It was a battle between the old world champion and the new world champion for the first time in the classical time controls since the throne was relinquished. On Monday, the first day of the Norway Chess tournamentMagnus Carlsen, the current world no 1, was taking on Ding Liren, the man who now sits on the throne that the Norwegian occupied for a decade. It was expected to be an intriguing clash, with Carlsen having told The Indian Express before the tournament began that he was hoping to find out where his level was in classical time controls. Ding, meanwhile, has also been dogged by indifferent form since he took over the crown last year. He told The Indian Express that his goal was just not to finish in last place in Norway.
The Ding vs Carlsen game started off on a dramatic note with the Norwegian almost bolting off the board after two moves into the players’ back room. He returned nearly 12 minutes later.
That absence was enough to set off tongues wagging with local media speculating what was happening behind the scenes.
Finally, World no 3 Hikaru Nakamura walked into the confession booth — a novelty set up by the Norway Chess organisers where players can speak their mind without being prodded — and offered some clarity on what was happening behind the scenes in the exclusive back room that’s kept only for the players.
“It’s pretty funny to see Magnus in a situation where there are no increments, he’s in the back room eating. I think he spent like 13 minutes just eating noodles, salad and whatever it was… I think it was a big pepperoni pizza… Obviously, you guys cannot see any of this. But behind it was pretty funny to see from the inside Magnus chugging his water, eating his salad and eating pizza,” Nakamura said.
Soon, the official handle of Norway Chess posted a clip of Carlsen’s trainer Peter Heine Nielsen — who has helped Viswanathan Anand as well as Carlsen plot almost all of their World Chess Championship triumphs (barring the 2013 edition when Anand faced Carlsen) — walking into the playing hall carrying a massive box of what looked like pizza before the event had started.
Later, while talking to a panel in the TV 2 studio afterwards, Carlsen explained that long absence in the middle of the game: “I ate, I was hungry.”
The duo managed to eke out a draw pretty fast — in 14 moves — in the classical format which meant that as per the rules of the tournament, the game headed into the Armageddon.
At Norway Chess, if a match is drawn, the Armageddon rules come into effect. Here, the player with white has 10 minutes on the clock, while the player with black has seven minutes. But the catch is that the player with white has to secure victory, or the player with black gets the bonus half a point.
Pragg wins with one second on the clock
All six games of the day were drawn, which means all 12 players had to play their way out of Armageddon on Monday.
The Armageddon format, where the player with white has 10 minutes in the first 40 moves while the opponent has seven minutes for 40 moves (with an increment for both players of just one second per move from the 41st move).
This format pushes nerves on the brink, as happened in the game between Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja. Both players played on till they were deep in time trouble. Eventually, Pragg won the game with just one second on the clock because his opponent lost on time, a wild finish akin to a photo finish in track events in athletics.
“I didn’t really see the clock at all,” admitted Praggnanandhaa later on. “And actually, I didn’t realize that we didn’t make move 40. I thought we were already getting the one-second increment,” the 18-year-old confessed later.
Ding’s source of strength
At Norway Chess, some chess parents have also made the journey to the Scandinavian country to offer emotional support to their kids. This includes the omnipresent Nagalakshmi, who is here providing both Pragg and Vaishali and Carlsen’s father Henrik.
Also in Stavanger, where the Norway Chess event is being played, is Ding Liren’s mother who is a visible source of emotional support for the world champion.
She was spotted bringing him beverages and even rushing to bring him back to the playing hall during a break.
Classroom for women
A day before they were to wage war over the chessboard, the six women who are competing in the Norway Chess tournament’s first ever event for women were thoroughly tested in a mock classroom for Norway Chess’ television partner in the host country.
Sverre Krogh Sundbø, a popular host from Norway’s TV 2 Sport, threw tricky questions at the six women, who were seated like they were in a classroom. First question: How do you spell Ian Nepomniachtchi’s name?
This one brought a massive chuckle from all the players, only a couple of whom got the correct answer.
If the opening question was hard, the questions got really difficult later on. Sundbø asked them questions like which country the men’s world record holder in pole vault came from (Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis) and which nation won the most golds in the Beijing Olympics (Norway).
