Norway Chess Starts Today

I mentioned a few days ago that it was coming up; today - Monday - it is here. (Or will be, in a few hours.) Better still - if and only if it's safe for all the participants and their helpers - it's a live event. The players will be gathered together in the playing hall, and if they are using a plexiglass barrier there's no mention of it in this preview article (HT: Allen Becker).

It's a six-player double round robin with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (replacing Anish Giri, who preferred to avoid the risk of catching the coronavirus - an especially sensible decision with the resumption of the Candidates just around the corner), Alireza Firouzja, and Aryan Tari.

Like last year, they're using an experimental scoring format, which they've tweaked slightly. If the classical game ends in a draw an Armageddon game ensues; that's the same as last year. If a player wins the classical game they get 3 points for the win, while the loser gets the traditional bagel (zero). If a player draws the classical game and wins in Armageddon, he gets a point and a half (down from two points last year) while the Armageddon loser gets a point for the round (up from half a point last year). I think this is a significant change for the better, and will discourage players from devaluing the classical game and going straight to Armageddon.

The fun starts at 11 a.m. ET, and these are the round 1 pairings:

• Aronian - Carlsen
• Tari - Caruana
• Duda - Firouzja

It looks like the prematurely retired duo of Vladimir Kramnik and Judit Polgar are doing commentary, so it should be a terrific experience for the fans.

Tournament website here.