Excellence

in execution

It is good to be back in Shamkir for the Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2019 paying tribute to a great player. I’ve won in my three attempts in 2014/5/8 and hoped to do well this year, although there is always some uncertainty about form after a two-months break from tournaments.

The weather was nice on the rest day Monday, and Peter and I went for a walk and also had a (quick) bath in the sea. For those who haven’t been to Wijk aan Zee, the beach is a spectacular and mighty sight both on sunny days and when the western winds bring roaring waves across the shallow water. My play the day after with the black pieces against reigning US champion Sam Shankland may not have seemed particularly inspired though. The opening choice allowed him to play for a small advantage without too much risk. I calculated quite well and slowly equalized. His a4 weakness offset my isolated pawn on d5, but I did not find any way to make progress in the endgame, and we drew after 40 moves.

As have become something close to a habit, I had a slow start in Tata Steel Chess 2019. Four initial draws were not ideal, but it hasn’t stopped me from having a good tournament before, and as I felt I played reasonably well I wasn’t seriously worried.

Prior to the match in London I was optimistic. Admittedly Fabiano Caruana has had a great year, winning the Candidates and several top level tournaments, and nearly overtaking me on the rating list, but I had significant match experience, and my score against him has been good over the last few years. A few additional near-wins this year were also part of the picture.

I’ve spent most of October abroad. In the UK we saw a few football matches and I met young chess enthusiast and top Liverpool footballer Alexander Trent Arnold for a game of chess. Later the same day the annual Play Magnus live event took place in Hamburg in the offices of Der Spiegel. Several of the players put up a good fight and I was a bit lucky to win all the games.

The drawback of arriving in the US a week before Sinquefield Cup is that the longer you stay, the worse jetlag arriving back home. I’m doing quite well though, and I’ve had time to relax and start thinking about events ahead.

Back in 2012 FIDE awarded the rights to organize the World Championship cycle to Agon (although not the Chennai match). Apart from the fact that I’ve won the subsequent two matches, the FIDE/Agon cooperation has in my opinion not been particularly successful. This time around it effectively stopped other organizers from making an attractive bid for the match. Anyhow, both Caruana and I have signed the contract, and the London match starting November 9th is on!

I’ve always been ambivalent about rest days. It brakes the tournament rhythm which is generally a disadvantage and especially so if you are in the “flow”. But, objectively it is needed so that players can regain part of their strength during a taxing tournament.

In preparation for the Biel GM Tournament I’ve spent more than a month in Oslo thoroughly enjoying the unusually warm summer. 

Having played three elite events in two and a half months in addition to the 10-day trip to the US lately, it is good to spend some time back in Oslo and also enjoy the football World Cup featuring magical matches as witnessed in Spain – Portugal (3 – 3).

I’d like to congratulate Caruana on winning Altibox Norway Chess 2018 with an inspired spurt winning the last two rounds to reach +2. The last round could have seen a five-way tie for first with 8 rounds of Blitz play-off on Friday.

Hopefully this is what good form is about. Sleeping well. A relaxed atmosphere and little emphasis and focus on expectations. Not second-guessing own opening choices. Efficient time-management. Enjoying the games. Easier said than done, of course.

The penultimate round turned out to be decisive in Shamkir.

Usually I’m in good shape two days after a tough football match. This time I wasn’t and misplayed the opening against Topalov. Probably both made several inaccuracies, and the middle game was pretty balanced. My plan with Rd2, Qd1, Re3 created challenges for black, but I expected him to see the necessary Kf8-resource. Topalov says he did, but chose to give his queen for rook and bishop. Sometimes you can defend fairly easily against the queen. Generally any misplaced pawn makes it very difficult for the lighter pieces. Today I gave him some drawing chances partly due to my exposed king. Evaluating the position correctly was tricky for both of us, and fortunately I won and took clear the clear lead!

Expectations were high ahead of the first round today as I was black against second seed Mamedyarov. Still the game fizzled out all too soon. Maybe he expected a Grunfeld and was surprised by my Kings Indian. The line he chose didn’t leave enough play after the opening exchanges. I was hoping to gain some longterm initiative with the queenside majority only to discover that his f4! was even slightly better for white. Draw is objectively fine with black against Mamedyrov, but having had too many non-games in April already, I had hoped for more of a fight. There were more content in some of the other games, but we are all sharing the lead with 0,5/1 !

The last six rounds of Grenke Chess Classics took place in Baden-Baden. It is a short transfer by car from Karlsruhe, but the setting is very different. From the largest Open in the World, taking place in the middle of city, to the much more intimate Kulturhaus playing venue in the spa-town Baden-Baden, partly in summer weather. Curiously, my level of play hasn’t been stellar in Baden-Baden. Not so despite winning in 2015, nor in 2017 or this time. This year I fought hard, had many quite long games and was only in danger once, after over-pressing against Meier. In time trouble none of us saw the beautiful winning line involving a double rook sacrifice on h7 and h6.

From a spectator perspective the introduction of Candidates tournaments from 2013 onwards has been a resounding success. Somewhat surprisingly the 2018 tournament is arguably the most exciting so far. I really enjoyed the many intense fights and the uncompromising approach by nearly all the players. With 14 rounds the Candidates is the longest elite event these days, and with the high stakes and winner-takes-all dynamic, gravity pulls down the leaders and facilitates comebacks even at a late stage. Still, I think the early +2 score achieved by first Kramnik and then Caruana forced a risk-taking approach more generally.

In 2015 and 2016 I won outright with 9/13 in Tata Steel Chess. This time it was enough for shared 1st with Anish Giri, and with the new play-off rules implemented in 2017, tournament victory was decided by a Blitz play-off to the joy of most spectators and the chagrin of purists taking exception to deciding classical events with Blitz (albeit slow 5+3 Blitz). Personally I’m fine with both alternatives; shared victory, or play-off. I do like play-offs despite the extra pressure, and fortunately I managed to maintain my good record, and won 1,5-0,5 to clinch the title and capture the status of having the most tournament victories ahead of Anand at 5, and Aronian (among contemporary players) and others at 4.

In round 9 I had the black pieces against Viswanatan Anand who has played very well except against Kramnik. We ended up playing a Ruy Lopez variation that is somewhat better for white but solid for black. It was a surprise when he went c4 as I thought I might have more problems after a slower approach with b4, and eventually rerouting the knight from g3. White still had the initiative, but it was not much. When he offered me a draw on move 32 it was still fairly equal. Since I couldn’t see any scenario where I would end up better, I promptly accepted.

We played rounds 6 to 8 this weekend, and while the individual results cannot be considered particularly unexpected, the many comebacks from lost positions are exceptional. Friday it was Mamedyarov’s and So’s turn, and by winning Mamedyarov took the sole lead ahead of Anand and Giri.

Even for January in Wijk aan Zee the storm was quite heavy this morning. The planned basketball match in Ijmuiden was cancelled due to an authority red alert related to traffic dangers, falling trees etc. Early afternoon it calmed down a bit and we enjoyed a walk on the beach and a late afternoon basketball session at the local Heliomare, before playing the first online Proleague match of the year for the Norway Gnomes. Todays opponents were aptly named the (Gorky) Stormbringers. We won convincingly.

Traveling from Oslo via London for the annual Arctic early January sponsor event onwards to Wijk aan Zee outside Amsterdam, I’m reminded of one effect of living close to the Arctic circle. Just a short flight from Oslo there’s already 1,5 hours more daylight mid January.

The King Salman 2017 World Rapid & Blitz Championships in Riyadh was organized at the highest level, and my family and I were treated with great hospitality throughout our stay. The quality of my play was more of a rollercoaster until the last day. The great last day change was reminiscent of the Berlin 2015 Championship, with opposite signs.

The Paris tournament finished last Sunday, and I have had some time to digest the overall result as well as how I tackled the challenging Blitz stage. I still have mixed feelings about the event, but fortunately the achievements shine stronger and miserable moments gradually fade away.

With two wins and a draw on day two as well, and another quite good day today, I scored an unbeaten 14 points in nine rounds to win the Rapid portion of the event, ahead of Grischuk at 13, Nakamura at 12 and Vachier-Lagrave and Mamedyarov at 11. 

Altibox Norway Chess 2017 was one of my worst performances since joining the chess elite.

This year Norway Chess is important for many reasons. Already celebrating the 5th edition, Norway Chess has become a main feature on the elite chess calendar. The more than impressive line-up with the Top 10 players on the February 2017 rating list (in June all still within top 12), undoubtedly makes it the strongest tournament this year. After the World Championship match I’ve ended 2nd or 3rd in all events. While not bad, it is not the standard by which I judge myself.

Cudos to Levon Aronian winning the Grenke Chess Classics in style with a +4 score. Caruana and I shared second place with a modest +1. This is of course a disappointment for me, in a tournament marked by making far too many blunders in promising positions.

Baden-Baden Schachzentrum has been a power house in German chess for decades, organizing events and fielding the strongest team in the chess Bundesliga, a team for which I have played earlier in my career.

Hotel Zeeduin is indeed at the sand dunes next to the beach in Wijk aan Zee. It has been my home most of January for the 10 years in the A-group (of Tata Steel Chess) since 2007. As usual the weather is interesting and varied. We’ve had strong winds intermingled with quite periods, and bursts of snow, rain and sunshine already. Today was particularly beautiful.

I have won several classical events (Wijk, Norway Chess and Bilbao), led Norway to 5th in the Chess team Olympiad, and won the New York World Championship match (on Rapid tie-breaks) against Karjakin in 2016.

I started well with 3/3. The quality of my play was pointing in the right direction, indicating that I handled the early rounds better than in Rapid.

With the recurring Mainz Rapid and Amber Rapid & Blindfold events last decade, and recently the annual Rapid & Blitz World Championship, faster time controls have gained a more important place in the world of chess in this century. That is very much to my liking. Faster time controls are exhilarating, emotional and intense for players and spectators, and it favors the stronger players more than in classical chess. I hope that the trend will continue, and I already look forward to the next fast play events.

I’ve visited New York many times over the last 7 years. It is obviously a remarkable city and among other things, I’ve enjoyed long walks on Manhattan many times. Playing a World Championship match seemingly twist perceptions and reduce outside sense impressions to the point that I felt I was experiencing a different city this time. The utter joy and relief of match victory will always make the thought of New York bring back fond memories. Nevertheless, I already look forward to be back in the city in a more normal setting as a visitor.

As in the Sochi-match, Magnus Carlsen himself will not be blogging during the ongoing World Championship match against challenger Sergey Karjakin, Russia. On behalf of Magnus and his team the undersigned will share some impressions instead.

We enjoyed fairly good and stable weather in the aftermath of hurricane Matthew on the training camp that took place the last few weeks. In planning and executing the final stages of preparations for the match starting next Friday, I’ve benefitted from the 2013- and 2014-match experiences, and now I really look forward to the match against Karjakin.

Hi everyone, I’m in the Caribbean area preparing for the upcoming World Championship match in New York starting November 11th. In addition to preparations, I’ve played the Chess Olympiad in Baku in early September and an online match against Nakamura last week since the last blog.

The tournament finished yesterday, and together with my parents and two younger sisters I’m still in Bilbao enjoying the luxury of staying an extra day before catching a flight home Monday. That usually feels pleasant after a long and tiresome top level event, and even more so after the tournament victory.

I’m in Bilbao for the first time in summer. It is very nice and pleasant for a Norwegian not always spoiled with sun and summer heat. Since the organizer invited me to Bilbao Masters Final 2016 this winter, I’ve looked forward to revisit Bilbao where I was a frequent participant 5 times from 2007 to 2012 (and winning in 2011 and 2012.)

While we all seemed happy to play in Leuven, I think none of us had completely recovered from the Paris Rapid & Blitz event. The “new face” Anand (replacing Fressinet), came directly from Leon, having scored his 9th (or so) Rapid cup victory there. The atmosphere between games and at night playing Avalon, were unusually collegial. That may have reduced some of the tension. Still, in my view, two 4-day rapid and blitz events in succession is more strenuous than a regular classical event.

The Paris and Leuven Rapid and Blitz events constitute half the Grand Chess Tour 2016. Having grown up watching Amber Rapid and Blindfold as a young chess player and qualifying in time to compete in the last five events until 2011, I was thrilled to see the addition of two major elite events with fast time control this year.

As mentioned last week I was quite optimistic after the Blitz and round one. Subsequently my play has varied, while the results have been good. I’m in the lead with 4/6 before the final three rounds Wednesday to Friday. After six rounds in Stavanger Forum, we are playing in the Stavanger Concert hall from tomorrow.

In recent years I have typically played two top level events each quarter with minor variations. In general it has provided enough time for restitution between events but often left me slightly rusty early in the next tournament. As discussed in earlier blog posts I chose a different approach this winter to get back in form after varying results from June to November. It worked well. The subsequent two and a half months break, mostly at home, felt good. I enjoyed the excellent February/March skiing conditions locally and spent time with friends and of course followed the exciting Candidates tournament with interest. As last year before Shamkir (same dates as Norway Chess this year) I went south for a training camp early April. This time to Spain. Fortunately it seems to have contributed to a good start here in Stavanger.

Qatar Masters Open 2015 has been a great experience

Early in my chess career I sometimes traveled from one tournament to the next without any brake

London Chess Classics has become a Classic and it is great to be back for the 7th edition

I considered myself the main favorite in the Blitz World Championship last week, but maybe it was easier to win the Rapid part

The Rapid and Blitz World Championships take place in well-suited facilities in Bolle Meierei in Berlin this year

Things have been shaping up for me after the shaky start! I got a small but clear edge from the opening against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and managed to put enough pressure on him to win quite comfortably

Today it was great fun playing chess

You don.t have to be superstitious to appreciate the statistics of tournament performances

I have to go back to the winning streak in Wijk aan Zee in January to find something resembling the comfortable feeling of being in the zone at the chess board experienced here in Shamkir this week

About an hour into round one Friday I blundered against Anand, A pawn down without counterplay

Last year Synergy Group demonstrated that they know how to organize a top level chess event, and I was thrilled to hear that they would host another elite event in memory of Vugar Gashimov in Shamkir this spring.\r\nAt the end of Easter I went for a training camp with Peter Heine Nielsen and others and arrived via Baku three days before the event

A year ago my Rapid and Blitz chess ratings and world ranking (4th) was not satisfactory, and I promised to change the situation

I played some Bundesliga games for the strongest German team Baden-Baden many years ago

It feels like ages since I had my 6-game winning streak

In my last blog the tide had started to turn with the R4 victory against Loek van Wely

Eleven years ago I scored my first Grandmaster norm in the C-group here in Wijk aan Zee

2014 has been a very good year for me as a chess player

Yesterday was a highly emotional day

The opponent W

When I visited the winter Olympics in February this year, the idea of coming back later this year for the World Championship match did not cross my mind, and certainly not when (non-Russian) Anand won the Candidates

In the first half we saw 10 decisive games out of the 15 exciting games, and Caruana cruising through the field with a highly impressive 5/5.\r\nIn round one as black against Vachier-Lagrave I accepted his invitation to play a sharp line

It was not only about chess

I started with a decent win against Caruana after the rest day

The favourites start to float to the top in the Open section with Azerbaijan and Cuba at 11 match points ahead of Russia, China, Armenia ++ at 10

In round 2 on Sunday our team drew all the games against Finland despite a clear rating advantage on every board

The Rapid and Blitz World Championships in Dubai in June had high priority for me this year

I arrived in Dubai late last night with my main coach Peter Heine Nielsen for the Rapid and Blitz World Championship 2014

The way I spent May, with two busy weeks with events in Norway, Nederlands and New York followed by two relatively quiet weeks at home, felt like a reasonable preparation for the Norway Chess 2014

Despite the strong tournament last year, the organizers headed by Kjell Madland have managed to put together an even stronger field this year in a top notch event

With a busy schedule this week and next, I.ve enjoyed a few days off after returning from Shamkir last Thursday.\r\nAfter the up.s and down.s in both quality of play and results, the last round victory made all the difference

Except for the draw against Karjakin in round 3, all my games have been decisive! This is not what I expected prior to the tournament

I did not manage to play as accurately as in round 1, but still I.m fairly happy with my level of play both yesterday and today.\r\nAgainst Nakamura yesterday I got a small but comfortable positional edge out of the opening, and close to the first time control Nakamura made a few inaccuracies

During the press conference after round 1 I was asked about a perceived tendency to start slow and spend some rounds to get going

The biggest chess news coming into April was clearly the convincing Candidates tournament victory by V

With the app Play Magnus I hope to contribute to bring chess to the world

I don.t remember much from the Lillehammer Winter Olympics 1994 despite watching the 30 kilometer skiing competition with Alsgaard and Dæie ringside

I.ve been in Zurich a few times before, mainly in connection with the Biel tournament and hiking trips to the Alps

Over the last few years Oleg Skvortsov, the Savoy Chess Corner and the Zurich Chess Club have put Zurich firmly back on the international chess map.\r\nThe 1953 Candidates Tournament in Zurich still has a prominent place in chess history, and as many others I.ve read the Bronstein book from the tournament.\r\nThis year the Savoy Festsaal is packed with spectators and people queuing up outside, and I.ve seldom seen more press people except during the main championships.\r\nNorwegian TV2 is covering the whole event live both on TV and internet back home!\r\nAs white against Aronian today, in what was obviously an important game for the outcome of the tournament, I did not get much from the opening.\r\nIt was difficult to develop my plans without creating significant weaknesses, but I was quite satisfied with Bg4 which seemed to surprise Aronian

Irrespective of how much I enjoyed a long break from tournament chess after the World Championship match in Chennai, I.m simply delighted to be playing the unprecedented category 23 (average rating 2801) Zurich Chess Challenge.\r\nThe first round classical game against Gelfand today was exactly the kind of chess game I like to play

Looking back at tournaments won (Tata Steel Chess, the Candidates and Sinquefield Cup), and the successful World Championship match, 2013 is without much doubt my best chess year ever.\r\nBut, I.m equally thrilled by the prospects ahead

Magnus and (most of the) his team returned to Norway yesterday to a great reception.\r\nIt is time to finally provide an account of the last games.\r\nThe change of direction of the match after the last rest day was appreciated by the spectators

There is different ways of looking at the pro.s and con.s of having white in game one of the match as Magnus did here, but clearly one key aspect is having the black pieces two games in a row in the middle of the match

A chess world championship match attracts interest far beyond the circle of tournament players and keen amateurs

Game 3 and 4 in the World Championship match in Chennai had everything except a decisive result.\r\nMagnus played the white pieces Tuesday

Magnus Carlsen arrived in Chennai last Monday for the World Championship match against reigning champion Viswanathan Anand

Towards the end of 2008 we discussed a cooperation with Garry Kasparov, and Espen Agdestein, who had already helped us secure the sponsor FAST the year before, agreed to work as a sponsor agent to help finance the cooperation

In his first year as a Grandmaster in 2004/5, the progress seemed to slow down

What did it take for a Norwegian to reach a match for the World Championship title?\r\nIn addition to a talent for and deep interest in chess, I think it was important to get possibilities and encouragement on the way

Being busy with preparations for the World Championship match against Viswanathan Anand starting in a little over two weeks, Magnus has asked me to write about the match and how he got there

The Sinquefield Cup was my last tournament prior to the World Championship match in November, and it exceeded expectations both with regard to the excellent organisation of the event and my own result.\r\nKamsky had a promising position against Nakamura in their sharp encounter in the last round yesterday, but the latter put up a tenacious defence and it ended in a draw

I played Americans with the black pieces two days in a row and with good results.\r\nFeeling a bit tired after all the workout on the rest day I ate a heavy brunch before the game against Kamsky yesterday

Number of, and placement of rest days varies from tournament to tournament

Gata Kamsky moved to the US in his teens

I attended an American football match live for the first time today

On the way to Chennai we (me and my manager, my father, a chef and a few media representatives from Norway) had a short stop in Doha, Qatar

Traveling abroad to play chess and going abroad as a tourist are generally two different things for me

In round 6 before the last rest day I had black against the 2012 World Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand

Today.s game against Anand was probably our last encounter prior to the World Championship match in November in Chennai, and it attracted quite some attention from the photographers at the start of the round

At 15 I was invited to the first edition of Tal Memorial back in 2006

Arrived in Moscow yesterday for the Tal Memorial 2013, starting with a blitz tournament on the 12th

Despite Karjakin.s early streak, the last couple of rounds had all the tension expected from a toplevel chess tournament

Today, against Teimur Radjabov I got a pleasant position from the opening

Not surprisingly this category 21 tournament is the strongest ever taking place in Norway, and it marks the start of an amazing year and a half with the World Cup in Tromsoe in August and the Olympiad in Tromsoe next summer.\r\n\r\nThe tournament is taking place in the Stavanger region, in Sandnes at the player.s hotel and R4, R7 and R9 in interesting locations regionally

A short week after the Candidates finished in London I.ve managed to return to normal life

Winning the Candidates 2013, and the right to challenge the reigning Wold Champion V.Anand for the title, is my most important single tournament victory to date! \r\nThe drama of the last rounds resulted in a +3 tie between me and V.Kramnik

I got into trouble again with the black pieces today

In round 12 today Nakamura played the Kalashnikov Sicilian, and I chose the solid but somewhat unusual 6.g3

Against Wang Hao today I was really struggling after the opening

Most years leaving Norway early January for Wijk aan Zee translates to leaving the snow and the freezing cold behind

I.m trying to find a metaphor for the role of the Wijk aan Zee tournament in chess compared to other sports

Yesterday I played white against Pentala Harikrishna, who qualified for the A-group by winning the B-group last year

Looking back at 2012 on New Year.s eve, I.m really satisfied with my chess results

I drew the last two rounds of London Chess Classics against Nakamura and Anand

I think this is my best round robin tournament start ever with 5.5/6 (or 16 points with football score)!\r\nYesterday I wasn.t very optimistic for most of the game having blundered a pawn in the opening as black against M.Adams

For those of us who haven.t had a .bye. yet, we are at the half way mark of the 4th London Chess Classics

Great results so far despite too many inaccuracies in the middle game.\r\nYesterday against Aronian I got a pawn in the opening for which he did not have sufficient compensation

I left Norway nearly three weeks ago for the US and Mexico

Things went my way yesterday much like the final day last year.\r\nSurprisingly my key competitor in this tournament, Caruana, accepted repetition of moves very early on as black against Francisco Vallejo

Compared to the Sao Paulo part, Bilbao has turned out quite differently

\r\nRound 4&5 in Sao Paulo ended in two draws for me

Grand Slam Final, Sao Paulo, round 1-3.\r\n\r\nThe 5th Final Chess Masters takes place September 24 . October 13

The opening as white against Bacrot went okay

I played the Queens Indian as black against Anish Giri today

I was white against Bologan today

Not much chance to get bored these days

Biel Round 6 & rest day update.\r\n\r\nThe highlight for me yesterday was when I nutmegged a couple of the Frenchmen in the daily football match

I feel in good shape, and I.m highly motivated

Yesterday was a turbulent day

I think this was my third game with Wang Hao

With Bazna cancelled I.m very happy to play in Biel for the 6th time!\r\nI.m here with family, we took the ferry to Kiel and drove through Germany on Friday

With the prevailing tie break rules I thought I needed to win round 8 and 9 to have a shot at 1st place

On the second free day the traditional Tal Memorial event took place in the chess parlour of V.Dvorkovich

There.s a free day coming up tomorrow

In round 4 against Grischuk (ranked no 11 in the world), I played 1.e4

The game of the day in round 3 was Aronian-McShane

I drew as black against Morozevich today

This is already the 7th Tal Memorial

My accidental four months break from tournament chess after Tata Steel is by far the longest break since playing my first children tournament in July 1999.\r\nAnticipated rustiness made me more than happy to accept playing a Blitz tournament to decide the starting order in the main event.\r\n\r\nTal Memorial was moved to June this year to avoid a potential conflict with the Candidates, and it is nice for once to visit Moscow in the summer.\r\nMost of the elite chess players are participating, and the event is category 22

A draw would secure sole victory for Aronian in the last round of Tata Steel Chess 2012, and he needed just 10 minutes and 12 moves to share the point with Radjabov

My objective this weekend was a solid finish

Two rest days this week, Monday and Thursday

As he is the next World Championship contender, it is always interesting to play against Boris Gelfand.\r\n\r\nHe deviated from our recent game in Tal Memorial castling short leading to a quiet position this time

I'm not particularly happy with draws in round 5 and 6 but for different reasons

We have been in Wijk nearly a week and still there is a normal 9 rounds tournament left

Both were out of book early in the game today

As black against Ivanchuk I went for a topical QGD line

Great start of the 2012 Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee for me with a victory today against Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan (ranked 10th in the world).\r\nI haven.t won the 1st round here since 2008

I spent a few long days with .60 minutes. and other media representatives last week

(Haslum, December 18th, The below blog item was written in London but unfortunately not published until now

If this blog entry makes it online, the internet at the hotel is working again! Thursday I played black against Aronian and was fine out of the opening

Always inspiring to play V.Kramnik

Fulham has three Norwegian's on their team and this morning I was offered tickets to Fulham - Liverpool

At 27 Luke McShane is quite an experienced player

Hopefully LCC is becoming a regular top level event

I turned 21 yesterday, and any plans I might have had to do something special was not realistic considering the timing in between Tal Memorial and London Chess Classics

In the game as white against co-leader Ian Nepomniachtchi I went for 1.e4 and 3.Bb5 against the Sicilian.\r\nAs planned I got a small but pleasant advantage out of the opening, and my opponent spent quite some time early on (at least compared to his normal rapid mode of play).\r\nHe quickly managed to improve his position by playing d5, but it was still somewhat tricky for black

Today I.ll keep the blog entry in line with the game against Anand, short.\r\nA long night sleep and I felt great before the round today

On the rest day there was a social event (and informal blitz tournament) at the V.Dvorkovich Chess Club for among others the Tal participants, the Russian Chess Federation board, Tal organizers and chess journalists

I think it is fair to say that this tournament turns into a great and enjoyable event in all respects

Karjakin (21) became GM more than 9 years ago (the youngest ever) and we have both been pretty active in international chess for many years

Black against world no 4 V.Kramnik is usually a bit of a challenge, and the game today was no exception.\r\n1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 h6 4.Nc3 Bb4 is rightly categorized as an .uncommon opening., and we had to think right from the start

Before the game yesterday I listened to .In My Place. by Coldplay and somehow the passage .I was scared, tired and underprepared. hit a cord inside

Commemorating the birth of former World Champion Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) the Tal Memorial is arranged for the 6th year in a row

Evidently there was a lot of nerve in the last round Tuesday

Round 9 represented another must-win for me against sole tournament leader Ivanchuk.\r\nThis time I got a very pleasant position out of the opening

Round 8 represented a must-win for everyone except Ivanchuk wanting to stay in the race for first

Most of the players left Sao Paulo Sunday October 2nd and arrived in Bilbao and grandiose Melia hotel in beautiful summer weather on the 3rd

After the third round loss it was a relief to focus on something completely different on our day off

In the second round I had the white pieces against world no

First a few words about last week

After the rapid tournament Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow, I haven't been\r\nblogging

I.ve had a few quiet weeks after the tournament in Biel, but now the busy fall season starts with The Botvinnik Memorial

I annotated a game from Biel (Shirov-Carlsen) for chess magazines this weekend as last week was quite busy

I played the Philidor against Caruana today and was satisfied with the opening

Having the white pieces against Vachier-Lagrave I got a small but pleasant advantage from the opening

Second half of 2011 features more top-level chess tournaments than the first half quite typical for the yearly schedule

As black against Shirov I got a tougher game than our round 2 encounter

The Biel chess festival features several chess events and the free days are scheduled after round 3 and 5 in alignment with the major Open events.\r\nOn the first free day I visited the Mayor of Biel, did some interviews and played tennis while yesterday with some football was fairly quiet in comparison.\r\nRegarding my round 5 loss against another 20 year old, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave the short version is simply that he played better than me.\r\nToday.s opponent Pelletier chose the French defense and I deviated from mainline theory fairly early

After the game today I heard about the horrible murderous double-attack on innocent people in and near Oslo this afternoon

Another long fight today with the black pieces

Alexei Shirov is a reknown fighter with an impressive ability to calculate tactical lines.\r\nHis rating has been unstable for many years but at his best he can win any tournament (as for instance Sofia 2009 and Shanghai 2010)

The 44th edition of the Biel tournament is one of the strongest ever (me, Vachier-Lagrave, Shirov, Caruana, Morozevich and Pelletier, resulting in category 19)

I.d like to forget my game against co-leader S.Karjakin as quickly as possible

Today.s games went according to the ideal script of an organizer, there is a tie for 1st before the last round

The opening phase went fine today as black against Radjabov

Today I had white against Ivanchuk

What's happened in 6 days? Same opponent as in round 1, but today I just wanted to finish the game

The tournament schedule was changed slightly the day before the tournament to facilitate advancing the closing ceremony to the 21st in the evening

Last year Nisipeanu (2662) surprised me with the Jaenisch gambit and the game ended with draw

Sergey Karjakin became a GM at 12 - the youngest ever

Today.s opponent Teimur Radjabov won the U18 World Championship already back in 1999 at the age of 12

When V.Ivanchuk won this tournament in 2009 it took place in Bazna

I don.t know what I would have said in the blog if I had lost today

Back home parts of Norway experience the worst flood in years so we should be grateful for the little rain here in Bazna, and next week supposedly will be very sunny and warm.\r\nThe Opening ceremony and drawing of lots took place in the playing venue in a Romgaz centre and museum building in Medias.\r\nThe category 21, 6-player double round robin tournament is stronger than last year with 4 players from the top 8 - me, Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Nakamura - as well as Candidate Radjabov and the strongest Romanian player Nisipeanu.\r\n\r\nQuite a crowd and a number of journalists showed up for the well-organized session today

Coming off a ten weeks tournament break after Amber it feels great to be back in Bazna for the Kings Tournament!\r\nThe sporting highlights for me this late spring have been the epic Real Madrid . Barcelona clashes

Round 10 and 11 are old news by now

A few days have gone by since the last entry now

Former World Champion Kramnik is known for his match victory against Kasparov back in 2000 and can still be a formidable opponent

The fact that after four double rounds the tail-ender may beat the leader in such an even leveled field is no big surprise, but it required a real meltdown from me to lose 0-2 against Ivanchuk the way I did yesterday

The fourth day was another good day for me, as I won 1.5-0.5 and kept the lead (shared with Aronian, who won with the same score)

Two draws today

As mentioned before, my opponent today was Gashimov, one of four players with a perfect score after day 1

My opponent today was Hikaru Nakamura from the US

Later today most of the world elite will play blindfold and rapid chess once again in Monaco

After finishing The Tata Steel Tournament I was really keen to spend some days in the sun, a week in Mexico before going to NYC for the fashion week was great! 28 degrees C, both in the air and in the water

All games drawn in the last round yesterday

The standard top level tournament lasts 10 rounds these days and it is good that Wijk aan Zee maintain the traditional format of 14 players single round robin (13 rounds)\r\nToday was the penultimate round and I had the white pieces against Wang Hao

A few days ago I said that round 7 and 8 turned out very differently for me

In round 9 today against French M

Round 7 and 8 turned out very differently for me.\r\nAgainst reigning World Champion V.Anand in round 7 I got nothing out of the opening

No blunders, no missed opportunities.

A lot can happen in a seven hour game

The highlights for me the last few days was the traditional football match against the Dutch squad today as well as the even more traditional sponsor dinner with Tata executives yesterday.\r\nThe round 3 and 4 results were less notable

My opponent today was elite veteran Alexei Shirov

Exciting round in Wijk today! Smeets-Shirov was the first to finish

As last year I arrived in seaside Wijk aan Zee well in advance of the tournament

After the difficult start it was a great feeling to win London Chess Classics and end 2010 on a high note

Yesterday I played the unusual Chigorin as black against Kramnik and was fine out of the opening

The London Chess Classics is part of a grand chess festival with several side events aimed at promoting Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC).\r\nSome of my friends and former high school chess colleagues are playing the Open

Apart from a twitter message I did not feel like commenting on my game against Anand yesterday

Heavy demonstrations outside the Parliament today I.ve heard

My first tournament not being a teenager

Congratulations to Levon Aronian on winning the Blitz World Championship! Five rounds before the end he had a three points lead and was the only one that scored consistently well all three days

A good night.s sleep did me well

Following three back-to-back tournaments (Olympiad, Bilbao, Nanjing), a two weeks break came and went quickly, and we arrived in Moscow on Sunday evening.\r\nMonday a week ago NRK, the main Norwegian TV channel, covered a chess session I had at Simonsen Law firm with an 8-yr old (son of an employee) and Tuesday I was a guest at the .Storbynatt. talk show as I.m a fan of hosts Eia and Tufte Johansen.\r\nFriday and Saturday I visited Tromsø the kick-off for the organizational phase of the 2014 Chess Olympiad, playing blindfold, blitz and chess with live pieces.\r\nBack to the Tal Blitz: At the opening and drawing of lots today I received the Chess Oscar for 2009!\r\nThe combined Tal and World Championship Blitz takes place over three days as a 20-player all-play-all-twice tournament with time control 3 minutes + 2 seconds/move per game per player.\r\nI got off to an excellent start winning the first four games against blitz expert Nakamura, Ponomariov, Kramnik and Movsesian

Nanjing Pearl Spring 2010 finished, Tal WC Blitz next\r\nThe early 10 am start of the last round of the Nanjing tournament didn.t stop the players from showing excellent fighting spirit.\r\nAnand outplayed Bacrot with the white pieces to take clear second (with Bacrot clear third), while Wang Yue came very close to his first Nanjing victory

I.ve won Nanjing 2010 with one round to go! \r\nBlack against Topalov was likely to be a significant hurdle and my opponent did play very well in the opening and early middle game in the Catalan with 4. Bxd2

Compared to last year the schedule has been tightened considerably

Long interesting game today against reigning World Champion V.Anand

The free day Monday came in handy

Despite his consistent high rating and world ranking, as white I have a very good score in classical chess against Topalov

Vugar Gashimov is one of the three top-30 Azerbaijan grandmasters and quite an aggressive player

Wang Yue is the highest rated Chinese player, we have already met in many top level events

Anand has played 1.e4 in all our recent encounters

The Bilbao tournament was a well-organized Grand Slam Final but one cannot help being impressed by the grandeur of the Nanjing Grand Slam tournament

In the last round as black against Anand, I went for the Ruy Lopez Breyer variation once again and got a very promising position

I won today! Had nearly forgotten how good it feels

Anand . Shirov played a fighting draw today

Back in 2008 we played at the monumental Plaza Nueva in an old citadel of Bilbao

Generally I don.t like to lose and I don.t like to blog after a loss

We arrived in Bilbao yesterday in warm weather but with some serious lighting and thunder

I didn´t think it could go much worse after round 9, but it sure did

Not much to write home about today

As may have been expected I did not feel like elaborating too much on round 6 right after the round

The General Assembly of FIDE (International Chess Federation) meet during every chess Olympiad

First of all, I apologize for not blogging before this, but I've not been playing much yet, and I was, perhaps understandably, not that eager to blog after an upsetting loss :) More about that slightly later

In May I visited New York for the first time, and I sure didn´t mind going back for the Raw World Chess Challenge

After a week in New York I spent some 30 hours at home, asleep most of the time, before heading for Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia and the Olympiad at GMT+5

Finally an update from Arctic Securities Chess Stars in Kristiansund.\r\nI managed to win with white against Anand in the final

The good news, are missing today (unless Real Madrid scores in the 2nd half)

I´ve enjoyed several weeks of vacation this summer, but after Bazna I was quite busy for a week or two

The good news, it was truly exciting to play tournament chess after a 2 month break

I won the last round to take sole first place in the Kings Tournament!\r\nMy opponent was Wang Yue, China

I was white against Nisipeanu today and was of course ambitious

After four consecutive wins, the game Tuesday represented a possible stumbling block as I played the only opponent with a significant chance of overtaking my lead in the tournament, Boris Gelfand

This morning it was decided to move the tournament from Medias to our hotel in Bazna and I think this was popular with all the players.\r\nMy opponent today, Teimur Radjabov was the no 1 junior player in the world for several years just after I became a GM

Ponomariov lost with white against the King Indian earlier in this tournament and as black against him today I chose the same opening.\r\nSomething went wrong early on and I was very dissatisfied with my position from the opening

The long football session yesterday was popular with all the participants and is likely to be repeated on the next free day.\r\nSometimes chess makes me really happy

Not that much to say about my game against Boris Gelfand in round 3

My opponent in round 2, Teimur Radjabov from Azerbaijan recently qualified for the 2011 Candidate Matches by capturing the overall 2nd place in the 2008-2010 Grand Prix

The road from Bazna to Medias is a bit bumpy but the organisation of the transportation to the tournament was quite impressive

We arrived in Bazna (in the middle of Romania) on Saturday after a pleasant travel via Munich

Hi chess friends!\r\nIt has been good to be back home for a while after the Amber tournament

Finally some words about the last round of Amber 2010.\r\nI expected that daily blogging could be quite a challenge during tournaments but it has turned out to be a good way to reflect on what happened in the particular games of the day and then move on and leave behind whatever negative feelings I might have had

2-0 against Ponomariov, what a great day! As white in the rapid game, everything went quite smoothly

1.5-0.5 against Dominguez today, finally back on track

0.5-1.5 against Kramnik today, and another day with absolutely awful play

0.5-1.5 against Gashimov today, a miserable result for the first time since round 1

After having lost the rapid game poorly yesterday, it was time to get back on track against Gelfand today

My winning streak finally ended today, at 7

2-0 again today, and 6 in a row! In the blindfold game today against Jan Smeets, I got an interesting position from the opening after 1

2-0 again today, this time against Peter Svidler

After losing twice yesterday, I wrote that today would be a good moment to strike back

0/2 against Vassily Ivanchuk today, an absolutely awful start! In the blindfold game I had white, and after an unconventional opening I made a serious mistake as early as the 10th move

After a solid break since Corus ended at the end of January, I am now ready for a another major tournament! The Amber Blindfold and rapid is a rather unique tournament, sponsored by the Dutch billionaire and chess lover Joop van Oosterom, that since the first edition in 1992 has attracted almost all of the best chessplayers in the world

With V.Anands victories in the 2007 World Championship tournament and 2008 WC match against V.Kramnik, chess had an undisputed World Champion for the first time in this century

On the free day Wednesday I was invited to play a football match against a Dutch team

I.ve played against today.s opponent Jan Smeets (24) in the C-group, B-group (twice) and A-group since 2004

With 13 rounds the Corus tournament is longer than most top events

For me 2010 started with a training camp in Marrakech in Morocco

England has been one of the strongest western chess nations for more than a century

The best known US chess player ever is of course the late Bobby Fischer

It has been two weeks since Tal Memorial and the Blitz World Championship

Having enjoyed a relatively quiet week after returning from Moscow, I played the BNBank Blitz tournament staged at the Oslo Central station yesterday

I won the Blitz World Championship 2009 today! \r\nAn initial loss made me a bit shaky, but the next 6 games went well and I had a comfortable lead mid day

Finally a victory for me in Tal Memorial 2009

People say top chess is becoming younger, but it doesn.t show in the top10

Tal Memorial til æ for tidligere verdensmester Mikhael Tal, trollmannen fra Riga, arrangeres for 4.åpåad i Moskva ifbm Tals føsdag 9.november.\r\nDet meste av verdenseliten er samlet til det som blir åts sterkeste turnering

After a tense fight today, I won the London Chess Classics with 13 points, ahead of V.Kramnik at 12 and Howell and Adams at 9

Sergey Karjakin (20) is from Ukraine but has recently moved to Moscow and is in the process of switching federations

Todays opponent Alexander Morozevich has been a fairly stable top10 player for more than 10 years

My opponent today was 25 year old Luke McShane, the British number 3.\r\nHaving studied at Oxford followed by a career in the City, he is now a full time professional chess player, and clearly stronger than his current rating of 2615.\r\nMy current official (November 1) rating is 2801 and depending on the opposition I may win 2-5 or lose upto 5-8 points in each game

Today I played former World Championship match participant Nigel Short

The first time I played reigning World Champion V.Anand in classical (7 hours) chess was in Corus, Holland in January 2007 and after an initial draw, I lost several games over the next 14 months

I.ve played Peter Leko, Hungary in many tournaments over the last three years

When we arrived in Wijk last week snow covered the ground and it was pretty cold

Not much to tell from the game today

My opponent today was David Howell, the 4th ranked British player.\r\nI played black and was well prepared in the variation he chose against the Sicilian Defence

In connection with the Tal Memorial it is organised a strong blitz tournament

During the last weekend of the Corus tournament we see a ramp up of activities and number of visitors (spectators, tournament organisers and media representatives)

Yesterday the 10-kamp started, the major amateur event during the Corus chess festival

After some snow this morning we had a rainy day in Moscow

The chess played throughout most of the world wasn.t common in China until late 20th century, but for a decade or two the most promising players have moved and taken permanent residence in Beijing for extensive chess training when not playing in tournaments

I.m happy to say I won the Corus 2010 A group in the end with 8,5 / 13 points ahead of Kramnik and Shirov at 8 and Anand and Nakamura at 7,5! \r\nHaving described my last round blunder and subsequent save against Short in London in December as a narrow escape, I could better have reserved the phrase for today

The game against Kramnik today was quite important as we.re ranked one and two in this tournament

Peter Leko, Hungary has been in the elite this decade with 4th as his highest ranking

With only 3 rounds to go I was slightly ambitious about today.s round despite playing black

I had more of a fighting spirit today and faced the Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk

On day 2 of the Blitz World Championship things went my way

Before the game as white against V.Kramnik today, we had spent quite some time on opening preparation