Norway Chess, Round 8

Carlsen extends to a full point lead with two rounds to go.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a rest day for the participants of the Norway Chess tournament (and the concurrent women’s event); the tournament will finish after rounds 9 and 10 on Thursday and Friday. There wasn’t a great deal of motion in the standings after round 8, as all three classical games were drawn, meaning that match winners could only move the needle a further half a point in their favor by winning (or drawing with Black) in the Armageddon game.

Magnus Carlsen had White against Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the only player to defeat him in classical chess in the event. He pressed for a long time in an Open Ruy, but was unable to achieve anything substantial and the game ended in a drawn rook and pawn ending. In the Armageddon game Carlsen again pressed for a long time in an objectively equal knight vs. bishop ending, but this time the task was tougher both in its own right and due to the time situation. Pragg defended very well for a long time, but finally cracked, giving Carlsen a measure of revenge.

This gave Hikaru Nakamura the opportunity to leapfrog Carlsen into first, if he could win his classical game with Alireza Firouzja. Despite having the black pieces, he did indeed obtain a winning advantage and enjoyed a lead on the clock to boot. Unfortunately for Nakamura, he stopped himself from immediately playing 30…c6, which would have kept a comfortably winning advantage, and after several minutes played 30…Rd8? A further error on move 42 lost the remainder of his edge, and Firouzja’s perfect play let him escape with a draw. In the Armageddon game Firouzja dominated the action and he was the deserved victor, despite a few inaccuracies along the way. Nakamura is thus a full point behind Carlsen, but given the scoring system that gives the winner of a classical game 3 points (as opposed to 1.5 points for an Armageddon winner, 1 point for an Armageddon loser, and 0 points for a classical game loser) tournament victory is still up for grabs.

Ding Liren has had a disastrous tournament (and year), but he’s getting closer. He was winning against Fabiano Caruana, both in the classical game and in the Armageddon, but in both cases he let him slip away with a draw. Since Ding had the white pieces, it meant that Caruana won the match.

Another player who has had a tough time is Pia Cramling, the oldest player by far in either event. She has achieved a lot of very good positions, but has almost always failed to cash in on them. She can at least enjoy the consolation of finding one of the nicest tactical ideas in the tournament in her game with Ju Wenjun, which I’ve also analyzed and included with the games from the main event—have a look.