Wesley So went on a run of five wins in a row, including beating Magnus Carlsen’s 1.a4, to win the Norway Chess blitz opener by a full point and get the top seeding number for the main event. Magnus took second place despite also losing to Vishy Anand, with Vishy, Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov the other players to finish in the top half and get the advantage of five Whites in the classical tournament.
You can replay all the games from the Norway Chess blitz opener using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Jovanka Houska and Jan Gustafsson.
There’s a feeling of nature healing in the 10th edition of Norway Chess. After two pandemic-hit years when there were only six players we’re back to the original 10, and, for the first time in three years, we also got to witness the blitz tournament that featured as an opener for the first seven editions.
The 10th edition of Norway Chess has begun! | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
The stakes for the 3+2 blitz aren’t so high — the winner gets to pick his seeding number and the top five get the advantage of five games with White in the main event — but it’s a good chance to see the kind of form in which the players are entering the tournament.
Wesley So is yet to win Norway Chess, but he did also win the blitz in 2018 | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
Wesley So had been mediocre in his last event in Warsaw and was predictably praising others in the run-up to the event in Stavanger.
When the blitz began the signs initially weren’t good for the 3-time US Champion. In Round 1 he went down in flames against mystery man Wang Hao, who was playing his first rated games since announcing his retirement from chess in April 2021, at the end of the Candidates Tournament.
It was a dominant performance from Wang Hao, though 28.Rhd1? was in fact a mistake.
28…Qa7+! 29.Kf1 Rhc8 would have turned the tables, but instead after 28…Rc8? 29.Rxe6+! fxe6 30.Rd7+ it was time to resign, with mate inevitable after white takes on e6 with the queen.
Wesley said afterwards:
The first game didn’t go so well. I played a new opening against Wang Hao. I wasn’t sure how he would do because he’s semi-retired, he hasn’t played chess in a long time, but he played very concretely in that game.
Draws against Vishy Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov followed (in keeping with a surprising recent trend Shakh scored more draws, six, than anyone else), so that it was hard to predict what would follow — starting with a win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley went on a 5-game winning streak!
There was a stumble midway against Maxime, but otherwise it was a powerful performance, including a crucial win over Magnus Carlsen after the World Champion, the sole leader at the time, opened 1.a4!?
That was a stunt Magnus had pulled — with a win — against Teimour Radjabov back in the 2012 World Blitz Championship, and given his recent opening experiments may not have come as a complete surprise. Wesley commented:
I felt like playing 1...h5! Or 1...a5, but I’ve done that before and it didn’t work. Big shout-out to Magnus for having the courage to play 1.a4. I think he played the Bongcloud against me before, 1.f3, 2.Kf2 and he also beat me, so even though I was tempted to play something else like h5 I had to prevent myself.
I just played normal chess. After he played a4 actually it turned out to be useful because he just played normal chess after that, so we got a normal game. I was trying to equalise with the black pieces, but at some point he used one minute to make a move and he got really low on time, and that’s why he lost.
Magnus spent the minute on 16.axb6 and later spent only seconds on the losing 22.Nd1? (22.e4! and White is perhaps better). That was hit by 22…Bb5!
Magnus was losing the c2-pawn, but it was worse than that as his position quickly fell apart. A big win for Wesley, which you can see sped up below.
There was no need, however, to speed up the final game, as Wesley, needing only a draw to clinch 1st place, was aided and abetted by Anish Giri, who also needed only a draw to clinch one of the Top 5 spots in the event.
That left the final standings as follows.
Wesley’s prize was to pick a seeding number, and he explained his choice of no. 1.
I remember from experience in 2018 I also won the blitz, surprisingly, and it’s nice to have the extra White. In the big scheme of things it’s not that huge of a deal, because it’s most important to play good chess, but my mother told me if I do well I should pick White against Magnus, not that it matters, but it’s good to have White against the strongest player in the world.
Wesley will have White against Magnus in Round 2, while he also starts with White in Tuesday’s Round 1, against Teimour Radjabov.
Magnus Carlsen of course draws the most attention for his home supertournament | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
Magnus has won the Norway Chess blitz a record three times, but there were early signs that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders. After barely surviving a dubious opening against Radjabov, Magnus then allowed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave a shot that you would normally expect the World Blitz Champion to play in an instant.
16…Rxe2+! would have won material, though the d6-pawn cramping Black’s position would perhaps still have left some technical difficulties.
Magnus played the King’s Indian in the next game against Anish Giri and missed a clear win near the end, before getting to clinch victory against the Norwegian no. 2 Aryan Tari by trapping his opponent’s queen on move 25.
A nice endgame win over Wang Hao followed and took Magnus into the sole lead, but then, as we’ve seen, the wheels somewhat came off against Wesley So. That would be compounded in the next game, when Magnus didn’t attempt to recover but played the risky Modern Defence with g6 and d6 against none other than 5-time World Champion Vishy Anand.
In the middle of game Magnus could have settled for forcing a draw by repetition, and though after that he got one fleeting chance to win, he ultimately ended up taking a long think in the hopeless position below.
The a-pawn is too strong, and after 19 seconds, suddenly spotting his clock, Magnus rushed to make the final move 43…Rh1 but lost on time as he made it.
The World Champion stopped the rot, however, with a convincing win against another old rival, Veselin Topalov, after opening with the Trompowsky and eventually overwhelming Black’s position with his knights.
A draw in the final game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was enough to give Magnus clear 2nd place, despite all the adventures. His four wins were matched by Aryan Tari and MVL and exceeded only by Wesley.
Anish Giri, Vishy Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were the other players to gain the advantage of five Whites in the main event, with 52-year-old Vishy continuing the impressive form he showed in Warsaw.
Anish Giri eased his way to getting five Whites in the main event, beating Wang Hao in 134 moves along the way | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
Aryan Tari, a late replacement for Richard Rapport, also continued the form that had seen him reach the quarterfinals of the Chessable Masters, and was unlucky to miss out on the Top 5 despite scoring four wins, against Mamedyarov, MVL, Radjabov and Wang Hao.
Veselin Topalov still has the best facial expressions | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
No-one had a terrible start in Norway, with Veselin Topalov and Wang Hao picking up notable wins, though Teimour Radjabov’s solitary win suggested he was understandably rusty. The Azerbaijan star’s goal will be to warm up in Stavanger before the Candidates Tournament, which starts just one week after Norway Chess.
At first it wasn't clear if it was the real Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Stavanger | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess
The most outlandish results, however, came for the World Blitz Champion, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. A one-move blunder in the first game, and a missed win against Magnus, sent him on a downward spiral that saw him lose the first five games.
The last loss against Veselin Topalov was dramatic, with 25.Rae1? a losing move (25.Nf3! and it’s White who’s winning).
Veselin is no blitz specialist, but showed he hasn’t lost his innate talent as he crashed through with 25…Bxd4! 26.cxd4 Rxh3+! 27.gxh3 Qxh3+ 28.Kg1 Rxe1 29.Rxe1 Qg3+!
Black is a rook down, but White only has a choice of how to lose material. Maxime picked 30.Kf1 Nh2+ and had to give up his queen for the h2-knight, with no way back into the game.
There was an extended break after Round 5, however, and suddenly Maxime was flying as he won the last four games to restore respectability.
That was all just a warm-up, however, and the main Norway Chess begins at 17:00 CEST on Tuesday, when the players compete in classical chess. If there’s a draw, however, they’ll be back 20 minutes later to play an Armageddon decider! Here are the pairings:
And here are the head-to-head scores before the Round 1 clashes.
Don’t miss our commentary duo of Jan Gustafsson and Jovanka Houska, who will be covering all the action live from Stavanger with video of the players and post-game interviews. The action kicks off at 17:00 CEST!
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