg2 although it looked scary.

[Chris Rice]

Carlsen will be dangerously close to losing his number 1 rating before the end of the tournament if this keeps up. I remember Steve Davis not liking to play snooker tournaments from home because he was too relaxed. Conversely Kramnik seems to be getting better results now he's decided he's too old to play elite chess and Aronian is playing like Topalov in his prime. What's going on?

Round 8 pairings:
1 Carlsen, M. (2½) 2832 — Karjakin, S. (3) 2781
2 Aronian, L. (5) 2793 — Anand, V. (3) 2786
3 Vachier-Lagr. (2½) 2796 — Kramnik, V. (4) 2808
4 Nakamura, H. (4½) 2785 — So, Wesley (3½) 2812
5 Giri, Anish (4) 2771 — Caruana, F. (3) 2808

[Brian Towers]

Superman Carlsen has turned into Clark Kent since he started wearing glasses. Time for contacts (and a proper haircut).

[Chris Rice]

Nils Grandelius takes over from Peter Svidler and analyses the Kramnik-Carlsen game. Carlsen missed the 23 Bxh6 trick as he said after the game but Grandelius says he still had a draw if he had played 25...Bxf2+ rather than 25....Qxf2+.

[Mick Norris]

Carlsen will be dangerously close to losing his number 1 rating before the end of the tournament if this keeps up

There was a 10.6 point swing from Magnus to Vlad yesterday, so that Vlad is only 6.4 points behind

More importantly, Vlad is now 9.9 points ahead of Caruana, which is relevant for the average rating slot for the Candidates; it looks like So will get 1 of those 2 slots now

[Chris Rice]

ChessBase report on round 7 which seems to reinforce Kasparov and Yermolinsky's suggestion that Carlsen's chess has stagnated.

Peter Doggers report is not so gloomy for Carlsen as Kramnik states "Carlsen is just having a bad period, but that he needs to work on his black repertoire. He is heavily underrated! It will be not for long that I will be so close to him, or anyone else. I am sure he will just get to his senses and will rise back to the top, I have no doubt."

Aronian also revealed what his recent success is due to "I think I'm fighting. I am not playing better than usual but I'm fighting. Sessions of poker with my friends prior to the tournament helped to build my aggression!"

On the live ratings the top 6 are only 18 Elo apart now:

1 Carlsen 2818.6 −13.4
2 ↑1 Kramnik 2812.2 +4.2
3 ↓1 So 2810.5 −1.5
4 ↑3 Aronian 2808.3 +15.3
5 ↓1 Caruana 2802.3 −5.7
6 ↓1 Mamedyarov 2800.0
7 ↑2 Nakamura 2796.0 +11.0
8 ↓2 Vachier-Lagrave 2786.3 −9.7
9 ↑1 Ding Liren 2783.0 0.0
10 ↓2 Anand 2781.8 −4.2
11 ↑1 Giri 2778.5 +7.5
12 ↓1 Karjakin 2777.5 −3.5

To give some context as to how relatively badly Carlsen is doing, look at the table and then note that his performance after 27 games (+5 =19 -3) in 2017 is now 2776.

[JustinHorton]

ChessBase report on round 7

In 1996, after Las Palmas, Vladimir Kramnik declared that while Garry Kasparov might indeed have won the event, based on his chess, he could not claim to be ahead of the rest. We all know what ensued though: Kasparov, with his incomparable drive, got back to work, and in 2000 hit 2851, a full 70 Elo ahead of world no.2 Vishy Anand. He was 37.

Did anything else happen to Garry Kasparov in 2000?

[LawrenceCooper]

Nakamura-So was drawn in 35 moves.