The Week in Chess

Sergey Karjakin retained the Norway Chess title with a run of wins against Anish Giri (final move blunder by the Dutchman after pressing all the way), offering a draw against Kramnik and then going on to win and today beating Fabiano Caruana after being in a very bad position (32.Na4? was the mistake that turned everything around. It would be wrong to talk of luck as almost nobody looked good in this event I think in part because the players put up so much resistance that there were hardly any easy games for anyone. Caruana looked extremely disappointed having fallen away so badly. ""You have to play well to have a good result, and I just didn't." Caruana.

Magnus Carlsen eventually ground down Simen Agdestein to relegate his countryman to last place. Agdestein's opening play looked bad but he started to make the position work. After first time control Agdestein said that the tiredness he was having at the end of the event really hit him and he went down to a loss. Nevertheless Agdestein gained 9 rating points and performed far better than we had any right to expect and fully contributed to the event. For Carlsen he congratulated Karjakin and accepted that he had really lost his chance in not beating Svidler the day before. Carlsen wasn't in general that unhappy but said he "never got going." As to Agdestein Carlsen thought he played well and hoped it would bode well for Norway in the Olympiad "It's a bit unfair that he finished in last place,""

Vladimir Kramnik went down to a final defeat against Alexander Grischuk from a sharp Gruenfeld prepared by Grischuk (and probably also Kramnik but he not surprisingly didn't attend the press conference). Kramnik had a huge centre and also a big advantage on the clock but first Kramnik missed a win (31.fxg6!) and then with 32.Qf3? got a lost position, all with 15 minutes left. From leading the tournament Kramnik scored 0.5/4 and the tensions around the game against Topalov were obviously key. Grischuk finished third and moves to number three in the world. He admitted his routine was awful for the event and at least half the time had breakfast at 6am before going to bed.

Levon Aronian had a very bad event and could have finished with a loss after 22...Qb5? (22...Qc6 was better) 23.Rac1 Bg7? when 24.Qxb5 axb5 25.d5 Nd8 26.Rxc7 Rxe4 27.Nc2 is crushing. Topalov was relieved with his score but disappointed to miss this chance. For Aronian he said he was recovering from a nasal operation and said he was ready to be better in the Olympiad.

Anish Giri said he didn't know when he came to the board that he was playing for a draw but having got a comfortable position from the opening in Maroczy Bind but decided to bring to an end a disappointing event for both him and Peter Svidler.

Final Standings: 1st Sergey Karjakin 6pts/9 (€100,000), 2nd Magnus Carlsen 5.5pts (€60,000), 3rd Alexander Grischuk 5pts, 4th Fabiano Caruana 4.5pts, 5th Veselin Topalov 4.5pts, 6th Levon Aronian 4pts, 7th Peter Svidler 4pts, 8th Anish Giri 4pts, 9th Vladimir Kramnik 4pts, 10th Simen Agdestein 3.5pts.

It's been a tiring event but today saw some wonderful coverage. Below I embed the segment of the official coverage with Alexander Grischuk explaining his win and talking chess and other things very entertainingly followed by Magnus Carlsen and Simen Agdestein.