TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
General Chess Stories 2025 ()
Chess on Friday 30th May 2025
Mark Crowther - Friday 30th May 2025
Carlsen in action against Erigaisi. Photo © Norway Chess. | https://norwaychess.no
Magnus Carlsen leads the Norway Chess tournament with 8/12 after a win against Arjun Erigaisi in Round 4. Carlsen had an extra pawn in a major piece endgame but the engines stubbornly evaluated the position as more or less equal. Carlsen said he predicted Erigaisi's mistake, 30...Re6?, which quickly allowed Carlsen to obtain a winning endgame. Instead Carlsen's suggestion of 30...Qe7 or the computer's 30...h5 would have likely led to a draw.
Even Carlsen's win would not have been enough to lead had Fabiano Caruana converted his long term big advantage against World Champion Gukesh. The moment was 48.Qf4? from Gukesh which was losing, Caruana's 48...Qxf4? was inaccurate (48...Qd4!) 49.Bxf4 Nb4? (throwing away the win which could have been had with 49...Nd7!) and the game ended in a draw. Gukesh then had a convincing win in the Armageddon.
Hikaru Nakamura and Wei Yi drew their classical game and Wei Yi won his second Armageddon in a row.
Lei Tingjie will have nightmares about how she converted a crushing advantage into a loss against Sarasadat Khademalsharieh. Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru both drew their classical games and lost their Armageddon games but still lead on 7/12.
There is a rest day in Norway on 30th May. Pairings Saturday 31st May: Erigaisi-Nakamura, Wei Yi-Gukesh, Caruana-Carlsen. Women's: Khadem-Vaishali, Muzychuk-Ju Wenjun, Koneru Lei Tingjie.
Michael Adams has taken control of the 3rd Cambridge International Open with three consecutive wins in rounds 5 to 7 over Lorenzo Fava, former leader Siva Mahadevan and then former joint leader Marin Bosiocic. Round 8 is being played as I write.
There are so many events and games being played at the moment that games from events such as the French Team Championships Top 16 are flying under my radar. They've reached the final promotion/relegation Poule Haute/Basse phase after 7 rounds of group games. Matches from the group stage are counted and now they play the leading teams from the other group that they haven't played yet to produced final standings. In the PGN file below is what looks like a high quality game where MVL eventually outplayed and overpowered the very strong M. Amin Tabatabaei.
All the games were draw in the second round of the 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025. It's early days yet but there's only been on decisive result so far in two rounds, events that start like this with lots of quality players can get bogged down in draws. The organisers of the recent Sigeman and Co tournament always gives thought to mixing up the field so that there are more likely to be decisive results. Just getting the absolute best players you can is sometimes not the way. But as I said, early days yet.
One of the problems I've had over the years is when I write articles, where do I get photos from? It's easy if you don't care about photographers copyright, but I do. I have used live video coverage a lot, it's probably still copyright but it seems a little less likely to upset anyone or take someone's living. But I forgot until recent about some events providing photos, Norway Chess have lovely photos for the press as I discovered today.
I've got lots of events either covered or linked to on the website. I'm covering the Dubai Open on my live page, I'm updating a file for the Norway Open. Other events include the American Continental which is headed for a close finish. Luis Ernesto Quesada Perez and Grigoriy Oparin lead on 7.5/9 ahead of 9 players on 7 points with two rounds to go.
LSG IntelliMagic won the Dutch Cup. Faustino Oro plays Vishy Anand in a two game exhibition in Italy on Sunday. There are Round Robins in Kronborg and Fredericia. Opens include 3rd Munich Chess Festival, Rudolf Teschner Memorial, 21st Stockerau Open, Itzehoe Open, Halmstad Open, Groninger Combinatie Open, 2nd Ceyreste Cassis Chess Festival, 50th Utrecht Open Chess Championships and Prishtina International Open. There's also a couple of team events the Iaraeli Women's Elite and Norwegian Club Championship. These will all appear in the TWIC magazine on Monday.
Below are a few games from these events annotated.
View the games on this Page
Download the PGN from this page
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