Norway Chess Blitz
Stavanger, Norway
May 27, 2018
Final Standings
(FIDE Blitz Ratings are used)
1. Wesley So USA 2824, 6.0/9
2-3. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2869, Viswanathan Anand IND 2784, 5.5/9
4. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2965, 5.0/9
5-7. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2730, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2839, Fabiano Caruana USA 2814, 4.5/9
8. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2838, 3.5/9
9-10. Levon Aronian ARM 2843, Ding Liren CHN 2793, 3.0/9
Time Control: three minutes per game with two seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.
One of the strongest tournaments in the world, the Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger, took place from May 27 to June 7 in the Clarion Energy Hotel and Stavanger Concert Hall in Stavanger. This is the sixth edition.
Since there are 10 players the event consisted of a nine round all-play-all, meaning that some players will have five white and four blacks and the other half of the field will have five blacks and four whites. As is the normal custom here in Stavanger before the start of the tournament proper there is a round-robin blitz tournament to determine which players get five whites. Now, many years ago when you say “blitz chess” you mean five minutes per player play-to-finish, but currently the de facto blitz time control is three minutes per game + 2 second increment after every move.
The international chess federation (FIDE) classifies tournaments by categories and the highest in its official table is category 23, good for an average rating of 2801-2825. The expression “off the charts” therefore applies quite literally to the Stavanger blitz tournament, since its average is 2829, higher than the highest category.
The heavy favorite to win was Magnus Carlsen with his out-of-this-world rating of 2965 (!!!). Another blitz heavyweight is Hikaru Nakamura, the 2nd highest rated in the world and a legend in the internet chess servers for his uncanny speed and aggressive style. Surprisingly, he has never won the world blitz chess championship (highest is 3rd place in 2014 Dubai after Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi) but he was for many years the highest rated in the FIDE ratings lists both for rapid and blitz chess and in fact has been called the greatest quickplay artist ever.
None of the other players were slouches either. Viswanathan Anand is of course the original blitz phenomenon. He has lost some of his speed in recent years but that only means that instead of winning every blitz event he enters nowadays he only wins two out of five.
Sergey Karjakin (2016) and Levon Aronian (2010) are both past world blitz champions. Even the relative unknown Ding Liren was, in July 2016, the highest rated blitz player in the world.
But guess who won the tournament? Wesley So. No kidding. He won four games
(Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Ding Liren), drew four (Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian) and lost one (Magnus Carlsen) to finish in first place with 6/9.
I don’t normally analyze blitz games to present to BW readers but will make an exception in this case given that Wesley So is now the 3rd highest-ranked blitz player in the world. You don’t believe me? Take a look at the top 10 in the FIDE June 2018 rating list:
1. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2939
2. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2878
3. Wesley So USA 2856
4. Vladislav Artemiev RUS 2849
5. Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2846
6. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2837
7. Alexander Grischuk RUS 2831
8. Fabiano Caruana USA 2818
9. Viswanathan Anand IND 2817
10. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2816
Yes, Wesley So is not known as a particularly fast player, but once he puts his mind into it continues to accomplish remarkable feats and accomplishments. He truly is the greatest chess player to come from the Philippines.
So, Wesley (2824) — Karjakin, Sergey (2838) [C48]
6th Altibox Norway Chess 2018 Blitz Stavanger (6.2), 27.05.2018
In the FIDE Candidates tournament earlier this year Wesley started with losses in the first two rounds. He gathered himself and fought back with a nice win vs Levon Aronian in round 6, but then in the very next round lost again, this time to Karjakin. More than any of his other losses this one completely deflated the Filipino-American’s spirits as it came from a completely equal KRN endgame with all 4 pawns on the kingside, something which Wesley opined even a child could hold. Thereafter he limped home with 7 uninspired draws.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 0–0 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Be3 Bd6 8.h3 c5 9.g4!?
Different time controls, different openings. Headlong tactics like this are tailor-made for fast games.
9…Nd7 10.Ne2 Nb8 11.Ng3 Nc6 12.Nf5 Re8 13.h4 Bf8 14.h5 a5 15.c3 a4 16.Qc2 Be6 17.Ng5 c4 18.0–0–0 cxd3 19.Rxd3 Qc8 20.Nxe6 Qxe6 21.Kb1 Na5 22.Qxa4?!
Opening up the a-file for Black. Most people would consider that suicidal, but let’s see what happens.
22…b5! 23.Qc2
Of course not 23.Qxb5? Reb8.
23…Reb8
Karjakin may have missed 23…Nc4 followed by Reb8 and c7–c5. If Wesley plays as in the game 24.Bc1 this is refuted by 24…Rxa2! 25.Kxa2 Ne3+.
24.b3 Nc4 25.Bc1
See? The White bishop gets the tempo to defend on c1.
25…Na3+ 26.Bxa3 Rxa3 27.Rhd1 g6
The “obvious” 27…Rba8 is refuted by 28.Rd8! Rxa2 29.Qxa2 Rxa2 30.Rxf8+ Kxf8 31.Rd8+ White emerges a piece up.
28.hxg6 fxg6 29.Ne3 c6?!
This was the last chance for 29…Rba8, perhaps 30.Rd8 Rxa2 31.Qxa2 Rxa2 32.Kxa2 did not appeal to Karjakin.
30.Rd8 Raa8 31.R8d7 Bc5 <D>
POSITION AFTER 31…BC5
32.Qd2
After playing this move Wesley realized that 32.Nf5! is very strong: 32…gxf5 33.exf5 Qf6 34.g5 Qxg5 35.f6 Qh5 and now the moment of truth, White wants to play 36.Rg1+ Kh8 37.Rgg7 but then Black strikes back with 37…Qh1+ 38.Kb2 Ba3 mate, so first White has to get rid of the pesky bishop check on a3.
Correct is 36.b4! Bf8 37.Rg1+ Kh8 38.Rgg7! Bxg7 39.fxg7+ Kg8 40.Qb3+ and it is White who delivers mate. As you can see, even in blitz these chess titans calculate a lot of tactics.
32…Rf8 33.Nf5
So he plays the move now but it is no longer the same…
33…Qf6?
Karjakin took White’s word for it and did not take the knight on f5, but that was the only way to survive. After 33…gxf5 34.gxf5 (34.exf5 can no longer be played as 34…Qf6 35.g5 Qxf5+ it is Black who wins) 34…Qf6 35.Rg1+ Kh8 White has a draw starting with 36.Rxh7+ Kxh7 37.Rh1+ Kg8 38.Rg1+ Kh8 but it looks that that is all he’s got.
34.Qh6!
A happy ending after all.
34…Rf7 35.g5! Qe6 36.Rd8+ Bf8
[36…Rxd8 37.Rxd8+ Bf8 38.Rxf8+ Rxf8 39.Qg7#]
37.Rxa8 1–0
Caruana, Fabiano (2814) — So, Wesley (2824) [A37]
6th Altibox Norway Chess 2018 Blitz Stavanger (8.4), 27.05.2018
1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 d6 6.0–0 Bf5 7.h3 Qd7 8.Kh2 Nf6 9.d3 h6 10.e4 Be6 11.Be3 g5!?
Once again, different time control different opening moves.
12.Ng1 g4 13.h4 0–0 14.Nge2 Qd8 15.Nf4 Bd7 16.Rb1 Kh7 17.Ncd5 Ng8
The idea is to drive back the white knight on d5 with …e7–e6.
18.b4 b6 19.Nh5 Be5 20.Bf4 Bh8 21.bxc5 bxc5 22.Be3 Rb8 23.Rxb8 Qxb8 24.Bd2 Qb2!
Simply winning the a2–pawn.
25.Re1 Qxa2 26.Re2 Qa1 27.Bc1 Rb8 28.Re1 Rb1 29.Qd2 Be5 30.Qe3 Qd4 31.Qe2 Qa1 32.Qe3! e6 33.Nc7 Qd4 34.Qe2 Qa1 35.Qe3 Nd4
Just in case White doesn’t no.
36.Rf1 Nc2 37.Qd2 Qc3 38.Qd1 Nd4 39.Nb5 Bxb5 40.cxb5 Qc2 41.Qxg4? Rxc1 42.Rxc1 Qxc1 43.f4 Bh8
Even stronger is 43…f5! 44.exf5 exf5 45.Qh3 Nf6 White has nothing to play for.
44.e5
Now White has a threat: Be4+
44…d5 45.Qh3 Qd1 46.g4 Qe2 47.Qg3 Ne7 48.Kh1 Ng6 49.Nf6+ Bxf6 50.exf6 Qd1+ 51.Kh2 Ne2 52.Qf2 Ngxf4 53.Qxc5 Kg6 54.h5+ Kxf6 55.Qxa7 d4! 0–1
Shutting off White’s queen. Now Qg1+ cannot be prevented.
A good start for Wesley. Let’s hope he does well in the tournament proper.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
