Nakamura-Tari

In second place and paired against the player struggling most (Tari was in last place on 2/12), Nakamura smelled blood in the water. Before the game, Nakamura acknowledged the strength of his opponent and made it clear that this match was no walk in the park.

What he didn’t mention was that in their three speed-chess encounters (including Norway Chess Blitz), he won every single time.

In their first-ever classical game, Nakamura attempted the Bishop’s Opening, and very soon they (somewhat comically) had an Italian Opening with reversed colors—with Black moving his pawn to c6 and White developing his knight to c3.

Nakamura said after the game: “It was very similar to the Gukesh game. At some point, I started using time and every move that was played by my opponent was not the move that I was expecting, and finally, I just started moving quickly.”

He summed up the critical moment in the clearest way: “I mean, it’s hard to judge. I thought maybe I was a little bit worse, but once I got this Bg5 move, I thought maybe it’s equal/a little bit better. And then, I mean, Aryan he blundered this Bxb3 c4, and after that, I think it’s probably just positionally lost.”

One positional mistake left him with a classic good knight vs. bad bishop scenario that was unsalvageable. A good one for the books.

You can listen to Nakamura explain the victory in the video below:

The now American number-one was unaware that he had defeated a birthday boy. But he concluded: “Normally, on your birthday, you do much worse,” recalling a London Chess Classic game against So where he also lost on his birthday.

So-Firouzja

So arguably had a psychological advantage going into the game. Coming off an armageddon win the previous day, he had the white pieces. Firouzja was coming off a classical loss on Saturday. In addition, So won their last classical encounter recently in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania, from the black side of an Italian Opening.

The first game was a deeply theoretical Grunfeld Defense where the novelty only came on move 20. Firouzja thought for nearly 20 minutes before playing 20…Qa3N, which means it may have been an over-the-board invention. Time usage aside, it was a good move.

So sacrificed a pawn with 25.f4, and although it worked out in the game, Firouzja had precisely one chance on move 30 to press on with the extra material. Instead, he thought for four minutes and traded queens into the draw.

Afterward, Firouzja would respond: “I am happy with the game. The classical game, I could’ve pushed for more but I couldn’t find it exactly.”

He defended solidly in the second game, on the black side of the Ruy Lopez. So never objectively got more than a slight advantage with White. The key moment came when the American GM won a pawn on d6, but Firouzja saw deeply enough to see that he would win a pawn back on f5 after many moves.

From there, the French number-one followed the most convincing path to earn his draw, 1.5 points in this event.

Asked about how Caruana’s loss affects his own mentality, Firouzja replied: “First I have to play myself better and then I have chances. But before that, even if Caruana loses everything, I will not catch him if I don’t play good. So first I have to focus on myself.”

He will play second-place Nakamura with the white pieces in round six.

Carlsen-Giri

Although Carlsen led their lifetime encounters +6 -2 =21 going into the round, fresh on their minds was their last classical encounter in Tata Steel Chess 2023 where Giri beat Carlsen for the first time in 12 years (and second time ever).

Asked about his mood before the game, Carlsen said (in Norwegian): “Have you seen the standings?” with a smile. Then: “Yeah, it depends on him. I will try to win.”

The world number-one played an ambitious line of the Catalan Opening, sacrificing a pawn without the prospect of winning it back in the foreseeable future. In the confessional booth, he mentioned his two-pronged plan: shaving his beard and sacrificing pawns.

Carlsen in the confessional: “I am on step 2 in my plan to get back into the tournament. Plan 1 was to change my looks, which didn’t work very well yesterday. The second part of my plan is to do what I did in a time when I had some success by just sacrificing a pawn as quickly as… pic.twitter.com/7oMp9eHjYW

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) June 4, 2023

Despite enterprising play by the former world champion, he wasn’t able to prove an advantage with the white pieces. If anything, he was already worse after 13.e5?, but the defensive 15…Rf8 gave him enough initiative to maintain equality. By this point in the game, Giri also had 36 minutes against Carlsen’s hour and 15.

The initiative netted back the pawn Carlsen sacrificed, but not more. The players went on to draw the game.

The opening decided the armageddon game in Carlsen’s favor. He repeated a line in the Nimzo-Indian Defense that GM Ian Nepomniactchi played in Dusseldorf earlier this year. His opponent, however, was either unfamiliar with the line or (more likely) mixed up the move order. After 12…Rc2?, Black was unable to win back the pawn.

By this point, commentator Howell went as far as to say that if Carlsen didn’t win the game it would be the biggest surprise in the tournament. No surprises occurred.

Abdusattorov-Gukesh

Despite a rocky start to the tournament and an armageddon loss on the previous day, both players were in for a fight in round five. Abdusattorov uncompromisingly sacrificed a pawn with 7.g4, and Gukesh didn’t hesitate to accept the poisoned gift and the ensuing duel.

Speaking from the confessional booth, Nakamura referred to 7.g4 as the “Shabalov move,” referring to the Latvian-American GM Alexander Shabalov, although the first game my database gives in this line is GM Michael Adams vs. GM Garry Kasparov 1992 (0-1). Playing alongside and against Shabalov in the American circuit since his youth, Nakamura likely associated this line with a game (or several) he saw.

Gukesh was surprised by the novelty 10.h3 and was on his own from there. He would go on to explain: “I faced a surprise which was probably not a very strong idea by him, but I was quite happy with how I reacted, and in the end, I missed maybe a small chance with …Qc7 instead of …Qc5.”

The engine does not agree with that assessment and sees equality with both moves, but of course, it cannot speak to the practical nature of these decisions—perhaps he could have induced a human error. If Abdusattorov played the same move as in the game continuation, 26.Ne2?!, it indeed would have been a mistake.

Despite aggressive intentions and a sharp middlegame, the position fizzled out to an equal endgame. Somewhat paradoxically, White may have been better advised to trade queens earlier (especially on move 17) than trying to win in an attacking middlegame.

Gukesh summarized the armageddon game concisely: “In the armageddon, he played Catalan which he’s not very familiar with and I got a very pleasant position out of the opening and there was no way I could lose.” Better out of the opening, he went on to win with a crushing attack.

Readers should definitely stop on move 18 to see the missed brilliancy (20…Rc3!! is the cherry on top). Seeing as he just needed a draw to win the match, Gukesh’s move 18…Ne5 was likely the best choice given the context. There was no need to sacrifice.

Round 5 Scores

Round 6 Pairings

The 2023 Norway Chess is an elite over-the-board tournament in Stavanger, Norway. The event started on May 29 with a blitz tournament, followed by a classical event beginning May 30. 

In the tournament, 10 players compete in a single round-robin where they earn 3 points for a win in classical,1.5 for a draw and armageddon win, 1 for a draw and armageddon loss, and 0 for a loss. The player who played White in the classical game plays White in the armageddon. The time control for the classical game is 120 minutes for the entire game with a 10-second increment per move starting on move 41. In the armageddon game, White gets 10 minutes, and Black gets seven minutes with draw odds, plus a one-second increment for both players starting on move 41.

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