Hehehe... It was just far too juicy not to be published immediately! :p

Yes we must support Ingrid now as with Magnus and Henrik both having plus scores they will do just fine! :laff:

So... 'GO Ingrid!'

As for 'Akselborg' I have a good guess (based on his clue given last year that he had 4 points after 6 rounds last year). However, I'll keep that guess to myself and let him tell us or not!

Henrik on his son's \'Magnus Carlsen Blog\' had some interesting comments to make recently...

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"Magnus drew round 3 against FM Larsen after struggling to find winning chances, taking too must risk and even being lost at a time. He then won against school mate Stubberud (about 2200) in round 4.With 3.5/5 he is still a full point behind the leaders. (He has lost some 5-6 rating points, it is not that bad really.)"
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It seems that Magnus is playing a lot of his old school chums in this chess tournament! (big surprise, eh?). Henrik also reported that the tournament staff has arranged some excursions including a trip with the cable car up to a restaurant overlooking the city as well as a fishing expedition. On Saturday there will be a boat tour around the island. It was fun last year to capture these pictures from both the fishing expedition and the cable car trip. Hope we get some more nice shots this year...

The Polish contingent: IM Joanne Dworakowska and Lukasz Dworakowski with their two children Cecylia Goslawska and Bartosz Goslawski (last names so spelled and I'm guessing that it's their children as they sure look like mom and dad!), and WIM Katarzyna Toma took a mountain trip to Tromsdalen and featured some very nice pics taken from there... This one was my favorite.

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'A breathtaking view from Tromsdalen where the sun never sets...'

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OK - it's on to Round #6!

- Mal

Yea! Ingrid Carlsen won today!

Akselborg, please send us a report if you can!


Chess Fan

The webcam where you can see Henrik Carlsen playing his son Magnus (both in black shirts just to the left of center) in the family affair pairing that took place in Round #6. Magnus made full use of the white pieces and capitalized on his father's mistakes for a 1-0 result.

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GM Kjetil A. Lie in '1st place' all alone...
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In the Arctic Chess Challenge GM Kjetil Lie played a beautiful game against GM Mikhail Gurevich to take sole possession of 1st place with 5½-½. BTW: GM Lie is Magnus's new trainer! Good choice I say! The top is quite heavy and tight right now but still 3 rounds remain and anything can and will happen...


Top pairings tomorrow for Round #7 are...

GM Victor Mikhalevski (5) - GM Kjetil A. Lie (5½)
IM Jon Ludvig Hammer (5) - GM Vladimir Epishin (5)
GM Alexander Moiseenko (5) - GM Bartosz Socko (4½)
GM Vladimir Burmakin (4½) - GM Magnus Carlsen (4½)
Hans Olav Lahlum (4½) - GM Vugar Gashimov (4½)
Frode Bull Jæger (4½) - GM Mikhail Gurevich (4½)
GM Simen Agdestein (4½) - GM Bartlomiej Macieja (4½)
GM Michail Brodsky (4½) - Tobias Pettersson (4½)
GM Antoaneta Stefanova (4) - IM Joanna Dworakowska (4)
WIM Zivile Sarakauskiene (4) - IM Venkatachalam Saravanan (4)


It's gonna get interesting!

- Mal

Magnus won today against Burmakin and has moved to 3rd place (tied). The other young Norwegian Lie won against Mikhalevski. Lie seems to be playing a fantastic tournament! If my understanding of the Swiss system is correct Lie and Carlsen will probably play each other tomorrow.

The sad story in the tournament is Nick de Firmian who today lost yet another game to a low rated opponent, Nick must lose a lot of rating. It is quite strange, only two weeks ago Nick make a strong performance and tied for first in a another strong open, the Politiken Cup in Denmark, so he should not be in bad shape.

Correct Rimfaxe using a four player example since Lie (with 6½ points) and Moiseenko (with 6 points) have already played one another. They would now play the top players in the 5½ points score group (1 plays against 3 and 2 plays against 4). Since this is an even numbered round the colors also come into consideration here and every effort is made to equalize them (4 whites and 4 blacks)....

Surely, 'luck' favors the brave and GM Kjetil A. Lie was fortunate to escape a sure loss against GM Victor Mikhalevski yesterday...

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GM Victor Mikhalevski vs. GM Kjetil A. Lie

White to play...


In this position GM Mikhalevski played 32. c7?? Instead 32. Qxf6+ would have won immediately! (32... Rxf6 33. Bxf6+ Kh7 34. Rg7+ Kh8 35. Rxg4+ followed by Rxc4). The actual game continued 32... hxg 33. Qe7 Qxe2+ 34. Qxe2 Bxe2 35. Bxf6+ 0-1 and Mikhalevski resigned without waiting for a reply (35... Kh7 or Kg8 [not 35... Rxf6 35. c8=Q+] 36. Bd8 Bg4 and wins).

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Magnus too had a bit of luck against GM Vladimir Burmakin but in his situation it went from a win for Magnus to a draw then after Burmakin blundered back to a win again!



GM Vladimir Burmakin vs. GM Magnus Carlsen

Black to play...


Here Magnus played 27... Re3?! (27... Nf4 would have won Rybka now jumps from -2.50 back to 0:00) and after 28. Nxd4! cxd 29. Bxd4 Rg3 30. Bf2 Rxh3! 31.Bxh3 Qxh3 32.Bxb6 [not of course 32.Qxd3?? Bh2+ 33.Kh1 Bg3+ 34.Kg1 Qh2+ 35.Kf1 Qxf2#] 32... Bh2+ 33.Qxh2 Qg4+ 34.Kh1? (simply 34. Qg2 here holds) 34... Qxd1+ 35.Bg1 h6 (35... g5 was also possible) 36. Qg2 Qe1 (guarding 'e4') 37. Qa8+ Kh7 38. Qf3 Ne5 39. Qf4 Ng6 40. Qe3 Qf1 ('No thanks!') 41. Kh2 f5 (the final pawn storm begins) 42. Bf2 a4! 43. bxa Qxc4 44. a5 Qc7+ 45. Kg1 Qxa5 46. Qa7 Qd2 ('No thanks' again Magnus says) 47. a4 Nf4 48. Qc5 Qd1+ 49. Kh2 Qg4 0-1 (they show 50. Bd4 played and then resigns 0-1)

Magnus had about 50 minutes on his clock when he played 27... Rg3. Perhaps if he had spent a little more time he would have worked out that 27... Nf4 wins by force. To his credit though (Burmakin was in severe time pressure at that point) he gets a position which he can't lose and one blunder by his opponent (as occurred in the game) he is going to win it. Not to mention the favorable 'Q + B' vs. 'Q + N' ending with continued threats against an exposed King with Q + N and pawns all working together...
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Well, Magnus has played his two school chums (Brede Hagen and Ørnulf Stubberud), his former trainer GM Simen Agdestein, and his father Henrik - what's left? His new chess coach Kjetil of course! :laff:


Top pairings today for Round #8 are...

GM Kjetil A. Lie (6½) - GM Magnus Carlsen (5½)
GM Vugar Gashimov (5½) - GM Alexander Moiseenko (6)
GM Mikhail Gurevich (5½) - IM Jon Ludvig Hammer (5½)
GM Vladimir Epishin (5½) - GM Michail Brodsky (5½)
IM Venkatachalam Saravanan (5) - GM Victor Mikhalevski (5)
GM Bartlomiej Macieja (5) - GM Antoaneta Stefanova (5)
Gunnar Berg Hanssen (5) - GM Simen Agdestein (5)
FM Karsten Larsen (5) - GM Vladimir Burmakin (4½)
GM Bartosz Socko (4½) - IM David S. Markosian (4½)
IM Eduard Porper (4½) - WIM Katarzyna Toma (4½)


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Update sorting the Carlsen family scoreboard.

After Round #7:

1) Magnus Carlsen (2710 NOR) 5½ points
2) Henrik Carlsen (2089 NOR) 3½ points
3) Ingrid Øen Carlsen (1059 NOR) 2 points

Go Ingrid! Go Henrik! Go Magnus!
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It all hinges on the last two rounds now... I suspect that the game between Kjetil and Magnus will be an early draw. However, anything can happen so we shall just have to wait and see how the mood between the two of them is.

- Mal

PS: Yes shame about Nick's performance. It's just no fun falling into the bottom of the Swiss system dumpster...

PPS: As always - Online Chess Diagram credit: "Interactive Chessboard with Diagram Generator."

Interesting positions you choose, Malthrope. I was not able to report during the tournament, because I forgot the power adapter to my laptop at home. The process of trying other adapters seems to have made the contact defect (to loose), and my §2000 Fujitsu Siemens is now dead. Darned. Well, it was three or four years old, perhaps just copy the harddisk and buy a new one.

I started the thread by saying that Magnus Carlsen was fresh and motivated for another 9-round tournament starting two days after Biel. Well, not quite. His father told that he did not sleep to much after his success in Biel, a little excited, and it was a troublesome flight trip from Biel to Tromso. Guess the main motivation for playing was to support the national chess scene, which is nice. In the end Magnus did defend his rating, and played some good games to.

I had a warming up tournament in Greece before the event, but it backfired, because I was a bit tired at the start of ACC, and totally exhausted at the end of it. I played suprisingly bad, but learned some lessons, and did not drop to many rating poinst.

During such a tournament there are some mingling with the guys you usually read about, here is a picture of Henrik Carlsen, me and Brodsky, beeing audience to Gurevich long story of complications after a Karpov vs Kortchnoi encounter:

The pic does not have a unike url, but step by step, go to:
http://www.arcticchess.org/engindex.htm
Pictures
04.08.2007
pictures
Of the five pics, down to the right, click it to enlarge. You see from left to right Henrik Carlsen, myself, Gurevich and Brodsky, pic taken by tournament organiser and blogger Jan Sigmund Berglund.

For completeness, final top standings:

1 GM Alexander Moiseenko 2641 UKR 7.5 2740
2 GM Kjetil A. Lie 2536 Porsgrunn NOR 7.0 44.0 2675
3 GM Vugar Gashimov 2655 AZE 7.0 40.5 2657
4 GM Magnus Carlsen 2710 NTG NOR 7.0 38.5 2609

Then five players with 6,5 points.

A nice tournament, which will be repeated next year. Magnus just have to define his terms for participating, and they will likely be fulfilled

So, Akselborg, is the person who is second from the left in the long-sleeved, buttoned-down blue shirt really YOU??


Chess Fan

Yes, Chess Fan. I did not know how to copy the pic directly into the post, how did you do it?

Well, I went to that picture from the link that you provided.

Then, I pointed my cursor onto that picture and right-clicked my computer mouse.

Then, I left-clicked onto "Properties" at the bottom of the instruction box that came up on the screen.

I then cut and pasted the URL Address of that picture onto my previous reply here in this thread.

Then, I added an [img] before the URL Address of that picture, and, I also added an [/img] after the URL Address of that picture.

** The "IMG" means "Image", and, adding an [img] before and an [/img] after the URL address of a picture makes that picture actually come onto the screen as an "image"; (i.e., a real picture.) **

I hope this helps!


Chess Fan