Norwegian Blue

Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess superstar who will be challenging Viswanathan Anand for the world title later this year, disappointed his home supporters by failing to win the first ever elite tournament to have been played on Norwegian soil. In spite of defeating 23-year-old Sergei Karjakin in their individual game, 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen stumbled at the final hurdle, much as he did in the London Candidates. This time, though, there was no time left to make up the lost ground. The final scores (out of 9) were as follows: Karjakin 6; Carlsen and Nakamura 51/2; Svidler, Aronian and Anand 5; Wang Hao 41/2; Topalov 4; Radjabov 3 and Hammer 11/2.
 
I start with Carlsen’s win against Karjakin which shows the force of queen and bishop lined up on the long diagonal against the enemy king.
 
Karjakin-Carlsen: Norway Masters 2013
 
42 … c3 A neat deflection since 43 Qxc3 permits carnage to descend from a totally different direction after 43 … Qa2+. 43 Qf2 Rf5 44 Qe3 Qf7 45 g4 Re5 46 Qd4 Qc7 White resigns
 
Karjakin-Nakamura: Norway Masters 2013
 
(see diagram 2)
 
Here Karjakin broke through with 29 Nc5 Rxc5 30 Rd7. Now queen moves, e.g. 30 … Qf5 are met by 31 Qb7 (a curious echo of Carlsen’s … Qa2+ tactic against Karjakin) winning. Nakamura was reduced to 30 … Rc7 31 Rxf7 Kxf7 but Karjakin won easily.
 
Aronian-Karjakin: Norway Masters 2013
 
Here 33 … dxe2 is met by 34 Qh8+ Bf8 35 Qh5+ and Qxe2 and White can struggle on. Karjakin’s move was much stronger. 33 … d2 34 Bxd2 Rxd2 35 e6 Rd1+ 36 Bf1 Qxe6 37 Qh5+ Kf8 38 Nc3 Qc6 White resigns
 
The Chinese grandmaster Wang Hao had a poor start but finished in spectacular style, defeating Carlsen and Anand in the final two rounds.