The Norway Chess tournament saw a very exciting conclusion, as four players entered the last round tied for first: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana. Caruana got to the final round with his second win of the event over Vishy Anand, in the eighth round. Nakamura’s +1 score came after his convincing win over Sergey Karjakin in the same round. So came to +1 with a great win over Carlsen in the seventh. Carlsen came back to +1 after his loss to So. The last round saw Carlsen agreeing to a quick draw with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura drawing Levon Aronian, and Anand nicely beating a fading Karjakin. A five-player tie-breaker was avoided when, in a very exciting game, So over pressed his attack against Caruana, allowing Caruana to defend, winning the game and the tournament with a 5/8 score.
A point of great interest in the tournament was first break’s team cooking contest — yes, a cooking contest. There is a tradition at Norway Chess of doing offbeat things during the first day off. Last year, the players went to a farm. This year, Ding Liren had a bike accident on the way to the contest, but he soldiered on with what turned out to be a broken hip, and with his partner, Anand, he won the event. The teams this year had to make a fish dish from the recipes given to them. Carlsen and So were second.
In other news, Sam Shankland continues his hot streak at the American Continental Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay, where after six rounds (with five to go) he is in clear first with 5.5/6. We have also learned that Chris Bird of Melrose (via England) has won the USCF’s TD of the year Award. Our congratulations to Chris!
Coming events: June 15, Waltham Ramirez G/25 d5 4-Round Swiss (dual), www.WalthamChessClub.org/Schedule.html; June 16, Boylston Father’s Day Open, www.BoylstonChess.org.
Recent results: Boylston June Quads, Q1, 1st: Thomas Fang, 2.5/3, Q2, 1st: Soren Pederson, 2/3, Q3, 1st: Alexander Meng, 2.5/3. 2018 MetroWest Championship, Club: 1st: Alan Song, 5/6; Class: 1st: Kelsey Liu, 5/6.
Answer to today’s problem: It’s mate in three! 1.Qb8+ Nxb8 2.Rxa7+ Nxa7 3.b7#. Very cute, I think.
Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@gmail.com.
