Colin McGourty

6 months

Firouzja & Caruana win as King’s Gambit backfires

Alireza Firouzja interviewed

Two wins in a row now for Alireza Firouzja, with no draws in sight | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

Hikaru Nakamura made up for a 10-minute draw against Magnus Carlsen by playing the King’s Gambit in Armageddon in Round 3 of Norway Chess. Magnus called it “not an unpleasant surprise” as he went on to win, but the day’s big results were classical wins, for leader Fabiano Caruana over Aryan Tari, and for Alireza Firouzja over Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Alireza found a couple of beautiful sacrifices to seal the win.

Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja both picked up their second classical wins of Norway Chess 2023, banking a full three points.

Replay all the Norway Chess games with computer analysis

Fabiano Caruana’s win over underdog Aryan Tari saw him employ a favourite “weapon”, if that’s the word, of Magnus Carlsen’s.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

The move was 4.cxd5. He explained:

I played an ambitious line, cxd5. It’s just an attempt to keep the game going as long as possible, and it avoids this Tarrasch line which Anish played today, which is basically killing chess!

4.Nc3 c5 is what Fabiano was trying to avoid, and things went perfectly.

Magnus Carlsen, when he joined the commentary, found it easy to identify where his countryman Aryan Tari went wrong, since he’d had the position after 10.Qxd3 (with the bishop on f4 not g5) in a game he could hardly forget against Levon Aronian from Norway Chess 2020... he went on to lose it.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

Tari went for 10…0-0!?, with Magnus commenting:

I think Aryan’s decision to castle was a little bit dubious probably, and now I think White is definitely better. I actually played it a couple of times myself, the position before castling. The point is that Aryan by castling wanted to prevent an early Bh6, but it seems to me that probably the cure is worse than the disease, and here I think he’s just worse without a lot of counterplay.
Caruana Tari

Caruana and Tari discussed the game afterwards | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

Fabiano exchanged on f6 and pushed his h-pawn, with that approach, and a later Kf1, moves that Magnus had also played. The game continued with Aryan under heavy pressure until he cracked with 25…Qe7?, allowing 26.Nxd5 to pick up the crucial central pawn.

Aryan might have thought that move was prevented by 26…Rxd5 27.Rxd5 Qe4+, but then 28.Qf3! stops check and defends the rook, winning the game.

Aryan played on with 26…Qe6, but after 27.e4! Re8 28.Rhe1 Fabiano had everything under control and went on to win a very comfortable game.

That win took Caruana up to the world no. 3 spot, where he was breathing down the neck of Alireza Firouzja. Fabi would in fact have moved up to world no. 2 if Alireza had lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov, which was well within the realm of possibility as the Frenchman took some liberties in the opening.

Abdusattorov Firouzja

Abdusattorov-Firouzja is likely to be one of the great rivalries of chess in the years to come | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

Magnus noted 17.Rb1 was an interesting move, to force 17…a5 and a weakening of the b5-square, but he also understood that Firouzja was in his element.

The game would turn dramatically on move 27.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

It seems this is the moment of which Firouzja commented:

He played great with White. It was just a moment that he should play solidly or go for the advantage, and he chose going for the advantage, which was very brave, but he miscalculated some things.

27.Qf4 and we might have got an instant draw by repetition with 27…Nh5 28.Qg4 Nf6 and so on, but Nodirbek opted for 27.Qe2!? That led to huge complications with 27…Re5 28.c6 Bxc6! 29.Rxc6 dxe3! and a few moves later White would have been ok, if not for the spectacular queen sacrifice 34…Nxf2!

The point is the unusual checkmate 35.Rxd7? Nxh3+! 36.Qf2 Rxf2#, an attacking idea that Caruana called “really beautiful”.

Abdusattorov avoided that by giving up his queen himself with 35.Rxe8+ Qxe8 36.Qxf2, and he appeared to have some small chances of holding a fortress in what followed.

With just a 10-second increment per move it was a tough ask, however, and it was no surprise when Alireza went on to wrap up victory. He managed to do it with another beautiful sacrifice on the f2-square, 59…Qf2!

Once again the punishment for accepting the sacrifice is swift and brutal, 60.Rxf2 gxf2 and the pawn will queen on f1 or e1, but there’s nothing better, so Abdusattorov resigned.

That took Firouzja up into clear second place behind Caruana, with the three remaining matches decided in Armageddon. The biggest anticipation of the day was for Nakamura-Carlsen, the first classical encounter between Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen since the 2019 Sinquefield Cup.

Hikaru had an unusual warm-up, giving a talk at the Norway Summit conference in Stavanger.

The classical game that followed, however, wasn’t overly energy-demanding. Magnus played his World Championship repertoire of the Marshall, but instead of seeing the Anti-Marshall as we’ve seen again and again in the last two matches, Hikaru allowed the Gambit, with 8.c3 inviting 8…d5.

The Marshall is a notoriously drawish opening at the highest level, but had Hikaru come up with some deep new idea to catch Magnus off-guard?

No, was the answer. Magnus spent no more than 31 seconds on any of his moves, while Hikaru’s record was 1 minute and 48 seconds over 16.Nd2. He explained afterwards:

The funny thing actually is this critical moment when I played Nd2, there’s another line that I’d also looked at this morning in fact, but I figured it’s still probably a draw, and why do I want to waste an extra hour or so for no reason?

No time was wasted as the players wrapped things up in just 10 minutes, in a position Hikaru had once had before against Levon Aronian.

That wasn’t the end of the day’s action, however, since we got Armageddon, and a King’s Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.f4!? from Hikaru Nakamura.

Magnus, who said he hadn’t been surprised at all by the way the first game finished, said of the opening of the Armageddon:

I don’t think you ever expect the King’s Gambit, but it was not an unpleasant surprise, let’s say… There are other ways to surprise that are less pleasant, for sure. The thing is also the King’s Gambit is not that bad, with good preparation you can make it at least semi-playable for White, but the thing is Black has so many good ways to play. It’s not particularly difficult to play for the black pieces. I think that’s the main issue for White there.

Magnus also mentioned he had “fond memories” of using the line he played in the game, since he last played the position until 7…Qxf6 against Alexei Fedorov in the 2004 Dubai Open.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

8.Nc3 and a 17-move draw and Magnus became a grandmaster.

Magnus Carlsen against Hikaru Nakamura

Magnus was not disappointed to see the King's Gambit on the board | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

This time Hikaru, intentionally or not, played what was essentially a novelty, 8.d3!?, with both players noting that they were mixing things up. It made for a lively, double-edged game, though Hikaru was surprised by what he called the “very nice” move 20…Bd7!, which he’d “completely overlooked”.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

It was possible to play the natural 20…Bxa2, since 21.b3? loses to 21…Qf6, but the quiet bishop retreat to d7 instead threatens Qxa2 and Qa1 checkmate next move.

21.Kb1! was the only defence, but then after 21…Ne5! Black began a relentless attack that ended in style with 40…Re2+!

After 41.Kxd3 Qd1+ the king would be driven to b4, when c5+ would win the white queen. Magnus has now won twice in Armageddon, but that’s only been enough to get him to 8th place. He nevertheless felt things are going the right way.

At least I feel a lot better physically than I did the first couple of days, so that’s something positive… I’ve definitely played three of my most solid opponents.

One match-up you would have bet money on going to Armageddon was So-Giri, and it didn’t disappoint.

Anish Giri Wesley So

Anish Giri made a draw "from a position of strength" in Armageddon, to put it mildly | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

In the Armageddon game it was also hard to separate the players, though Wesley was beginning to get an edge before he stumbled into a knight fork from which there was no way back. Anish finally gave a “courtesy draw”, but it was the equivalent of a win.

The last clash was Mamedyarov-Gukesh, that suddenly fizzled out in the classical portion but was a thriller in Armageddon. Gukesh said such a “super-exciting” encounter wasn’t in his plans, but he missed Shakhriyar’s 14.h5 and found himself on the ropes. Nevertheless, it was Gukesh who suddenly had a completely winning position.

30…Rxb2! was the move, with the threat to take on e2 and play Qc3+. There was no defence to that, but it turned out Gukesh’s 30…Nd4 was also “good enough”, since White had nothing better than to give perpetual check, which meant losing the Armageddon. Shakh did everything he could, but ultimately in vain.

Gukesh

Gukesh could breathe a sigh of relief | photo: Maria Emelianova, Chess.com

That left the standings as follows going into Friday’s rest day.

Then on Saturday the huge clashes continue. Firouzja-Caruana is a chance for Alireza to leapfrog into the lead, while Gukesh-Carlsen will be, in 17-year-old Gukesh’s own words, “a fun game”.

Live Norway Chess commentary from Judit Polgar, Jovanka Houska and David Howell starts 17:00 CEST (11am ET, 8:30pm IST).

See also:

See also

Caruana leads after “crazy day” of Norway Chess comebacks

Firouzja Mamedyarov

Carlsen and Firouzja beaten in Norway Chess Round 1

Fabiano Caruana Magnus Carlsen

Comment

Download chess24 for iOS and Android

United States
English

© chess24.com | All rights reserved
| Version: 1.1.19