Chessable

4th Norway Chess 2016 (1)

Favourites Carlsen, Kramnik and Giri win in Norway Chess Round 1

Magnus Carlsen has started the Norway Chess tournament in fine form after winning the opening blitz tournament and his first round game against Pentala Harikrishna. Carlsen hasn't won his opening game in a tournament since beating Mamedyarov in the Gashimov Memorial almost exactly two years ago. Today Harikrishna was under pressure early on after the inaccurate 8...0-0 (8...cd and 9...Bb7 was closer to equal) and was quickly forced to part with material. Carlsen turned this into a mating attack.

Anish Giri ended his 20 game drawing streak with a complicated win in a Giuoco Pianissimo against Pavel Eljanov. Tactics won Giri two pieces for rook and pawn but the technical problems of realising this were cut short when Eljanov dropped more material.

Vladimir Kramnik joined the growing band of players using the London System in his game against Nils Grandelius. Kramnik traded his bishop and set up a Stonewall pawn structure. None of this was fatal but inaccuracies from Grandelius allowed Kramnik to control the c-file with his rook and create strong pressure but it was only on the run up to the first time control that Grandelius's position collapsed.

Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov played out a sharp draw where black looked to have the better of it. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had some pressure against Li Chao where most of the tactics were behind the scenes. Vachier-Lagrave admitted to completely missing the idea of 24...d4 which liquidated to a draw.

Round 1 Standings: Carlsen, Kramnik and Giri 1pt, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov and Li Chao 0.5pts, Eljanov, Harikrishna and Grandelius 0pts

Round 2 Pairings 3pm BST Wed 20th April 2016: Grandelius-Aronian, Li Chao-Kramnik, Giri-Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov-Carlsen, Eljanov-Harikrishna.

4th Norway Chess 2016 Stavanger NOR (NOR), 18-30 iv 2016 cat. XXI (2770)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
1. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2851 * . . . . . . . 1 . 1
2. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2801 . * . . . . . . . 1 1
3. Giri, Anish g NED 2790 . . * . . . . 1 . . 1
4. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2784 . . . * . ½ . . . . ½ 2754
5. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2788 . . . . * . ½ . . . ½ 2755
6. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2754 . . . ½ . * . . . . ½ 2784
7. Li, Chao b g CHN 2755 . . . . ½ . * . . . ½ 2788
8. Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2765 . . 0 . . . . * . . 0
9. Harikrishna, Pentala g IND 2763 0 . . . . . . . * . 0
10. Grandelius, Nils g SWE 2649 . 0 . . . . . . . * 0
Round 1 (April 19, 2016)
Carlsen, Magnus - Harikrishna, Pentala 1-0 41 E15 Queens Indian
Kramnik, Vladimir - Grandelius, Nils 1-0 39 A45 Trompowsky
Giri, Anish - Eljanov, Pavel 1-0 36 C50 Giuoco Piano
Aronian, Levon - Topalov, Veselin ½-½ 46 A29 English Four Knights
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Li, Chao b ½-½ 37 C42 Petroff's Defence

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

vs

Advertising

New in Chess Endgame patterns


Chess.com Events


Chess and Bridge Fritz 19

Modern Chess April


Jussupow course Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals

The New Jobava London System


Contact Mark Crowther (TWIC) if you wish to advertise here.


The Week in Chess Magazine

Send a £30 donation via Paypal and contact me via email (Email Mark Crowther - mdcrowth@btinternet.com) I'll send you an address for a cbv file of my personal copy of every issue of the games in one database. Over 3 million games.

Alternatively subscribe to donate £4 a month

Read about 25 years of TWIC.

TWIC 1537 22nd April 2024 - 6430 games

Read TWIC 1537

Download TWIC 1537 PGN

Download TWIC 1537 ChessBase

TWIC Sponsor(s):

Clark St James Ltd - online advertising agency eg Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads