Altibox Norway Chess 2018

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. I had drawn as black against Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura a bit later against Aronian while Anand beat Karjakin with black. Caruana-So was a hard-fought exciting came apparently heading for a draw at the time control, when So made a rushed 41st losing move,maybe not aware that he had reached the time control. Surely a thrilling finish to the strongest elite event of the year!

I came 2nd at +1 on better tie-break than Nakamura and Anand. We played just 8 rounds due to the unfortunate bicycle accident Ding Liren had on the first rest day. I wish him a speedy recovery, and upon leaving Stavanger early this week he seemed much better already.

Having experienced far worse in the 2015 and 2017 editions I’m not going to complain too much about the overall result this time. The finish was clearly disappointing though. Crudely speaking the last 5 rounds represented little more than two uninspired draws with black and three off-days against Anand, So and Mamedyarov, more than offsetting the exceptional start.

I stayed fairly fresh throughout the tournament and thoroughly enjoyed the highly unusual bout of early summer for once leaving the event with much less need to recuperate than the norm.

I quite enjoyed both the Simonsen Vogt Wiig simul event and the youth event Friday and would like to thank the organizers headed by the indefatigable Kjell Madland for the 6th edition of this world class event!

I’m planning to revert with another wrap-up next week. Stay tuned!