Norway Chess, Round 1: Carlsen Beats Caruana; Other Games Drawn

This is no way to throw down the gauntlet to the world champion! First Fabiano Caruana loses to Magnus Carlsen in the blitz, and then today - much more importantly - he lost to him in round 1 of the 5th Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger. In fact the challenger didn't play badly; he was just outplayed by the champion. Caruana was in a challenging but tenable position on move 25 when he played the natural but mistaken 25...Rc7. After that, Carlsen never let him back into the game. Very impressive.

Impressive, and good enough for sole first, as the other four games were drawn. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a short but interesting game in a Gruenfeld sideline, while Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin played a longer, quieter game that also finished peacefully. So enjoyed an edge throughout, just not enough of an edge to sufficiently trouble the "Minister of Defense". Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian, who are unexpectedly the bottom seeds in this ridiculously strong tournament, drew a 4.d3 Anti-Berlin where Aronian's 8...a6 was a beautiful and surprising zwischenzug. Aronian achieved a comfortable draw.

The fourth draw was another story. Hikaru Nakamura outplayed Ding Liren in the middlegame, but carelessly allowing Black's queen to reach e2 surrendered a winning advantage. Nakamura even overpressed and gave Ding a chance to come out of the game with good chances for the full point, but Black's error on move 30 gave Nakamura the chance to win brilliantly. He missed the tactic, unfortunately (I say this not so much because I'm taking sides but because it would have immortalized the game, or at least the combination), and the game finished in a perpetual.

The games are here; I've commented on Carlsen-Caruana and Nakamura-Ding. (I can't promise daily commentary, but we'll see how it goes.) Here are the pairings for round 2:

• Karjakin (.5) - Carlsen (1)
• Caruana (0) - Mamedyarov (.5)
• Ding (.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (.5)
• Aronian (.5) - So (.5)
• Nakamura (.5) - Anand (.5)