7th Altibox Norway Chess
Stavanger, Norway
June 3-14, 2019
Final Standings
1. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2875, 13.5/18
2-3. Yu Yangyi CHN 2730, Levon Aronian ARM 2752, 10.5/18
4-5. Fabiano Caruana USA 2819, Wesley So USA 2754, 10.0/18
6. Ding Liren CHN 2805, 8.5/18
7-8. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2779, Viswanathan Anand IND 2767, 8.0/18
9-10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2774, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2775, 5.0/18
The organizers of this event had a new format to deal with the problem of excessive draws (in their opinion) among the elite players.
Players receive two hours for each classical game, with a 10-second increment only after move 40. No draw offers are allowed until move 30. Classical games are worth two points for a win, but in case of a draw players get half a point and play an Armageddon game for the remaining point.
In the Armageddon game White has 10 minutes to Black’s 7, with a three-second increment from move 61. In case of a draw the player with Black gets the full point.
If there’s a tie for first at the end of the tournament a blitz playoff will take place, each player getting three minutes for the entire game with a 2-second increment after every move.
Only the classical games are rated.
So, to summarize, players will get the following points per round:
Win main game: 2 points
Lose main game: 0 point
Draw main game and lose Armageddon: 0.5 point
Draw main game and win Armageddon: 1.5 points
Magnus Carlsen won the event by three points over his closest pursuers, but the intention to avoid draws was not achieved. Out of a total of 45 games only 11 (roughly one-fourth) were decisive and the rest had to go to Armageddon with its “pieces falling off the board” randomness.
Here are what the standings would be if we only consider classical games:
1-2. Ding Liren CHN 2805, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2875, 5.5/9
3-4. Wesley So USA 2754, Fabiano Caruana USA 2819, 5.0/9
5-6. Levon Aronian ARM 2752, Yu Yangyi CHN 2730, 4.5/9
7-8. Viswanathan Anand IND 2767, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2779, 4.0/9
9-10. Alexander Grischuk RUS 2775, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2774, 3.5/9
Both Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren won two games and drew seven. Take note that Magnus finished no. 1 while Ding Liren was way down in 6th place. The difference between the two is that in the seven Armageddon games that they played Carlsen was given the win in six while Ding only won one. A prime example of the “randomness” mentioned above is Wesley So in a superior position and needing only to draw against Aronian instead falling for mate in 1. Many people, including this writer, were rather dissatisfied with the results of this experiment.
In fact, it could be said that the new format was a temptation for some players, especially specialists in blitz and speed chess like Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), to just go straight for the draw in the classical portion and then try to win in the Armageddon. Take a look at his games — more often than not he would offer a draw immediately after passing the 30th move.
But let me make this clear — the world champion Magnus Carlsen is arguably the best rapid and blitz player in the world, but to assume that he would have tried to win more games had he not had the Armageddon to fall back on is pure speculation and not borne out by the games — Carlsen appears to be going for a win at all times, except perhaps for his 30-mover versus MVL — Sveshnikovs every Black game, no quick draws, etc. Take a look at his very powerful victory over Alexander Grischuk.
Carlsen, Magnus (2875) — Grischuk, Alexander (2775) [D85]
7th Norway Chess 2019 Stavanger NOR (3), 06.06.2019
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Be3
Nowadays the trend is to avoid 7.Nf3 Bg4 and to play Be3 right away. Later on, when the white queen has moved to d2, then perhaps he can play Nf3 because …Bg4 the knight is not pinned and can move, for example, to g5.
7…c5 8.Rc1 Qa5 9.Qd2 0–0
Going into the endgame with 9…cxd4 10.cxd4 Qxd2+ 11.Kxd2 is not attractive for many players because the White side is easier to play. The typical arrangement for his pieces is 11…0–0 12.Bd3 e6 13.Ne2 Nc6 14.Rc4 Rd8 15.Rb1 Radjabov, T. (2751)-Kamsky, G. (2729) 2008 Dresden Olympiad 1–0 36.
10.Nf3 Bg4 11.d5 b5
A new idea. In the 2014 version of Norway Stavanger Grischuk managed to defeat Kramnik with 11…Nd7 12.c4 Qa3 13.Be2 Bxf3 14.Bxf3 Bd4 15.Bxd4 cxd4 16.0–0 Ne5 17.Qxd4 Nxf3+ 18.gxf3 Qxf3 19.Rc3 Qe2 20.f4 Qxa2 21.f5 Kramnik, V. (2783)-Grischuk, A. (2792) Stavanger 2014: 0–1 (40).
12.Be2 Nd7 13.0–0 Bxf3 14.Bxf3 c4 15.Be2 Rfd8 16.f4 Nb6 17.Bf3 Qa3 18.h4
Grischuk thought Black was just lost here.
18…e6 19.h5 Na4 20.hxg6 hxg6 <D>
POSITION AFTER 20…HXG6
Black’s queen and knight are stuck in the queenside [so naturally Carlsen opens as many lines as possible in the kingside.]
21.f5! exf5
[If 21…Nxc3 22.fxg6 fxg6 23.Bg4 Nxe4 24.Bxe6+ Kh7 25.Qe1! White’s attack is winning]
22.exf5 Qd6 23.Bf4 Qb6+
Grischuk cannot interpose with the bishop because then 23…Be5 24.Bxe5 Qxe5 25.fxg6 fxg6 26.Bg4! Rxd5 27.Qh6 Qg5 28.Be6#
24.Kh1 gxf5 25.d6 Rab8 26.Bd5 Nc5 27.Bg3 Ne6
Grischuk saw that 27…Ne4 28.Bxe4 fxe4 is refuted by 29.Rxf7! Kxf7 30.Qd5+ Kg6 31.Qxe4+ Kf7 32.Rf1+ Kg8 33.Qe6+ Kh7 34.Rf5 with mate coming up.
28.Rxf5 Rxd6 29.Bxd6 Qxd6 30.Qe3 Qb6 31.Qf3 Rf8 32.Rf1 Nd8 33.Rh5 Qc7 34.Qe4 1–0
Mate is unavoidable.
Ironically enough the best game of Wesley So was in Armageddon, played in the last round against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. MVL is sort of a difficult opponent for Wesley. Out of 40 games played in all time controls Wesley has only won four times, and most of them in blitz. On the other hand MVL has 10 victories and this includes eliminating Wesley from the 2015 World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan. This was a very painful loss as the Filipino ace had already defeated the Iranian hope Parham Maghsoodloo in the first round, Hungarian GM Csaba Balogh in the second and the Vietnamese no. 1 Le Quang Liem in the third. If he had gotten past MVL he would enter the quarterfinals, the big money rounds.
So, Wesley (2754) — Vachier Lagrave, Maxime (2779) [E61]
7th Altibox Norway Chess Armageddon 201 Stavanger (9.3), 14.06.2019
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3 0–0 5.Be2 d6 6.Nc3 Bf5 7.0–0
In the Isle of Man Open last year MVL had a nice win after 7.Nd2 e5 8.d5 e4 9.g4 Bc8 10.g5 “winning” a pawn, but Black strikes back hard. 10…Nfd7 11.Ndxe4 f5 12.gxf6 Nxf6 13.Ng3 Bh3 14.e4 Nbd7 15.Bg5 c6 16.Qd2 Qa5 17.f3 Ne5 18.Rg1 cxd5 19.cxd5 Rac8 Black has more than enough compensation for the pawn. Jumabayev,R (2605)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2780) Douglas 2018 0–1 36.
7…a5 8.Nd2 e5 9.d5 Na6 10.e4 Bd7 11.a3 Nc5 12.b3 c6 13.Rb1 cxd5 14.cxd5 Qc7 15.Re1 Rfc8 16.f3
Perhaps better was 16.a4 to prevent Black’s …a5–a4.
16…Bh6
This was a 10-min vs. 7-min game so we should not really criticize Black’s moves too much, but 16…a4! would be very strong here. After 17.b4 Nd3! 18.Bxd3 Qb6+ 19.Kh1 Rxc3 20.Be2 Rac8 Black is the one going for the win.
17.Kh1 a4! 18.b4 Bxd2!
Obviously 18…Nd3 no longer works because the Black queen does not have a check on b6. After 19.Bxd3 Qxc3 20.Nc4! White has grabbed the upperhand.
19.Bxd2 Nb3 20.Bg5 Nh5 21.Na2 Qc2 22.Qxc2 Rxc2 23.Nc1 f6 24.Nxb3 fxg5?
This is a mistake. Better is 24…axb3 25.Be3 Rxa3 26.Bd1 Rc4 27.Rxb3 Ra1 28.Rg1 Ba4 29.Rd3 Bxd1 30.Rdxd1 Rxd1 31.Rxd1 f5! 32.exf5 gxf5 33.Rb1 Nf6–+ the crucial pawn on d5 falls and Black wins.
25.Na5 Nf4 26.Bf1 Rac8?
Another mistake and this one is decisive. Black probably thought that saving the pawn with 26…b6! was useless because after 27.Nc4 Wesley wins one of the pawns anyway, but there is a difference. After 27…Bb5! 28.Nxb6 Bxf1 29.Rxf1 Ra6 Whie is still a pawn up but his advantage is now minimal.
27.Nxb7 R8c3 28.Nxd6 Rxa3 29.b5!
This passed pawn will win the game for White.
29…Rb3 30.b6 Rcb2 31.Rxb2 Rxb2 32.b7 Rb6 33.g3 Nh3 34.Rc1 Kf8 35.Rc8+ Ke7 36.b8Q Rxb8 37.Rxb8 Kxd6 38.Rd8 Kc7
Trying to save the knight with 38…Nf2+ 39.Kg2 Nd1 does not work because of 40.Bb5.
39.Rxd7+! Kxd7 40.Bxh3+ g4 41.Bf1!
Of course not 41.Bxg4+? Kd6 White cannot stop the queening pawn on a4.
41…a3 42.Bc4 gxf3 43.Kg1 g5 44.g4 Kd6 45.Kf2 1–0
Whether or not the mix of classical chess with armageddom will be the tournament format of the future remains to be seen. What seems obvious to me is that the new format did not contribute anything towards making the players go into more aggressive chess.
Armageddon is a “fun chess,” just like the bullet chess (1-minute games) that is so popular in the chess servers. For serious chess though I don’t recommend it.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) 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.
