Anand Looks to Break Norse Code

Former world champ & current No 3 will hope to continue good year as he lines up in the Norway Chess alongside nine other players

CHENNAI:Viswanathan Anand has had a good 2015 so far.  The Indian won the Classical section of the Zurich Chess Challenge  and finished second in the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. He is also back in the 2800-club again and ranked  world No 3 behind Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.

Anand will be looking to continue in the same vein of form, when he  opens his campaign on Tuesday in the Norway Chess in Stavanger, Norway, which is the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Two more  legs will take place later this year.

It will be of one of the strongest tournaments with eight of the top 10  players competing. Former World champion Vladimir Kramnik and  world No 9 Wesley So opted out of the Tour. Before the main  tournament there will be a blitz event on Monday to determine the  pairings of the nine-round battle.

Anand will be competing in Norway Chess for the second time after  2013, where he finished joint fifth with Levon Aronian. In his last  tournament in Shamkir, Anand played some inspired chess in  recent times. Injecting new ideas in the openings and taking risks when it was deemed necessary resulted in three impressive victories  over So, Michael Adams and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Importantly, he has remained undefeated in last 14 games. Considering his form,

Anand will be one of the contenders for top placings even though every round will be tough when one takes into account the strength of the field.

“Very tough field minus Kramnik and So. Anand seems very motivated to do well in such events. There is no World Championship match in the horizon for Anand now. He will go all out to enjoy and play his brand of chess.  Just wish Anand will play chess as he likes it and be happy.  Carlsen will be determined as the tournament is happening in his country. (It will be) Interesting to see how he handles the pressure. (Hikaru) Nakamura, Caruana, Aronian and Anand will be looking to bridge the gap on Carlsen,” said India coach R B Ramesh when queried about Anand’s chances.

Former National champion Ponnuswamy Konguvel pointed out consistency makes Anand a frontrunner in any tournament. “Magnus is definitely the favourite but Anand has proved to be the most consistent player over time and can prove popular opinion wrong.”  Carlsen has been on fire in 2015. The Norwegian has made it three out of three, winning in Wijk aan Zee, Baden-Baden and Shamkir.

But an interesting piece of statistic being Carlsen is yet to win this event. The world No 1 ended second on both the occasions in 2013 and 2014. He will be determined to win the tournament on home soil even though it’s not going to be easy. If he gets a good start, Carlsen will be hard to stop.

Caruana is one player who has shown Carlsen is beatable, when he struck a purple patch last year. Winning jointly the FIDE GP at Khanty Mansiysk with Dmitry Jakovenko and Nakamura and qualifying for the 2016 Candidates should spur him to do better in Norway.

After struggling in his first three tournaments this year, Caruana has regained his form, which is a positive sign.Nakamura, who is the ninth player to reach 2800, has put no foot wrong in 2015. He has won all four tournaments (Gibraltar, Zurich, USA C’ship and Khanty Mansiysk) he has competed. On current form, Nakamura will be a strong challenger for the title.

Hammer strike

Norwegian No 2 Ludvig Hammer made it to the event by winning a qualifying tournament. For the next two legs, one wild card player will be decided just before the event by the organisers.

Three legs

Grand Chess Tour consists of three legs with the first one taking place from June 16 to 25 in Stavanger, Norway. The second and third legs will be held in St Louis, USA (Aug-Sept), and London (December). All three tournaments comprise the same nine players, besides one wild card entrant of organiser’s choice. The winner of each event will get $75,000 and champion of the overall Tour will get an added bonus of $75,000. The winner of each tournament will earn 13 points. The players were picked based on the world rankings.

Karjakin’s loss

Sergey Karjakin of Russia was the winner of Norway Chess in 2013 and 2014. Being out of top 10 at the time of selection of players, Karjakin missed out on a spot in the Tour.

Players

Magnus Carlsen (Nor)

Fabiano Caruana (Ita)

Hikaru Nakamura (USA)

Viswanathan Anand (Ind)

Veselin Topalov (Bul)

Alexander Grischuk (Rus)

Anish Giri (Ned)

Levon Aronian (Arm)

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra)

Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor)