The Week in Chess

There were four decisive games in the first round of the Norway Chess tournament with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri all winning with the white pieces but the shock was Magnus Carlsen's loss on time to Veselin Topalov after not remembering the time control had changed this year and he got no additional time at move 60. Viswanathan Anand was held with white, by second seed Fabiano Caruana.

Magnus Carlsen seemed finally well on the way to winning the final game to finish against Veselin Topalov when he lost. Carlsen played a quiet variation of the Semi-Slav hoping that it wouldn't suit his opponent's style. Commentators including Kasparov were surprised Topalov allowed 23.h5 breaking up his kingside and soon Carlsen was pressing very strongly. Maybe 27.Nf5 was not the best from Carlsen and he seemed a bit unsure for the next few moves eventually allowing a freeing sacrifice by Topalov (29...Nb3) which led to a Queen and bishops of opposite colours endgame which was surely objectively drawn with best play. Carlsen plays these endings terribly well and eventually made enough progress to achieve a winning position. However he was short of time and at move 61 he started to think, expecting had received an extra 15 minute until the arbiters stepped in to tell a disbelieving Carlsen he had lost. The players were reminded at the start of the round of the tournament's new time control of 2 hours for 40 moves plus an extra 60 minutes plus 30 seconds a move to the end of the game. Carlsen arrived late and missed the reminder but should have known anyway ,he can't blame anyone but himself.

Hikaru Nakamura said he was upset at the outcome of his opening where his rare 7.b3 was met quickly and confidently by Jon Ludwig Hammer. Nakamura could hardly believe Hammer knew a detailed reply. Hammer said to Nakamura he thought he was much better at one stage, something that Nakamura believed was an exaggeration. Once Nakamura broke with 23.e4 the position was probably about equal but Hammer went wrong whilst continuing to play quickly. At first time control after 41.Be3 Nakamura believed he was winning and quickly brought home the full point.

Levon Aronian chose an ultra-sharp variation of the Ragozin Defence as black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Aronian said he had analysed in huge detail but regretted not reviewing this analysis in preparation for the game because soon he was caught trying to remember what the precise way to hold the position was and he failed. Vachier-Lagrave was two pawns up and slowly brought home the full point

Anish Giri was pleased to start the event with a win against Alexander Grischuk who played the rather new idea of 6...Rb8 in the 3.Bb5 Sicilian and quickly got into trouble in completing his development. Giri was critical of his own 25.Ne4 fearing Qa5 but soon time trouble and his position saw Grischuk defeated.

Fabiano Caruana was happy with a relatively clean draw on the black side of a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence where he seemed to have prepared the variation more deeply than his opponent Viswanathan Anand.

Round 1 Standings: 1st= Topalov, Nakamura, Giri, Vachier-Lagrave 1pt 5th Anand, Caruana 0.5pts 7th= Carlsen, Aronian, Grischuk Hammer 0pts

Round 2 pairings Wednesday 16th June 2015 4pm local time: Grischuk-Aronian, Hammer-Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov-Nakamura, Caruana-Carlsen, Giri-Anand