A lot is happening in the chess world so here’s a update of some of the biggest headlines.
Fixing Norway Chess?
As expected Carlsen won this year’s edition of Altibox Norway Chess, and as expected the new format with armageddon in the case of ties in the classic games was controversial en sparked a lot of discussion among fans and experts.
Carlsen did finish with a +2 score (winning against Grischuk and Yu Yangyi) but his classical was shaky at the best, being worse against Aronian, Ding Liren and Caruana. Only time trouble saved him against Fabiano (the classic games were also played with pretty drastic new format with 2 h and only 10 sec increment from move 40). He had already won before the last round as he was dominating everybody in the armageddon games, wining 6 out of 6 before he finally lost against Caruana.
Aronian had some wild swings in the tournament but ended seconded before an impressive Yu Yangyi who had somewhat of a breakthrough in these super tournaments. Grischuk and Mamedyarov where the tailenders and had tournaments they would like to forget as soon as possible, and Vachier-Lagrave had a surprisingly bad performance after dominating the blitz tournament (winning his third game in row against Carlsen and climbing to #1 on the blitz ranking).
So, did the format work as intended? The simple answer is no. There were still many draw and too many boring classical games. The armageddon aspect did however keep the audience viewing for TV2 the Norwegian channel who again broadcasted the tournament live in Norway. Previously the channel had seen a sharp drop-off of viewers when Carlsen’s game had finished, but now they kept watching so the armageddon games certainly was popular with the more causal fan. The decision to have 10 min for white vs 7 min for black seemed to be somewhat fair, and no side had an too obvious advantage if you compare the games played in this tournament (the sample size is still too small to say for certain either way).
The scoring system was probably the thing most criticized, even the players themselves (Anand comment about Ding Liren who had +3 in classical but still long way off the top of the leaderboard was viewed as very precise). IN Norway chess you got 2 points for a win in classical but 1.5 for a draw and then a win in the armageddon. One possible fix is to increase the points won in classical games. Grischuk and others suggested a 3-2-1-0 (similar to european ice hockey and their bonus point the team can gain in overtime). Also a 4-2-1-0 was debated. In either case the changes wouldn’t have made a massive change in the final standing, but it seems obvious the classical win must be worth more if a similar concept is to be repeated.
Another element that was discussed was the hard 2 hour and no added time in the classical games (besides a 10 sec increment from move 40). One problem with this year’s tournament was that the two changes in fact cancelled itself out. The time scrabbles didn’t appear that much as players still had to face an armageddon game, and short time control also pushed players to a quicker draw and battle it out in the armageddon. Another factor that can’t be ignored and would askew the results was that several players were struggling with sickness, coughing and fever.
Looking at the games of Anand vs Caruana and Caruana vs Carlsen the short classical format spoiled Caruana’s winning chances. Caruana is a player that would have benefited hugely from as little as 10 minutes added time, enough to calculate and find the winning plan. Just 10 min added time is something they should really consider, as the quality would improve a lot instead of the fun and complicated end games always ending in a hasty time scrabble.
Grand Chess Tour – Zagreb, Croatia
The GCT heads to Croatia for the next leg of the tour with the first of two classical tournaments. This year all 12 permanent players of the tour will participate in a 11 round tournament. It starts on Thursday, June 26 with a possible blitz play-off to decide the winner on July 8. A single rest day will be on July 2.
The time control is a bit similar to what we saw in Norway Chess. Players get 130 minutes for the whole game, but with a 30 second delay from move 1.
Can Carlsen continue his streak of winning tournaments? He was a bit shaky in Norway and needs to stay focused (more on that later). Caruana is probably the player most likely to challenge for first place. It will also be interesting to see players like Giri who didn’t play in Norway (and starts the tournament with white against Carlsen). In round 11 we get Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (black) playing Magnus Carlsen (white), and most likely that game will determine the tournament winner, if Carlsen hasn’t switched on beast mode and won the tournament already.
Carlsen staging a chess coup in Norway?
Back in Norway the debate is heating up before the upcoming congress of the national chess federation (NSF). The biggest issue is whether the federation should say yes to a deal worth 50 mill NOK (that’s about 6$ mill) with the Kindred Group. This isn’t a straight forward sponsorship deal, as Kindred and other online gambling companies are banned from operating and sponsoring in Norway. Therefor the deal is more about NSF should sell their services and act as lobbyist for Kindred the next 5 years.
Of course this is an issue which has created some very sharp fronts, and many are against NSF becoming lobbyist for a case that’s not strictly related to chess at all. Carlsen threw his 2 cents into the debate when he during the weekend wrote on his private facebook account a post where he clearly stated he was for the deal and a no would be letting the young talents down and meaning the federation was without ambitions. He also hinted he was willing to drop the WC-match if it was to be held in Stavanger (a much bigger bombshell if you are talking international chess news). The conflict between Carlsen and NSF and the WC-match venue seems very odd and for now what is really happening hasn’t been clearly stated. Carlsen at least has hinted that his signals about choice of venue hasn’t been taken seriously by NSF, but what Carlsen has against Stavanger is very unclear.
The whole thing took a new and surprising twist today as Carlsen suddenly announced the establishment of a new chess club – Offerspill sjakkklubb. What really makes this news really stink is that he was willing to pay the registration fee for the first 1000 members and that the new club could end up having a dominate delegation in the upcoming congress in early July. The target of 1000 new members was quickly reached, meaning the new club has minimum 40 delegates at congress (usually 140-160 delegates attend). But as he has stated on the introduction page of the new club, these members pledge to vote for the Kindred deal, effectively buying himself yes-votes for the upcoming congress. The maneuver seems legal as the current rules in NSF doesn’t state such tactics aren’t allow (new members/club hasn’t a minimum period before they can vote and attend the national congress) but ethically it is a lot like taking a piss on democracy and common understanding of the rules and regulations of the chess federation.
While the memberships suddenly sees a massive surge (and Carlsen is set to pay as much as 500 000 NOK in membership fees for his new club) this move has certainly not won him any new friends in the local chess community (here’s an open facebook group about the ongoing issue) and seen several media reporting unfavorably to the whole Carlsen “coup”. It will be interesting to see if all the noise back home would affect his play in Croatia…
Tabletop Cave 