Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 7: Sergey Karjakin in Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Round 7 of Norway Chess was another spectacular round, but this time even the venue itself was part of the spectacle. The players were transported by boat to Flor & Fjære, an incredible park at a small island just north of Stavanger, where the audience, press and the players themselves were offered the grand tour and a lovely meal in the restaurant. In the playing hall Svidler and Topalov tried for a world record in exchanging off all the pieces quickly, only to arrive in a pawn ending where the Russian soon squandered his small advantage and a draw was agreed. Wang Hao vs Aronian also drew, without too much ado. Meanwhile, Radjabov butchered his Catalan in surprisingly few moves, and Anand safely converted his advantage. Among the two guys in front, Carlsen seemed to struggle, only to see Hammer fall apart when his opponent got short on time. Hence, Carlsen extended his win streak to 3 games. The tournament leader Karjakin was back on track, deconstructing Nakamura’s Sicilian Najdorf rather convincingly, showing some good technique to clinch the full point in the end. Here is the full report by Hans Arild Runde via the official website.

The view for the players

The first game to finish was Svidler vs Topalov, another Sicilian Moscow variation with 3… Nd7. By move 17 all the pieces except a rook, a knight and a bishop for each side were gone, and by move 23 the players already were in a pawn ending! On the queenside Svidler’s a, b and c-pawns faced two split pawns on a6 and c6, while Topalov had a 4 vs 3 majority on the kingside, with all pawns in their starting positions, except the black pawn on e6. If Svidler would’ve played the very natural 24. b4 immediately, Topalov seemingly would’ve had to tread a bit carefully not to become worse, although the pawn ending looks drawn with accurate play. However, after 24. f4?! c5 25. b4 a5 26. b5 f5! black could easily close the kingside, leaving the white king no possible entry into the black position. This rendered the white protected passer in the b-file quite irrelevant, and a draw was soon agreed.

Radjabov seemingly wanted to get out of the most popular lines in his open Catalan against Anand, playing an early 6. Qa4+ and 7. Qxc4 instead of castling. I’m not certain regarding the relative merits of 8. 0-0 and 8. cxd5, but in my database white does better with the latter and Radjabov went with the former. Both are probably playable. However, after 9. Nc3 Rc8 10. Be3?! white’s position already looks unpleasant after the response 10… b5! played by Anand. After 15 moves the world champion was clearly better, and when he landed his knight on a4 on move 20, white looked locked up and pretty much unable to carry out any active plans. Anand simply increased the pressure, bearing down on white’s cramped pieces, causing immediate crisis when the d-file was forced open on move 25. Black finished things off with some nice tactics when the game was long since lost for Radjabov.

Wang Hao vs Aronian was a rather slow, maneuvering Reti, with only a pair of pawns coming off in the first 17 moves. Aronian’s 17… Qc7?! possibly was a minor inaccuracy, after which a more or less forced series of exchanges left the Chinese with a pleasant position with more space and the bishop pair after 22 moves. The line 23. Rac1 e5 24. Rfd1 Ne6 25. Bb6! would’ve resulted in a slightly cramped position and some problems to solve for Aronian. Instead white’s continuation 23. f4!? e5 24. fxe5 fxe5 25. b3 Ne6 seemingly allowed black to break free. After this lost opportunity for Wang Hao, the game quickly fizzled and a repetition was initiated on move 34.

In the all Norwegian battle of the day, Carlsen chose a careful setup against Hammer’s open Catalan. The players completed their development and reached a fairly balanced middle game. Here Carlsen started to spend a lot of time, apparently struggling to find a good way to play for advantage. Eventually he chose to release the tension in the center by pushing c6-c5, challenging white’s d4-pawn. As early as move 24, black’s time management was slightly worrying for the Carlsen fans, and after 25. Nd4 Hammer’s position looked very comfortable, with nearly 30 minutes on the clock compared to Carlsen’s 3-4 minutes. Whether it was the unusual time situation or something else, Hammer somehow seemed to lose touch with the position at that time, and with 27. Nb5? he made a grave, positional error, offering black a clear advantage. Possibly he missed Carlsen’s 28… Nf6! and from here it quickly went downhill for Norway’s number two. Low on time black may have missed the cleanest execution on a couple occasions, but after move 35 Hammer’s position was hopeless, and when he resigned on move 41, black’s a4-pawn was simply unstoppable.

The last game of the round was leading Karjakin’s fist fight with Nakamura in a Sicilian Najdorf. Karjakin chose the slightly unusual 7. Qe2 after which Nakamura chose to fianchetto his dark squared bishop – a nearly equally rare choice here. These two half-moves brought the game well out of common territory, and after the US number one’s 9… Qa5 we had a position not debated at the elite level before. Black castled short on move 14, with a slightly weakened pawn shelter due to having played 10… h6. Karjakin’s 18. h4 and 19. h5 looked dangerous for black, although Nakamura may still be fine. The first mistake probably was 22… fxg6?! when 22… Rxc3! 23. Qg4 (23. gxf7+ Rxf7 24. Qf2 Rc6) Qxg6 24. Qxg6+ fxg6 25. Rxd6 Rf7 26. Rg1 Nf8 looks sufficient for black. In the game 23. Rxd6 Ne5? was a big blunder that Karjakin could’ve punished even more directly: 24. Qd1! Nc4 25. e5 Qe7 26. Qg4 Kf7 27. Nd4! won material immediately due to the naked black king. 27… Nxd6? 28. exd6 is lost for black.

However, Karjakin kept a big advantage also with 24. Qh1, due to black’s exposed king and weak 7th row. Nakamura’s attempt to defend on the 7th with 28… Rc7?! was busted when white uncorked 29. Nc5! after which black had to give up the queen for rook and knight after 29… Rxc5 30. Rd7 Rc7 31. Rxf7 Kxf7. By this time the position was winning for white, but after a pair of rooks came off on move 35, white had to display some fine technique to demonstrate the win with queen and pawns against rook, knight and pawns, partly due to the nicely placed c4-knight and the slightly awkward white king. This proved no problem for a strong technical player like Karjakin, though, and Nakamura eventually had to resign on move 59.

Hence, after 7 rounds nothing much has changed at the top of the table. Karjakin is still leading half a point ahead of Carlsen, but the gap down from 2nd to Aronian and world champion Anand in shared 3rd has increased to a full point. By now it’s hard to picture any other winner of the event than Karjakin or Carlsen, with their opposition being more or less equally tough in the last two rounds. In shared 5th position we find Nakamura and Svidler, both currently at 50%, while Topalov in 7th at -1 still is hunting his first victory in Norway Chess. Wang Hao and Radjabov share 8th with 2,5 points, while Hammer still struggles in 10th with 1,5 points. Being up against the world champion with black in the next round, it’s certainly a challenge to improve on his current position!

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Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 6: Carlsen Wins, Karjakin Leads

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Just like in previous rounds of Norway Chess 2013, round 6 offered a lot of entertainment for the audience. We saw one pretty brutal win, one pretty boring draw, one exciting draw where none of the players ever seemed to get the upper hand, one nail biting draw where the worse side held on by the slimmest of margins and finally a totally exhausting end game squeeze where the relentless pressure eventually became too much for the defending side. 

In other words, Hammer lost rather brutally to Aronian, Topalov and Wang Hao played a peaceful draw, Nakamura and Svidler both stayed in control in their sharp battle, Karjakin barely saved a draw against World Chess Champion Anand and Carlsen managed to bank another full point in a long grind against Radjabov.

In the first game to finish, Hammer ventured down a daring path in his Grünfeld game against Aronian, giving up a pawn in the hope that his a-passer should provide sufficient counterplay, only to realize that it simply wasn’t enough. Topalov vs Wang Hao was a Queen’s gambit where the tension in the center was resolved early with queens coming off resulted in a symmetrical pawn structure with no weaknesses in either camp. The game never became very exciting, and it finished uneventfully with a repetition and a draw on move 32.

Nakamura’s Ponziani against Svidler turned into a sharp, tactical battle already in the opening, leaving the mainlines. The game was a draw. Anand vs Karjakin started rather quietly, but sharpened up as the time control approached. Anand found a way to open the h-file and was close to beating Karjakin at some point, but the game went for a draw.

The last game to finish was another Carlsen vs Radjabov marathon, reminiscent of their 13th round battle in the London Candidates. The game saw yet one rather unassuming setup with white by Carlsen, with black taking on an isolani in the d-file quite early on, seemingly without any kind of problems. The isolani turned into two hanging pawns in the c- and d-file when white exchanged off his bishop for a knight on c6, and the battleground was set. However, Carlsen went for the long haul and eventually beat Radjabov.

Karjakin is still in the lead after 6 rounds, now only half a point ahead of Carlsen, who’s been going full steam ahead since round 4. Aronian’s win brought him up to shared 3rd with Nakamura, a full point off the pace of Karjakin, but half a point ahead of Anand and Svidler, who still have some chances to catch up with the guys in front. The rest of the field is probably too far behind by now to be considered real contenders for the tournament victory. (Read the full report by Hans Arild Runde at the official website.)


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Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 5: Karjakin Loses to Carlsen, but Leads

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

The fifth round started relatively quiet, as the games Svidler-Anand, Nakamura-Topalov and Radjabov-Aronian all were drawn before 40 moves and without too many exciting moments. But then the round suddenly accelerated, as the games left were two very entertaining and interesting attacking battles. The remaining home spectators spontaneously applauded when the last game finished, as Norway after winning none out of eight games in the first four rounds had won two out of two games! Magnus Carlsen looked like the world’s top rated chess player again when he by firework tactics decided the games against the former tournament leader Sergey Karjakin, true enough after the Russian as white first had a better position. After Carlsen left the scene Jon Ludvig Hammer, by far the lowest rated player in this tournament, created his great moment as he following a mutual time trouble drama and safely won the endgame against Hao Wang. (The full report by Hans Olav Lahlum is available at the official website.)

Here is also a personal note by Hans Olav Lahlum who has given us great coverage of the Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013. 

As agreed with the tournament organizer and the president of the Norwegian Chess Federation long time ago, I would be arbiter only for the first half of this tournament. In accordance with that agreement, and of course without any kind of controversies, I have already left this tournament and this city when you are reading this my fifth and final round report. I was happy to accept writing the first five round reports in between my arbiter working, when the excellent and hardworking president of our chess federation asked me to do so a few days before the start of tournament. And I feel today happy and somewhat relieved now having finished this work. Writing round reports from an intensive super tournament of course is a very interesting possibility, but also a demanding challenge for an almost retired chess player at my low international level. If the results have disappointed some of my readers I can only apologize to you, and then say to myself what a former leader of the political opposition so much more than a long time ago said to a former prime minister in Norway: “You did the best you were able to do. That is both your judgment and your excuse.”
I was most happy yesterday to learn that my chess friend Hans Arild Runde has agreed to write reports about the four final rounds, and wish him all the best of luck with this work. Also of course best of luck to another chess friend, Arild Rimestad, who will take over my duties as deputy arbiter for the rest of the tournament.
I plan to return both as arbiter and round report writer first during the Norwegian Championships at Lillehammer in June-July, and then during the Oslo Chess International 28.09-06.10 (if interested to be a participant, you can find much more information about that tournament on www.bergensjakk.no/oslointernational/).
Meanwhile: Many thanks for now to my wonderful arbiter colleagues Anémone Kulczak and Karl-Johan Rist, and of course also to all the ten players for producing so many interesting and exciting games. In my very last lines for now, I feel that we all owe numerous thanks to the organizer for making this historic super tournament in Norway possible! I much hope there will be another one in 2014 or 2015, with or without a World Champion from Norway in the field – and if so I will be most happy to return.

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Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 4: Sergey Karjakin in Lead, Anand Loses to Nakamura

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 4 News: Round four also had five hard fought and interesting games, but for a change only two of them got a winner. This because Jon Ludvig Hammer, playing black against former World Champion Veselin Topalov, scraped a draw out of his long and difficult endgame. Although this round had only two game winners, one of them still was the 23 year old Russian Sergey Karjakin, today winning a great counterattacking game as black against second seeded Levon Aronian. The largest smile this evening by far still belonged to the 25-year-old American Hikaru Nakamura – and that was very well understandable as he in the afternoon outplayed World Champion Viswanathan Anand as black. Carlsen-Svidler and Wang-Radjabov both were relatively sound and balanced draws, meaning Karjakin at 4/4 is leading with an amazing one and a half point margin before the middle round of this tournament.

The first move was made by the organizer, which moved the playing venue home to one of the main sponsors, the Aarbakke AS factory at Bryne. That plan worked out very well, as many new faces were seen among the numerous spectators. All of the arbiters (and probably some of the players) got an aquarium feeling by seeing the spectators only through some giant windows. But playing conditions still were excellent inside the glass, and the spectators reportedly enjoyed the possibility to discuss the ongoing games outside.

The first key game of the fourth round obviously was second seeded and second placed Levon Aronian playing white against the so far untouchable leader Sergey Karjakin. Always ambitious Aronian entered a positional Queen’s Indian fianchetto line and once more had the longer preparation, making his first 19 moves more or less without thinking. But, Karjakin took his time to calculate and won. Needless to say, Karjakin-Carlsen in round five will be a key game for both players. Aronian after suffering one of his few collapses is down in the crowd at 50 %, but remember that is still only half a point behind the second prize.

The second most important game was World Champion Viswanathan Anand playing white against United States number one player Hikaru Nakamura. It all started with the Arkhangelsk variation in the Ruy Lopez, a rather closed line in which black plays 4.— Nf6 followed by 6.— Bc5. Interestingly Anand now gave this line a new try despite losing with it against Fabio Caruana in Zürich earlier this year, but Nakamura preferred 10.— Re8 to Caruana’s 10.— h6. By thematic means the players after 15 moves had reached a fairly balanced position with a King’s pawn center (e4 versus e5 with the d-pawns exchanged). Both afterwards tried to exchange the opponent’s bishop on e3/e6 for a knight – and both succeeded so far. Anand took back on e3 with his knight, apparently with pleasant prospects to reach d5 and/or f5. This plan however was nipped in the bud as Nakamura once more sacrificed his pawn structure for activity, accepting a double isolani pawn when he creatively took back on e6 with the f7-pawn instead of the rook. Good win for Nakamura.

Magnus Carlsen and Peter Svidler settled for an uneventful draw. Hao Wang – Teimour Radjabov was an important game for both players, but true enough not the most exciting for any of them. It was a draw as for Topalov and Hammer. (The detailed report by Hans Olav Lahlum is available at the official website.)

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Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 3: Sergey Karjakin Leads with Perfect Score

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

 

The third round at the Norway Chess Super Tournament witnessed five interesting and tense games. In the end, it was still Sergey Karjakin leading with a perfect score. He won a nice positional game as white against Hao Wang. World Champion Viswanathan Anand on the other hand efficiently used his chances defeating former World Champion Veselin Topalov with a nice attack.

Magnus Carlsen and Hiraku Nakamura for sure both are such free thinkers. Their game made an unexpected start with 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Na5 5.Nge2, and within very few moves more left the theory books completely. As Carlsen later took on c4, Nakamura true to his principles about ignoring his pawn structures took back with the d-pawn and went for a kingside attack with f4-f5. True to his principle about not turning down interesting flank pawn sacrifices, Carlsen soon gave up one at b5 to break in the center with d5.

The game between Peder Svidler and Levon Aronian (that is, in case you have forgotten, the players sharing third place during that World Championship qualification in London some weeks ago), true enough was the shortest game of the tournament so far. Still it was a highly interesting 31 moves battle in which the outcome was a draw. 

The last game to finish again was the one played by Jon Ludvig Hammer – and again ended with a loss for him. Still the second highest rated player in Norwegian chess history again played many good moves and again made an exciting game out of it, this time as black against Teimour Radjabov. (The full report by Hans Olav Lahlum on the round is available at the official website.)

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Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Round 2: Sergey Karjakin Leads with Perfect Score; Carlsen, Anand Draw

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Almost all spectators and cameras focused on the game Carlsen-Anand – which however became the second heavyweight positional draw in a row for both players. The rest of the tournament made another hard fought round, with no game lasting less than 40 moves and three games getting a well worthy winner. As both Nakamura and Svidler lost their first black game after winning their first white game, the still flying youngster Sergey Karjakin is leading alone with 2/2 after defeating Hammer as black. Below is the complete report by Hans Olav Lahlum via the official website.

While only about 20 spectators showed up for the historic start moment of this tournament, more than 200 spectators and several television channels were present today. Most of them obviously came to see the game in advance considered the most interesting one in this tournament: World Champion Viswanathan Anand playing black against his challenger Magnus Carlsen, in what might well be their only meeting before the World Championship match in November.

Carlsen played 1. e4 and Anand immediately replied 1.—c5, entering a Sicilian Moscow variation in which white play an early c4 and black reply e5. This leaves black with a backward pawn on d6, to be compensated by his active pieces. Having played complex Sicilian positions since well before Carlsen was born, Anand was twenty minutes ahead on the clock and close to equal on the board after 15 moves. Black got the pair of bishops, but controlling the d5 square with his knight white still held a slight edge in the early middle game.

It followed two tense hours of positional manoeuver and exchanges, with black slightly ahead on the clock and white closer to an advantage on the board. Black’s d6-pawn became more vulnerable after the queens were exchanged, and white for some moves around 25-30 looked better. The best chances to play for a win might have been 27.Rxc6! Rxc6 28.Ndc7, which probably could have won the d6-pawn as black’s plan with Rcc6 and Bg5 was a little overambitious. As the game went with 27.Rc3, black softened the press by exchanging one of his bishops for the d5 knight. Black had sound pieces all of the time, and got some counterplay in the c-file.

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Norway Chess 2013 Round 1: Karjakin, Nakamura, Svidler Begin with Wins

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

History was in the Norwegian air when the French chief arbiter Anémone Kulczak exactly as scheduled at 15.00, May 8 2013, started the first round in the Super Group of Norway Chess 2013. Including this year’s World Champion, this year’s World Challenger and five other players from the world’s top ten list, this is not only by far the strongest chess tournament in the history of this country – but also one of the strongest round robin tournaments in the history of this game! Here is the full report by Hans Olav Lahlum

As the tournament will be played with nine rounds in eleven days and true quality time limits, Norway and the rest of the chess world for sure can look forward to many great games this week. The tournament made a fresh start this afternoon, with four of out five games lasting more than four hours – and three of them getting a winner.

To tell the truth, World Champion Viswanathan Anand made a very solid but not very frightening start on this Norwegian chess adventure. Playing white in a closed Ruy Lopez against second seeded Levon Aronian, the chess star from India played a rather slow and closed set up with an early c4. The ambitious Armenian (of course) did not hesitate to jump in at the outpost d4 with one of his knights before move 10. Three set of minor pieces were exchanged within five moves afterwards, leaving a fairly balanced position with queen, rooks, different colored bishops and eight pawns on each side. Something finally seemed about to happen as Aronian played 22.— Bh6!?, intending to answer 23.Qh4 with a tactical 23.— Bxf4 – as played. Some spectators wondered (creatively) whether the World Champion was planning to sacrifice his queen for rook and bishop, but Anand instead (wisely) exchanged some more pieces to regain the pawn he gave up on f4. In the endgame with rook and six pawns versus rook and six pawns, Aronian at move 29 placed his rook on the seventh rank and for a few minutes seemed close to something. Anand however remained laidback and still was not in any real danger. As black could never accept to exchange rooks, it all dried out with two rooks following each other around to a repetition of moves after 33 moves.

The second game to finish was the slowest start, as Sergey Karjakin spent much time as white and Teimour Radjabov even much more time as black in their internal youngster meeting. Only 14 moves were made on the board after two and a half hours had passed on the clock, and continuing in the same slow speed, Radjabov two moves later had only eight minutes left to reach the time control after 40 moves. 

On the board was a closed Sicilian line with 4.Bb5, in which white came a little better after black played 5.— e5 followed by 7.— h6. Although black got a nice outpost for his knight on d4, white playing with a guarded passed pawn at d5 appeared somewhat better after 20 moves. While Karjakin methodically increased the pressure with a queenside attack, Radjabov somehow somewhere mixed up the critical lines and lost a pawn just before 30 moves. Defending with rook and bishop versus rook and knight, black still had some drawing chances, but having only seconds left he lost another pawn just before 40 moves. In the end Radjabov threw out his move 39 with two seconds left and his move 40 with nine seconds left on the clock – only to resign instead of making his move 41, as Karjakin’s 41.c5! demonstrated the rook endgame on the board to be won. No way a promising start for Radjabov on the third tournament following two nightmare results, while Karjakin looked relaxed and inspired at the same time today.

Less relaxed but all the more inspired (as usual) was the United States representative, colorful Hikaru Nakamura. Facing a solid Russian opening from Chinese opponent Hao Wang, white bravely castled long to go for a kingside attack. Objectively speaking black was perfectly fine from the opening, but white still got an initiative following a probably inaccurate manoeuver with 15.— Re4 and 16.— Re6. Having weakened his kingside with h6, Wang felt forced to exchange queens at the cost of a pawn. Sacrificing two minor pieces for a rook later on was a creative try from a Chinese point of view. Although the computer programs gave black some drawing chances, the endgame with rook and six pawns versus knight, bishop and six pawns for most present human beings still looked difficult at best. Anyway Wang too lost the thread on the board when running short of time on the clock, and the outcome became obvious as white got an octopus knight on e6 while black still had no open line for his rook. Wang too survived the time trouble, having seven seconds left after making his move 40 – but the new time only helped him to realize that his position was lost behind all reasonable doubt. Nakamura definitely is a potential hit man also in this tournament, remaining to test out whether he will hit only his opponents or also himself in later rounds…
 

Much too few home country spectators were observed in the playing hall today, but those present got a lot of excitement as the Norwegian players both played long and interesting games. Most of the heat of course turned on a tight and heavyweight positional battle between top rated Magnus Carlsen and former World Champion Veselin Topalov. Carlsen handling the white stones (as usual) did not get much of an advantage, this time in an English fianchetto line. Having played d5 and exchanged the queens at d1 before 10 moves, Topalov equalized as black without any known difficulties. Carlsen however played on with his usual optimism, and although his king appeared a little awkward on c2, white kept a slight initiative in the middle game. A balanced position with rook, bishop, knight and five pawns on each side became more interesting as Magnus established a stronghold on d5. Then it became even more interesting as Topalov kicked out the bishops to reach a highly double edged rook and knight endgame. 

An isolani pawn on d5 gave white some more chances, but at the same time he had to watch out not to overstretch. Some Norwegian spectators claimed they saw some light just before 40 moves, as white apparently was about to get a dangerous attack in the h-file (which black had been helpful to open up a few moves earlier on). A top concentrated Topalov however walked confidently around on the water, and it turned out white had nothing better than exchanging rooks. Just after 40 moves some Bulgarian chess fans on internet claimed they saw some light, as Topalov won the d5-pawn in the knight endgame. It however soon turned out that white’s active king was too disturbing for black to reach any winning chances even with an extra pawn, and Topalov returned the pawn while offering a draw after 51 moves. A waiting start both for the former rating king and the former World Champion, but still under the surface a very interesting game.

Seeded more than 100 points below the ninth rated player in this field, Jon Ludvig Hammer obviously is the underdog among the wolves this week. Still he started barking immediately, being ahead on the clock and probably equal on the board after 15 moves as black against Russian chess star Peter Svidler in a well known Grünfeld exchange line. Without the queens white kept a slight queenside initiative, but black defended creatively when sacrificing a pawn on b6 to win back another pawn on e4. Being a patient player with a magnificent technique, Svidler still played on for a win as white. He was partially rewarded as Hammer made some inaccuracies when entering the rook and minor piece endgame, forcing himself to give up a pawn in the rook endgame. Still these rook endgames, with three kingside pawns for both players and an extra a-pawn for white, usually is drawn if black can place his rook beside the a-pawn and cut off the white king – like Hammer did from the start in this endgame. 

Still there was some play left in the position, and Hammer probably made the decisive mistake when he just before 40 moves put his king out in the thin air at f6 instead of just waiting and smoking on g8. Svidler (of course) used his chance, instructively opening up the kingside with h4-h5 to win another pawn and the game before 60 moves. A very honest loss still was a difficult start for Hammer. While Svidler following a slow but successful start, no way should be underestimated by anyone in this tournament either…

In short: Karjakin, Nakamura and Svidler are sharing the lead at +1 – so far. Still much to learn and discuss from the games from round one while we are waiting for round two – including the much expected game between World Chess Challanger Carlsen and World Chess Champion Anand!!

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