French Defense Traps #2

This move order can look like black is winning a pawn:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bd3

But taking the pawn with Knight, results in that white can easy win back it's pawn by continue playing:

5...Nxd4 6.Nxd4 cxd4 7.Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Qxd7 9.Qxd4

Taking with the c5 pawn is considered mainline, and white continues with 6. 0-0

Magnus Carlsen is the new chess world champion

Magnus Carlsen is the new chess world champion! He beat Vishy Anand after 10 games with a score of 6.5 to 3.5.

The match started out pretty boring with 2 quick draw.

Carlsen was the first to win as he turned a tiny advantage into a win in game 5 and playing black in game 2 he took his second win of three.

In game 9 Carlsen played black, but after a major blunder by Anand, Carlsen was able to secure his last victory of the match. 

Last move played by Anand was 28. Nf1 was considered the blunder of the game

Even if a draw was enough for Carlsen to secure his title in the 10th game, he pushed very hard for a win. He said in the press conference that he did go for a win, but when the attack failed he just sealed the draw and become chess world champion!


All the games and information about the match can we read here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=81142

back after a big break

I'm back, after a big break. This time I will start to focus more on puzzles, french defense and follow tournament results.

What has happened since last time?

• Karjakin won Norway Chess tournament
• I started to write a article about Karjakin, what kind of player he is and his historical background
• I've been playing very little chess because of vacation
• Been practicing some tactic trainer on chess.com to keep my tactical vision

Norway Chess 2013 6th round result

Karjakin got a draw against Anand and is still in the lead with 4.5 point out of 6. Carlsen is close behind with 4 out of 6 points.

Aronian won against Ludvig Hammar and now has 3.5p out of 6.
Topalov and Wang got a draw and now Topalov has 2.5p out of 6 and Wang 2p out of 6.

After round 6:

	Players		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
1	KARJAKIN Sergey	RUS		0		1	½			1	1	1	4,5
2	CARLSEN Magnus	NOR	1		½		½	½	½	1			4
3	NAKAMURA Hikaru	USA		½		0	1	½	½		1		3,5
4	ARONIAN Levon	ARM	0		1		½	½		½		1	3,5
5	ANAND Viswanathan	IND	½	½	0	½		½	1				3
6	SVIDLER Peter	RUS		½	½	½	½				0	1	3
7	TOPALOV Veselin	BUL		½	½		0			½	½	½	2,5
8	RADJABOV Teimour	AZE	0	0		½			½		½	1	2,5
9	WANG Hao	CHN	0		0			1	½	½		0	2
10	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	NOR	0			0		0	½	0	1		1,5

Tomorrow: 

WANG Hao		ARONIAN Levon
HAMMER Jon Ludvig		CARLSEN Magnus
SVIDLER Peter		TOPALOV Veselin
RADJABOV Teimour		ANAND Viswanathan
KARJAKIN Sergey		NAKAMURA Hikaru

Karjakin lost in 5th round of Norway Chess 2013

Carlsen outplayed Karjakin in the 5th round, and is now only one point after Karjakin in the total standing.
Karjakin is still in the lead, but Anand and Nakamura is still to be played. Carlsen has already played them and should soon meet the players Karjakin won against.

Nakamura has earlier beat Karjakin with 5 to 2, and 10 draws and Anand has 2 to 0 wins and 6 draws against Karjakin.

Hammar also got his first win of the tournament against Hao Wang, the best chinese chess player. Before the tournament he promised Norway to win at least 1 game of the tournament.

	Players		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	A	B	C
1	KARJAKIN Sergey	RUS		0		1			1		1	1	4	8	4	2
2	CARLSEN Magnus	NOR	1		½		½	½		½			3	9	1	1
3	NAKAMURA Hikaru	USA		½		0	1			½	1		3	6,5	2	1
4	ARONIAN Levon	ARM	0		1		½	½	½				2,5	6,75	1	0
5	ANAND Viswanathan	IND		½	0	½		½		1			2,5	6	1	0
6	SVIDLER Peter	RUS		½		½	½				0	1	2,5	5,5	1	0
7	RADJABOV Teimour	AZE	0			½				½	½	1	2,5	4,5	1	0
8	TOPALOV Veselin	BUL		½	½		0		½			½	2	5	0	0
9	WANG Hao	CHN	0		0			1	½			0	1,5	3,75	1	0
10	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	NOR	0					0	0	½	1		1,5	2,5	1	0

Karjakin wins in fourth round

Karjakin won in the fourth round against Aronian. As mention earlier in another blog post, Aronian had before this game won against Karjakin 6 times against 1 and 13 draws.
Today Karjakin played the black pieces. 4 points out of 4 is a good summary after four rounds, but as mentioned earlier, he has yet to play the biggest names in the tournament. Today he won against one of the biggest names. Let see how he plays against Magnus Carlsen tomorrow!

Carlsen has yet to win in Norway chess tournament. 4 draws in 4 rounds isn't good enough if he wants to be in the top after the tournament. Today he got a draw against Svidler. Now Carlsen has some pressure on him to win in the next round.

Hammer got his first draw today, after three rounds of losing. Topalov had a big advantage after 35 moves, but blundered a little bit and only got a draw against Hammer.

Anand lost against Nakamura.

Before Round 4 in Norway Chess tournament

The leader of the Norway Chess tournament, Karjakin, will today play against Aronian.

They have played 2 games during 2013, both ended up in a draw (Karjakin white both times).
Their first game was played in the Tata steel chess tournament in January. The game was played in the Spanish opening (the game can be watched here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1705175) 

The second game was an blitz game, in Norway. Before the Norway Chess tournament began, the order of players was decided by a blitz tournament. Their second game can be watched here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1716658

According to chessgames.com Aronian and Karjakin has played 13 draws, Aronian has 6 wins and Karjakin has 1 win.

This puts Aronian in big favor to win this game and catch up Karjakin in total points.
Karjakin is aiming for a draw since he then keeps his lead in the tournament.
Karjakin plays black in todays game.