Alireza Firouzja slammed a rook down in disgust as he lost on time to Magnus Carlsen in an Armageddon game where he’d looked to be cruising to victory. That left Alireza tied for 2nd place with birthday boy Levon Aronian, who made Aryan Tari regret playing the Marshall against one of its best exponents. Out in front after two rounds of Altibox Norway Chess is Fabiano Caruana, who made it 6/6 with a convincing win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda, though the Polish star put up strong resistance before conceding defeat in 94 moves.

Carlsen ½-½ Firouzja (Magnus wins in Armageddon) 

This match-up between the current and perhaps future kings of chess has already become a classic, and it lived up to its billing on Tuesday in Stavanger. The classical game saw Alireza Firouzja play the Queen’s Gambit Declined, and in fact the same line that the watching Vladimir Kramnik had played against Magnus in the Legends of Chess in July. Alireza varied on move 10, however, and then followed up with the bold 11…b5!? What followed was a tense battle, with Magnus coming close to a winning advantage.

“The computer shows that 35.Bd6! wins”, said Magnus, but he also noted of 35…d4 36.exd4 Rxf3+ 37.Kg1! that, “I didn’t even consider a line where I’m letting him take on f3!” 

Magnus instead played 35.Bd3, which he thought was much better for him, only to be shocked by 35…d4 36.e4 Ra8 37.Bc4 Rc2!

The World Champion described that move as “incredibly unpleasant”, and it was the kind of moment he had in mind when he summed up: “I feel like I missed too many things today. It’s about the opponent as well, since he has a very tricky style, he always plays for some little tactics, but I feel like today was not great, so I still have a way to go.”

That meant Magnus would play Armageddon for the second day in a row, and chess fans were treated to a repeat of the Carlsen – Firouzja game in the World Blitz Championship late last year. This time Alireza had the black pieces and only needed a draw, and while Magnus had 10 minutes to his opponent’s 7, that gap had been cut to a minute when Firouzja went for the bold 13…f5. Magnus burnt up more time before playing 14.0-0-0?! (short castling looks much safer) and soon Firouzja was completely on top. It looked like he had everything worked out until 31.Rxf3:

31…Rxf3 32.Qxf3 Qxh2+! 33.Re2 Qxg3!! was exactly in Alireza’s style, and there would have been no hope left for Magnus. After 31…Nxg3, however, the position simplified to a roughly equal rook and pawn endgame. That should still have been enough for Alireza, but in fact, by the final position things had gone wrong for the Iranian wunderkind, since, as in the World Blitz Championship, Firouzja lost on time!

“It was obviously pretty undeserved, the Armageddon thing, but it happens!” said Magnus, who admitted he’d been “completely outplayed” for most of the game. It was another painful loss for the 17-year-old, but in the bigger picture, it only cost him half a point. Alireza is a point ahead of Magnus thanks to winning a classical game in Round 1, and Kramnik summed up, “so far the play of Alireza Firouzja is very convincing”.

Caruana 1-0 Duda

The leader, on a perfect 6/6, is Fabiano Caruana, who was in impressive form for a second game in the row. Jan-Krzysztof Duda continues to disappoint in the opening, this time finding himself in deep positional danger by move 20, before he made things much worse with 23…b6?

Fabiano himself later commented on the move, “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it, because it just looks dead lost”. He felt 23…Nbd7 was essential, while in the game Black was in a hopeless situation when the white pieces were able to occupy the outposts on a6 and c6. To Duda’s credit, however, he kept cool and brought the game to a simplified ending where White’s two minor pieces were too much for Black’s rook, but it took another 60 moves for Fabiano to finally drive a stake through his opponent’s heart and pick up the full 3 points.

Aronian 1-0 Tari

Levon Aronian was celebrating his 38th birthday and even later had a concerto performed in his honor! He was able to enjoy it since he’d earlier beaten local hero Aryan Tari, who sprang a surprise in the opening by playing the Marshall. During a Banter Blitz session earlier this year, Levon (“LeeVaughn”) had joked about Black’s pawn sacrifice being a “common blunder”. 

Of course, he’s arguably the world’s leading player of that opening with Black, and his response was to test Aryan in the main lines: “I was thinking my opponent played the Marshall for the first time in his life, so I should try to play something structural so he would have to think how to attack.”

Aryan was clearly struggling to formulate a plan and, imperceptibly, his compensation for the sacrificed pawn slipped away until he simply found himself in a dead lost endgame. Tari played on for a while, but there was to be no heroic resistance and he resigned on move 48.

That means Aronian joins Firouzja in second place behind Caruana, with the scoring system this year rewarding classical wins to the full.

Text: Colin McGourty (chess24.com)

Photo: Lennart Ootes

Official site: https://norwaychess.no/en/