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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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Norway is hosting the Super Tournament June 15 to 26th, 2015. The confirmed players are:
1. Magnus Carlsen, Norway
2. Viswanathan Anand, India
3. Levon Aronian, Armenia
4. Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria
5. Hikaru Nakamura, USA
6. Fabiano Caruana, Italy
7. Alexander Grischuk, Russia
8. Anish Giri, The Netherlands
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, France
10. Jon Ludvig Hammer, Norway
Program
Monday, June 15 Blitz
Tuesday, June 16 Round 1
Wednesday, June 17 Round 2
Thursday, June 18 Round 3
Friday, June 19, Round 4
Saturday, June 20 Rest Day
Sunday, June 21 Round 5
Monday, June 22 Round 6
Tuesday, June 23 Round 7
Wednesday, June 24 Round 8
Thursday, June 25 Round 9
Blitz playoffs if needed on Thursday June 25 and 26
Confession box - Probably for the first time ever in an official, classical super-tournament, the players will be able to speak in front of the camera during the game. The 2015 Norway Chess will have the “confession box” that was introduced at the EnterCard Chess Qualifier. Like in Oslo, the confession box will be completely voluntary. When a player shares his thoughts, nobody else can hear him. According to main organizer Jøran Aulin-Jansson the laws of chess allow this remarkable feature. It's not that different from speaking out loud to yourself during a cigarette break, so maybe's right!
Commentary - The commentary on the official website will be provided by New in Chess editor Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and GM Jan Gustafsson. Norwegian TV channel TV2 will provide live coverage as well.
Despite the tournament being hosted in the Scandinavian country, the live commentary will be done at the studio in the Saint Louis Chess Club! This is definitely a sign of the globalization of chess as well as the popularity of the three commentators who bring their magic to the show: Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade and Maurice Ashley.
You can follow the Norway Chess 2015 games, along with the commentary, live and for free on grandchesstour.com starting at 9 a.m. CDT, June 16-26 (with a rest day on June 20).
I just don't understand the popularity of Shahade and Ashley. Not that they are bad commentators, but Seirawan imo is much better. So are Svidler, Christiansen, Gustafsson. Trent, etc.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
Carlsen in the overwhelming betting favourite at 63/100, followed by Caruana at 29/5, Nakamura at 8/1, Aronian at 44/5, and Anand at 19/2. Topalov is at 22/1 which strikes me as excessive.
I like listening to Svidler too but I am afraid if he gets talking in the Confession Box, he will never stop.
My order of preferred commentators – Nigel Short, Peter Svidler, Jan Gustaffson, Alexander Grischuk, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Lawrence Trent.
I am eager to see if Nakamura has newly matured and can fight toe-to-toe with Carlsen, if MVL can get up to the top ten again. Is Veselin Topalov still top-ten material or is the Balzac Age creeping up on him?
Caruana and Topalov once again confirmed that they are not elite blitz players, scoring 2.5/9 and 3/9 respectively in the blitz tournament today. They now rank numbers 85 and 97 in live blitz ratings.
On Monday morning GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave traveled from León, Spain via Paris to Stavanger, he arrived just minutes before the afternoon's press conference and eventually he won the Norway Chess blitz tournament in the evening. It was only in April, during the Shamkir Chess tournament, that Vachier-Lagrave was invited to the 2015 Norway Chess tournament. At that moment he had already signed a contract with the Masters Tournament in León, and so he was playing chess in Spain on Sunday, and in Norway on Monday. He traveled by car from Léon to Madrid and then flew to Paris and further to Stavanger on Monday morning. For a moment it seemed that the French GM might encounter some problems...
... but eventually everything ended alright: Vachier-Lagrave arrived in time at Stavanger airport. His name wasn't there, but instead Karjakin's could be seen, as the airport crew had mistakenly used last year's list to welcome the players:
Oops... MVL arrived in the hotel just minutes before the opening press conference. By then, nobody guessed that he would claim victory in the blitz tournament later that day.
More or less what you would expect with Topalov and Caruana being weak blitz players and so at the bottom of the table. The big guns were at the top with MVL losing to Nakamura and Nakamura losing to Carlsen and Grischuk. Carlsen dropped games to MVL and Grischuk.
At any rate, the top players got to choose their position in the classical tournament.
These pairings are:
Round One, Tue June 16
Giri, Anish – Grischuk, Alexander
Anand, Vishy – Caruana, Fabiano
Carlsen, Magnus – Topalov, Veselin
Nakamura, Hikaru – Hammer, Jon
MVL – Aronian, Levon
Round Two, Wed June 17
Grischuk, Alexander – Aronian, Levon
Hammer, Jon – MVL
Topalov, Veselin – Nakamura, Hikaru
Caruana, Fabiano – Carlsen, Magnus
Giri, Anish – Anand, Vishy
Round Three, Thur June 18
Anand, Vishy – Grischuk, Alexander
Carlsen, Magnus – Giri, Anish
Nakamura, Hikaru – Caruana, Fabiano
MVL – Topalov, Veselin
Aronian, Levon – Hammer, Jon
Round Four, Fri June 19
Grischuk, Alexander – Hammer, Jon
Topalov, Veselin – Aronian, Levon
Caruana, Fabiano – MVL
Giri, Anish – Nakamura, Hikaru
Anand, Vishy – Carlsen, Magnus
Round Five, Sun June 21
Carlsen, Magnus – Grischuk, Alexander
Nakamura, Hikaru – Anand, Vishy
MVL – Giri, Anish
Aronian, Levon – Caruana, Fabiano
Hammer, Jon – Topalov, Veselin
Round Six, Mon June 22
Grischuk, Alexander – Topalov, Veselin
Caruana, Fabiano – Hammer, Jon
Giri, Anish – Aronian, Levon
Anand, Vishy – MVL
Carlsen, Magnus – Nakamura, Hikaru
Round Seven, Tue June 23
Nakamura, Hikaru – Grischuk, Alexander
MVL – Carlsen, Magnus
Aronian, Levon – Anand, Vishy
Hammer, Jon – Giri, Anish
Topalov, Veselin – Caruana, Fabiano
Round Eight, Wed June 24
Grischuk, Alexander – Caruana, Fabiano
Giri, Anish – Topalov, Veselin
Anand, Vishy – Hammer, Jon
Carlsen, Magnus – Aronian, Levon
Nakamura, Hikaru – MVL
Round Nine, Thur June 25
MVL – Grischuk, Alexander
Aronian, Levon – Nakamura, Hikaru
Hammer, Jon – Carlsen, Magnus
Topalov, Veselin – Anand, Vishy
Caruana, Fabiano – Giri, Anish
Jan Gustafsson and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam are the main commentators. Yasser Seirawan comes in for interviews that go back to St. Louis. In general the broadcast is superior to most first round efforts although the sound has gone off several times.
Garry Kasparov visits. The idea of the Chess Grand Tour originated with having a trophy like the World Cup, which would increase the chances of getting sponsors. It brings together the London Chess Classic, Norway Chess and the Sinquefield Cup. They would like to add Jakarta and have a tournament on each continent. Kasparov had the same dream when he was running for FIDE President. The tournaments are scheduled so that they are not clashing with the FIDE Grand Prix tournaments.
Six tournaments would be difficult but not undoable.
Kasparov talks highly of Nakamura, Caruana and Giri. He says that Carlsen combines the traits of Karpov and Fischer. Aronian’s performance these days is not impressive at all. He thinks the two best prodigies are Sam Sevian and Wei Yi.
Jan ten Geuzendam and Kasparov cannot find the cursor for the display board. They call in Jan Gustafsson, who finds it instantly. On the message board someone writes “two to ask, one to instantly sort it out”. He also says “inevitable jokes about how many chess grandmasters it takes to find a cursor”.
Dirk usually posts a question a day at these tournaments and if your name is drawn and you get the answer right, you win a year’s subscription to NIC or the digital NIC. Today’s question:
How many of the participants of Norway Chess 2015 have faced Garry Kasparov over the board? (any type of one-on-one game)
Within one minute, there are 12 answers posted!
Answer tomorrow
________
Jan is asked about the ending of the last episode of Game of Thrones this season but can’t answer it because Dirk hasn’t watched it yet.
A discussion arises on the message board about favorite commentators in chess. Lawrence Trent’s name is mentioned and then he appears on the board.
He is asked about his so-called retirement and when is he going to get the GM title. He disappears from the board and someone says that if he didn’t worry so much about his dinner he would have been GM 10 years ago.
Grischuk commenting on the game he lost to Giri says that in the opening he immediately got a bad position. Asked if his mood was spoiled then, he answered that his mood was fine, it was his position that was spoiled. He said that it hovered between lost and very bad. He was asked if not winning the blitz tournament was a disappointment. He said no, that he beat Hikaru and Magnus and you don’t beat Magnus every day.
Giri went into the confessional booth but didn’t feel comfortable talking. Carlsen went in earlier too. Nakamura thought he would go in but then didn’t.
I picture the confessional as much like a telephone booth and this presents the humorous picture of an unusually verbose player in the booth talking to the camera, while a lineup of other players forms outside the booth, with some knocking on the door saying, “Hurry up in there and finish, others want to talk too!”
When Nakamura came in for the post game interview after beating Jon Ludvig Hammer, he was terribly frank about Fabiano changing from the Italian federation to the American one.
Nakamura: "[The Italians] gave Fabiano everything… to just pick up & leave... is not the best way of handling things!"
Hikaru speaks Italian more or less fluently, has an Italian girlfriend and has great sympathy for the country. The joke circulating is that when Fabiano was considering moving to the U.S., Hikaru was considering moving to Italy!
_______
Everyone is amazed at how well Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is doing in winning the blitz and ahead in his game against Aronian. On the message board, these two postings:
- MVL cheating perhaps? He won blitz too. Delay his telecast please
- After the 57th move in his game, the computer says, White can mate in 80 moves; I wonder if MVL will see it?
Gustafsson talks about Kanye West and the NBA final tonight. Aronian is a fan of basketball too and they talk about the “small ball” game. Wikipedia says this: In basketball, small ball is a style of play used by a team that sacrifices height, physical strength and low post offense/defense in favor of a lineup of smaller players for speed, agility and increased scoring (often from the three-point line).
_________
White dominates the first round.
Stavanger 2015
Round 1, June 16, 2015
Giri, Anish – Grischuk, Alexander
B31 Sicilian, Nimzowitsch-Rossolimo Attack
The arbiter announced the time control just before the start of the game... but Carlsen arrived late! He did not hear the announcement, mistook the time control and simply lost.
Carlsen is the favourite today against Caruana despite having the Black pieces, 14/5 vs 24/5. Perhaps even more surprising he's the overwhelming favourite (49/50) against Giri tomorrow despite never having beaten Giri in 9 opportunities (one loss and 8 draws). Those 23/20 draw odds certainly look overly generous given the empirical evidence (:
The commentators are Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Jan Gustafsson.
They say that Magnus accepted his loss on time like a gentleman. In fact, there was a fire alarm at night that emptied the hotel where the players were staying and afterwards Magnus tweeted “Fire alarm went off at the hotel. Not my fault”. Nakamura – “The good old midnight fire alarm to end a crazy day!”
During the evacuation, the one who remained the coolest was Levon Aronian, who came out carrying his laptop. Fabiano Caruana said that he had left his laptop in his room but he had a backup. The backup was also in the room! He was covered though, because his second, Vladimir Chuchelov brought out his laptop.
About his Round One loss, Carlsen said that he had arrived late and not heard the announcement about the time controls. He said after "Even if I had arrived on time, I would still have been in my own world. There is no guarantee I would have heard the announcement."
A viewer asks the guys if Topalov could have denied the win and offered a draw. They answer, “Why would he do that?” The arbiter might say to Veselin, “that’s not your business”.
On the EC Forum this question was asked:
I would have had a lot of respect for Topalov if he had said something when it became apparent that Carlsen was not aware of the time control. Though to be fair, by the time Topalov realised this, he would have had only a minute or so to actually say anything. It would have been very sporting of him to stop the clock and point it out. Does anyone think any of the current players would have done this?
One reply: If Carlsen had been nearing the end of a calculation and was aware of the time situation when Topalov stopped the clocks he could have been quite justifiably annoyed by the distraction and Topalov could have been vilified.
I can think of one player who would have reminded his opponent of the time control and that would have been Sir George Thomas. That gentleman of the old school, famed for his sportsmanship, died in 1972 at the age of 91.
_______
Peter Svidler’s birthday is today – 39 years old.
The guys discuss the seconds here in Stavanger. Topalov has Silvio Danailov, Carlsen has none but is in contact with Peter Heine Nielsen and Laurent Fressinet. Giri has Tukmakov, Aronian, Tigran Gharamian and Grischuk is alone but could be in touch with Peter Svidler. Vishy Anand has Grzegorz Gajewski from Poland. Hikaru Nakamura has Kris Littlejohn, a computer expert. They worked together at one time then parted and now, are back together again. Hikaru found that Kris with his data-mining would come to the same conclusion as Kasparov about a position but Kris was a little bit faster! Vachier-Lagrave has Alexander Beliavsky, Caruana has Chuchelov and Hammer doesn’t seem to have anyone.
Jan says that typically the second works all night on a position and then sleeps during his boss’s game in the day.
Yesterday’s question about how many of the participants of Norway 2015 have played Kasparov over the board. There are six – Anand, Grischuk, Carlsen, Topalov, MVL and Aronian. Ten people got the answer right and Rolf Schlosser from Wesseling, Germany won the year subscription to NIC.
Today’s question:
In Round One, Carlsen lost his game against Veselin Topalov on time. Did Magnus ever lose a (classical) game on time before?
The games:
Stavanger 2015
Round 2, June 17, 2015
Grischuk, Alexander – Aronian, Levon
A22 English Opening
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you don't interfer with the clock or with your opponent. It was Magnus' turn to play, what could Topalov do that wouldn't be a disturbance to Magnus?
As Magnus said, he was a little too absorbed in his 'inner world'. It's a chess player's responsibility to be aware of the rules and regulations. I can't even understand why they need an announcement at the beginning of round one. If you're set to play in a tournament, you prepare accordingly. And that means taking 5 minutes of your time to read your contract.
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