Norway Chess R4: Rapport increases his lead, Carlsen “tortures” Nepomniachtchi
GM Richard Rapport is the only player to have won a classic game so far at the Norwegian chess tournament, and on Friday he won his second (called “pure luck”). By beating GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Hungary has gained three points and is now two and a half ahead of GM Magnus Carlsen.
The world champion beat his challenger at the next world championship, general manager Ian Nepomniachtchi, in the armageddon match. GM Sergey Karjakin now shares fourth place with his compatriot after beating GM Aryan Tari also in armageddon.
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Ranking round 4
# | fed | name | Evaluation | C1 | A1 | C2 | A2 | C3 | A3 | C4 | A4 | C5 | AT 5 | C6 | A6 | Total |
1 | Richard Report | 2760 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 3 | 8.5 | |||||||||
2 | Magnus carlsen | 2855 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 6 | |||||||||
3-4 | Ian nepomniachtchi | 2792 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
3-4 | Sergei Karzakin | 2758 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 4 | ||||||||||
5-6 | Alireza Firouzja | 2754 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |||||||||
5-6 | Aryan Tari | 2642 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
The match attracted a little less attention due to the first clash between world championship participants Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi, but Rapport’s sluggishness against Firouzja was a good match.
The 25-year-old Hungarian grandmaster had a slight edge over the opening in a Grunfeld, and he noted that it was already something: “We’re talking about this modern chess game. I think it already is. an achievement once you play against someone playing the Grunfeld that you haven’t forced to draw after 20 moves! “
He had a slightly more pleasant end of the game thanks to the pair of bishops, but Firouzja continues to play very concrete moves and thus poses problems.
The break … c5 had been prevented earlier and when Firouzja missed his chance to play the other break … e5, he allowed a pawn storm on the king’s side and really turned to the defensive side. Still, the game wasn’t decided until the now struggling Black blundered.
Rapport joked the other day that getting into the world top 10 didn’t mean much because he was going to face Firouzja. After this second classic victory, he overtook GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and now finds himself in ninth place.
Here’s the game, based on Rapport’s remarks in her post-match interview:
Most of the attention has obviously been focused on Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi. While the Russian GM has said that Norway Chess will likely be his last classic event before the big game, Carlsen has revealed that he will also play in the European Club Cup, right after Norway Chess: September 17-25 in Struga, Ohrid Lake, North Macedonia.
Today Carlsen and Nepo started with a draw in a Berlin final. For armageddon, Carlsen moved up to 1.Nf3 and then entered a Fianchetto Grunfeld.
Although Carlsen had the same line the other week against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the Champions Chess Tour, Nepomniachtchi was not very well prepared for it and missed the equalizer on stroke 15. After that, Carlsen was cruising and basically left his opponent. without luck.
“I’m not very excited about the classic game because I felt at one point I was putting some pressure on,” Carlsen said. “At least I played a decent armageddon match today. Anything I can win before the world championship is of course enjoyable.”
Anything I can win before the world championship is of course enjoyable.
—Magnus Carlsen
Asked about his rather long reflection at move 25, he explained that on the one hand, he wanted to make sure that he was a 100% winner, and: “Moreover, I thought it would be good to torture a bit. “
Tari and Karjakin went more or less straight to armageddon as their 5.Re1 Berlin was just tied from start to finish. Having to win in this other game, Tari played 4.d3 instead. Karjakin continued to play a very solid opening, equalized, then got a big advantage after Tari miscalculated early in the middle of the game.
All games day 4
Saturday is a day of rest, but Nepomniachtchi and Karjakin will play their game in the first round. The fifth round will take place on Sunday with the matches Karjakin-Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi-Rapport and Firouzja-Tari.
Norway Chess will take place September 7-18, 2021 in Stavanger, Norway. The format is a double round robin between six players. Time control is 120 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 10 seconds from move 41. In the event of a tie, players play an armageddon game with the same colors. White has 10 minutes and Black has seven minutes with a one-second increment from move 41. A win in the main game gives three points, a loss in the main game zero points, a draw in the main game and a 1.5 point armageddon victory, a one point loss in armageddon.
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