Excellence

in execution

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