120th
Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are all out, which may partly be explained by a clash with the Chess 9LX Champions Showdown in Saint Louis (planned for September 7-10 - check out our full 2021 Chess Calendar).
There are some impressive replacements, however, including World Championship Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, so that it’s very likely the Clarion Hotel in Stavanger will witness Magnus and Ian clash for the final time in a classical game before their World Championship match starts in Dubai on November 24th.
Sergey Karjakin beat Fabiano Caruana in Norway Chess 2014 to finish half a point ahead of Magnus and win his 2nd event in a row | photo: Even Emberland, official website
Magnus Carlsen wins New in Chess Classic for 1st Tour title
Magnus Carlsen is the New in Chess Classic champion after finally winning an event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour at his 5th attempt. Hikaru Nakamura landed the first blow with a win in Game 1 but lived to regret taking a draw in a promising position in Game 2. Magnus struck back brilliantly in Game 3, leaving Hikaru needing to win on demand with the black pieces. Instead he was losing when he offered a draw that conceded match defeat. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat Levon Aronian in the battle for 3rd place in an amazing match where Black won all but one of the games.
Some of these opening proposals are solid and safe, but you also find interesting, double-edged gambits.
Robert Ris recently presented such a gambit:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nd5!?.
But can White really play this way – moving the knight twice before completing his development and neglecting to defend e4?
At any rate, some strong players, including Jorden van Foreest and Alexey Shirov, have recently made use of this idea in various online tournaments and achieved some success with it.
The ChessBase Magazine editorial team now had the idea that the authors of opening contributions should put their proposals to the test by taking part in a thematic tournament against ChessBase Magazine subscribers. Play the Author is the motto.
Иван Жидков пожаловался на огромную «коммуналку» 24smi.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 24smi.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With Aronian’s relocation, the U.S. now boasts five of the world’s top 20 grandmasters, and it’s a genuine American melting pot: Fabiano Caruana (No. 2), Florida-born but who played a while for Italy; Wesley So (No. 9), a Philippine native to who switched to the U.S. in 2014; Leinier Dominguez Perez (No. 14), a Havana native who joined Team Red, White and Blue in 2018; and Japanese-born Hikaru Nakamura (No. 18), whose family moved to the U.S. when he was two.
Aside from a sterling resume, Aronian boasts an attractive, well-rounded style and has authored some of the most brilliant games of the last two decades. He took down Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen, playing at home and at the peak of his powers, in a 2017 game that featured two audacious speculative sacrifices against the world’s best player.