The Week in Chess

Alireza Firouzja took the lead of the 8th Altibox Norway Chess tournament following his victory against Aryan Tari. Former leader Levon Aronian was beaten by Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda following his defeat the day before.

Carlsen quickly got his revenge against Duda by beating him in just 26 moves. This was a smooth victory - Carlsen in the "confession booth" said he was unhappy that he hadn't prepared for 10...c5 but he found an interesting pawn sacrifice which posed too many problems for Duda. Carlsen thought 17...Ba6 was the start of the problem but it seems 18...Qe8 was the losing move with 18...Nd5 being roughly equal. Instead Carlsen clinically brought home the full point in only a few moves.

Caruana managed to end a two game losing streak by beating Aronian. Caruana had been extremely disappointed with his play against Carlsen and this seems to have affected his play the following day against Aronian. Today Caruana played Aronian again and was worse out of the opening but Aronian used a lot of time and came up with 23.g4?! (23.Ng5 was much better) when the board blew up in a position where he was both in time trouble and not better. Caruana took the initiative and Aronian in massive time couldn't defend himself. After 34.Rxd3 (34.Ne5 was probably better) and the losing 35.Ke3? (35.Qxf4 had to be played) allowed Caruana to just clean up.

Alireza Firouzja took the lead beating Aryan Tari who is obviously struggling a great deal. Firouzja played his Caro-Kann as black again and was a bit better after Tari's 19.b4 and after 22.g3? he won with a direct attack on Tari's king.

Round 6 Standings: 1 Firouzja 13pts, 2 Carlsen 12pts, 3 Aronian 11pts, 4 Caruana 10pts, 5 Duda 4pts, 6 Tari 1.5pts.

Round 7 4pm Monday 12th October 2020. Caruana-Carlsen, Firouzja-Aronian, Duda-Tari.