Stavanger Update

The Lahlum round report 3
May 10, 2014 | By Hans Olav Lahlum

Today we had the third round in a row with the same basic concept, which is: Five interesting and tense games are played, three of the five games will get a winner – and one of the three game winners will be Sergey Karjakin! As his competitors are most helpful to defeat or at least draw each other, the 23 year old Russian is leading with a full point after winning a nice positional game as white against Hao Wang today. The tournament’s (and the World’s) top rated player Magnus Carlsen is unable to win (or lose) any of his games so far. World Champion Viswanathan Anand on the other hand efficiently used his chance today – defeating former World Champion Veselin Topalov with a nice attack.

Obviously still in an accelerated mood, Sergey Karjakin played fast from the opening today. Same did his opponent Hao Wang, and consequently both made 17 moves within the first 35 minutes. On the board in between them there was a sharp Sicilian Rauzer position, in which white castled long and black short. As white played e5 the game reached a well known Advanced Fixed Single Pawn Center with the King’s Pawn Forward (meaning e5 versus e6 with the d-pawns exchanged – to help those of you not yet having read the legendary middle game books of former World Champion Max Euwe and his co-author Hans Kramer). In this edition, white’s pair of bishops and active queen gave him some attacking chances. Having transferred his bishop around to c6 and controlling the important d5-square with his knight, black apparently had very close to equal chances from the opening. Obviously not fearing for his own king on b1, white took control over the d5-square and increased his space advantage by playing b3 and c4. After a tactical exchange of queens, white kept an initiative as black had one of his rooks slightly misplaced on g4. Exchanging the misplaced rook did not look like the most critical plan from a white point of view. White due to his space advantage and the pair of bishops still was “clearly slightly better” when playing with one rook, two minor pieces and five pawns left on each side after 35 moves.

Black however was well on his feet and in the ring until he at move 36 made a “very strange” positional decision by playing f5? – efficiently turning white’s pair of bishops into a pair of machine guns after the not invisible 37.exf6+ e.p. The game silently finished by a small masterstroke only two moves later on, as white played 39.h4! The tactical point is that black cannot play 39.— gxh3 e.p. due to 40.Rf1 (with a highly unpleasant pin on black’s Bf3 and Kf7). The strategic point is that black cannot avoid to play 39.— gxh3 e.p., as white will then simply play 40.Re5, take the black pawn on h5, and promote his passed h-pawn. Wang consequently admitted the mistake and demonstrated his excellent positional understanding by resigning. For sure he would have preferred to do so by making some brilliant move himself, but losing as black to Karjakin obviously is no shame in this tournament. Following his triple jump out of the start blocks, the former whiz-kid at 3/3 now is leading with a full point – and has got the 2800-border and the World’s top three within eyesight. It should be mentioned that Karjakin has now had two white games and played all the three lower rated opponents he will face in this field. Meaning six higher rated opponents are now lining up – and black against second seeded and second placed Levon Aronian will be a very exciting test of Karjakin’s strength in round four.

Despite Karjakin’s strong start, most of the about 40 spectators focused on Norway’s favorite chess son Magnus Carlsen. In our advanced computer chess era, in which even players at a low international level can be armed with 30 moves theory lines when entering the playing hall, I find it refreshing that some of the players in the absolute world top still are free thinkers who leave the theory to follow their own minds early in the opening. 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.

Although original and unbalanced all of the time, the game in retrospect appears to have been in some kind of dynamical balance all the way from the opening and into the endgame. It was a truly complex and double edged middle game position as black had hanging center pawns on d5 and e5, supported by a pair of bishops. Having exchanged one of the bishops for one of the knights on f6, Nakamura and his extra pawn on b5 looked better for some moves. Carlsen however demonstrated sufficient counterplay in the center, and possibly he could have got an advantage if centralizing his queen with Qe5 instead of the direct 29.— e3. Afterwards he instead had to be tactically alert not to land a pawn down in an airy queen and rook endgame. But as Carlsen (of course) played 31.— Qxb2! with the right variations in mind, the result after 38 moves instead was a dead drawn queen endgame with only h- and g-pawns left. Nakamura (despite trying to hide under a new blue cap) looked frustrated not to have reached winning chances. But draw against the World’s number one still is a good result even for the Unites States number one, and it seems that white never had any winning chances within his reach. Carlsen’s play so far is a small disappointment for the hungry home crowd, as he although never really close to losing any game neither have been really close to winning any game in this tournament. Still six rounds to go of course – and two rounds in the case of Magnus Carlsen can change everything.

In the big shadow of the Norwegian World Championship challenger, the tournament’s only meeting between two World Champions was played between one player from India and one from Bulgaria today. Current World Champion Viswanathan Anand and former World Champion Veselin Topalov have an interesting history in common: Back in 2010 Anand won the last game of a heated World Championship match, defeating Topalov in front of a frustrated home crowd in Sofia. Three years later, the champions in an apparently friendly Sandnes atmosphere today played another exciting and interesting game. Anand again found himself involved in a positionally complex Sicilian battle with a backward d6-pawn, this time as white in a Byrne line. Instead of pressuring the d6-pawn, white castled long and played aggressively for a kingside attack with a g4-g5 bayonet attack.

Having blocked the kingside advance by playing g6 and transposed his knight around to f4, black reached a dynamical balance. After 25 moves white had some pressure against the isolani pawn on d5, while black searched for counterplay against the weakened white kingside pawns. Probably the position was still in dynamical balance when white offered a queen exchange after 27 moves. Topalov was right to avoid the queen exchange, but wrong to trade his d5-pawn for a less valuable white f-pawn afterwards. It soon turned out black’s king was the more exposed, and with 32.Qh1! Anand instructively avoided the queen exchange to continue his kingside attack. Later many spectators were understandably impressed by Anands flashy tactical 35.Be6?!, but retreating the bishop to b3 or a2 actually was an easier win. Topalov short of time and caught in a crumbling cockpit kept the mask well, but chose the wrong way of giving up his queen. Black made a qualified decision to resign at move 41, as white playing with queen and rook versus two rooks and one bishop still had a decisive attack while black had no real counterplay. Anand might well be the oldest lion in this great field, but make no mistake – he is still a very big chess lion, and is still both hungry and dynamic. Topalov has been playing excellent chess, but down at 1/3 he still have a long way to a top three prize in this field after losing this key game.

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 no way given from the start. Aronian (as usual) had the longest opening preparation, throwing out 15 moves as black in an ambitious line against English fianchetto. He however soon started to think after Svidler at move 16 creatively sacrificed his pawn on d4. Black turned down the offer, leaving on the board an isolani position in which white due to his queenside minority attack had a slight initiative. White controlling the b-file still looked slightly better when playing a5 and offering a draw on his first legal occasion at move 31. True enough the final position with rook, two knights and five pawns versus rook, knight, bishop and five pawns looked drawish and would be risky trying to win against a chess titan like Aronian. Drawing his second game as black too, the Armenian at 2/3 is sharing second place with Anand. While Svidler at 1.5/3 (as usual) has a performance well above 2700, but still of course is “the second Russian” so far in this tournament.

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. It all started as a Reti – but then looked all the more like a Grünfeld fianchetto, in which black achieved reasonable counterplay against the white center pawns. Hammer spent very much time and Radjabov even more time in the opening and the early middle game, and after 19 moves white had only 14 minutes left on the clock. Well trained to fight the opponent and his own clock at the same time, the young Azerbaijan star after playing 19.d5 still had some space and initiative. His advantage became obvious as Hammer felt forced to give up his a7-pawn a few moves later on.

Black however was invited back into the game as white unnecessarily sacrificed back his h3-pawn. Sacrificing an exchange on the d5-pawn after that was a promising plan for black. As Hammer played out his good idea in the wrong way, and as Radjabov later demonstrated himself as the better time trouble player, black was in deep trouble on the board when hammering out his move 40 with the usual two seconds left on the clock. Playing with queen, rook and four pawns versus queen, knight and five pawns, Radjabov anyway had an easy win when Hammer in desperate search for counterplay ran into a mating net with 41.— h4?. The conclusion about Hammer, also for the third round in a row, became “reasonable play, but still no score”. Among the big sharks in this small pool, his nightmare obviously is that it can continue like that for three and in worst case six rounds more. Meanwhile, in an almost empty playing hall, stoneface Radjabov for one second nearly smiled after winning a game of chess tonight. Remaining of course to test out whether that was the first glimpse of the sun coming back, after his very cold spring this year…

Official website: http://norwaychess.com