Norway Chess, Round 1: Classical Wins for Caruana & Firouzja, an Armageddon Win for Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen took up where he left off last year, winning an Armageddon game. He won lots of them last year on his way to a decisive victory in the 2019 Norway Chess tournament. This year, with the different scoring system, that strategy may not prove as effective. We'll see.

At any rate, he got off to a good start, drawing comfortably on the Black side of a Nimzo-Indian with an early 6.Bd2 against Levon Aronian, and then winning the Armageddon game to collect 1.5 points on the day. Aronian was equal-to-better until the last move, but because he needed a win he had to keep taking risks even after the position became at best drawn for him, and short of time he blundered a rook. Even so, he collected a point on the round.

The other two matches finished with 3-0 scores. Fabiano Caruana - or rather, his second, Rustam Kasimdzhanov - found a brilliant new idea in the Taimanov Sicilian, and despite being a pawn down in an ending Caruana enjoyed enduring pressure against Aryan Tari. Tari cracked on move 36, retreating his bishop on the wrong diagonal, and Caruana was able to invade and win. It was an impressive performance by Caruana, one that even impressed Vladimir Kramnik, who was commentating along with Judit Polgar. (If you have the chance to watch the commentary, it's well worth your time to do so. The players are engaging in substantive interviews with K & P afterwards, too.)

Finally, Jan-Krzysztof Duda seemed at sea in the opening against Alireza Firouzja, and was lost fairly quickly. Firouzja's technique was not immaculate, but Duda failed to make the most of his chances and lost anyway.

The games, with my brief comments, are here; here are tomorrow's pairings:

• Carlsen (1.5) - Firouzja (3)
• Caruana (3) - Duda (0)
• Aronian (1) - Tari (0)