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Dull or exciting? That was the question in round two of Norway Chess on Wednesday.

When GM Veselin Topalov exceeded the time limit against GM Viswanathan Anand, the Indian became the sole victor in the classical games of the second round. GM Wesley So took down the World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the armageddon games.

This leaves Anand in first place with 6 points ahead of So with 4.5.

Round three will begin on Thursday, June 2, at 8 a.m. PT / 17:00 Central Europe.

Round two was armageddon day, not because the players had to sit through watching the 1998 movie by Michael Bay featuring Bruce Willis & Ben Afleckalthough encouraging players not to draw their classical games by forcing them to watch that movie each time before playing an armageddon game could be an idea for future editions of Norway Chess. No, it was because we had no less than four armageddon games in today's round, all of these were, in fact, so exciting we choose one of them as our game of the day.

Back in 2010, the two combatants in this game played an intense match in Sofia, Bulgaria for the World Championship match. For those unfamiliar with the stories surrounding it, I can highly recommend Michael Abeln's excellent book "The Anand Files" (Quality Chess 2019). They have, of course, played several times since then, but nowadays both players are rarely seen in top tournaments, especially in the same tournament. So, for chess fans who like more than the games themselves, this was an excellent encounter.

In a trendy line in the Queen's Gambit Accepted where White plays 3.e4 and Black answers 3...b5, Topalov sacrificed a pawn for positional pressure. Although the engines claim that Black was fine, it was clear that it was easier to play as White. As a consequence, Anand returned not just one, but two pawns to get his queenside pieces developed and his position freed up a bit.

That changed the direction of the game considerably, giving Black lots of activity for the sacrificed pawn and when Topalov did not find the critical continuation on move 21, it was clear that Black was okay. This prompted Topalov to take even longer to make up his mind about his moves and soon ended up in time trouble. Anand expressed after the game that around move 26-27 that "as long as I didn't get carried away, he [Topalov] had to 'pay for his time management' at least and steer toward a draw with some difficulty."

Anand stuck with his plan, consistently putting pressure on White while avoiding possible implications. In a still complex, but objectively equal position, Topalov exceeded the time limit.

With his impressive start, Anand re-enters the world's top 10 on the live list:

In a peculiar but topical line in the Queen's Gambit Tarrasch/Semi-Tarrasch, the players, GMs Teimour Radjabov and Aryan Tari, quickly got the queens off the board. The imbalances were that White had sacrificed a pawn to wreck Black's pawns in the center and leave the black king looking for a good place to hide.

This type of position can be tricky to play for Black, but Tari seemed very well-prepared and never seemed to be in any serious danger.

By contrast, the armageddon game was a messy affair. Radjabov played the Catalan, against which Tari captured the c4-pawn and kept it. You usually do not do that unpunished, but when Radjabov missed his best chances to break through in the center, Tari took over and gained a large advantage.

However, Tari had taken too much time calculating everything and missed his chances to attack White's king and instead weakened his own. As the clock continued to tick away, so did his chances and Radjabov swooped in with his queen to deliver the final punch against Black's king.

A crazy game that could have gone either way.

GM Anish Giri drew the envy of Najdorf man GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who in a trip to the confessional booth expressed a wish for him and Giri to switch places so that Giri could try to take advantage of his opponent's isolated pawn while he then could have fun in Giri's Najdorf Sicilian.

Giri did indeed have a sharp Najdorf on the board against GM Wang Hao, with the kings castled in opposite directions. The first 18 moves had been played several times before and then Giri went in a different direction.

Interestingly, through a transposition, the players could have reached a game by Vachier-Lagrave on move 22! However, Giri improved on the Frenchman's play although it did require a massive think on move 26 to avoid disaster and lead the game into drawing territory.

The armageddon was another Najdorf, but this time, White castled kingside, and Black's king went to e7. After imprecise moves by Wang in the early middlegame, Black completely took charge of the game.

However, Wang managed to complicate it as Giri was trying to keep the position under control, and while White had some chances, Giri was doing fine never, more than a little away from equality. In mutual time trouble, Wang blundered, allowing Giri a decisive advantage, which he later returned to get a drawn endgame without any risk of Wang winning the game.

Frequently, when So plays the white pieces against Carlsen in classical games, he takes the approach that Carlsen will have to show how badly he wants to win and thus plays something supersolid that is almost impossible to crack. This was the script for today's game, where the play went via a Slav Defense into a Semi-Slav into an impossibly boring position.

This prompted Carlsen midgame to drop into the confessional booth to deliver the following message:

Apparently, it touched a nerve with GM Peter Heine Nielsen, Carlsen's longtime coach, who responded on Twitter with "Evolved from 'Clown' to 'most stupid'. Feels like progress." Clearly, you cannot always please the World Champion...

That was about as controversial as that game got. The World Champion appeared to aim for a new land speed record, using the least amount of time for the entire game. When a draw was agreed upon on move 38, he had not even used thirteen minutes for the entire affair. Admittedly, some of it was preparation, some of it was forced, and the final phase was simple.

In the armageddon, we had a much more eventful game on our hands where both sides had a share of the chances, but with the clocking ticking down, the mistakes started sneaking in, mainly on Carlsen's side, and then So struck in a combinational fashion.

This prompted Topalov to enter the confessional booth to express his admiration for So's talent:

Above, we heard about Vachier-Lagrave's wishes about playing Giri's position rather than his own against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

He did indeed play the line in the Semi-Tarrasch that was also used in Radjabov-Tari but opted for a different seventh move. However, he did not get anything out of the opening and soon the players were heading for a draw.

For the armageddon game, the French grandmaster wheeled a peculiar line against Mamedyarov's Petroff, a line he had also used a couple of weeks ago in Bucharest where both players took part. Here, the variation worked like a charm and gave White an advantage, but a less-than-accurate follow-up allowed Black back in the game and even gave him an advantage in the middlegame.

However, as we saw in the other armageddon games, things can get crazy when the time control is skewed and the odds are big. One slip-up by Mamedyarov tilted the game in Vachier-Lagrave's favor and this time, he did not let go and systematically improved his position and eventually converted his advantage into a winning endgame.

Round 2 Standings

All Games Round 2

The 2022 Norway Chess runs May 31-June 10, 2022. The event consists of a 10-player single round-robin in a classical time control of 120 minutes for the game with a 10-second increment after move 40. The scoring system is three points for a win instead of the usual one. If the game is drawn, competitors play an armageddon game with the winner scoring 1.5 points and the loser 1 point. The prize fund is 2.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).

Previous coverage:

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Anand Wins Again, Takes Sole Lead: Norway Chess, Day 2 - Chess.com

Magnus Carlsen has made a poor start this week with two lacklustre draws at Stavanger, the Norway tournament which the world champion has won on its last three renewals.

The No 1s games are screened live and free daily from 4pm BST to a global internet audience, with grandmaster commentaries and a board sidebar which enables non-chess players to see who is winning. Draws are immediately replayed as Armageddons, where White has 10 minutes to Blacks seven but a halved result on the board counts as a black win for the score table.

That rule cost Carlsen in his second round Armageddon against Wesley So, as the US grandmaster scored with a queen-rook mating attack. Earlier, Carlsen had opted for another bizarre first move in the pre-tournament blitz, following his use of 1 f2-f3 and 1 h2-h4 in the previous weeks online Chessable Masters. This time it was 1 a2-a4, known as the Meadow Hay because its originator in the 1870s, Preston Ware, was a farmer who also played, as Black, the Corn Stalk Defence 1a7-a5.

Such eccentricities fit uneasily with the world crown, and Carlsen is now under some pressure to find his true form quickly. He needs to win Stavanger convincingly to avoid falling behind in his quest to achieve a 2900 rating, a chess Everest that he approached in 2014 when he reached 2889.

Vishy Anand, Indias five-time world champion, has been in superb form of late and belied his 52 years by taking the early Stavanger lead with wins in both his classical games. Anand declined selection for Indias Olympiad team to give more chances to younger players, but there have already been calls for him to reverse his decision, and these will increase if his great start continues into the later rounds.

The biennial chess Olympiad, which starts in Chennai in late July, has already attracted a record 189 teams in the Open section and 154 in the Womens. England has just announced its team as Michael Adams, Luke McShane, Gawain Jones, David Howell and Ravi Haria, with a womens squad of Jovanka Houska, Katarzyna Toma, Lan Yao, Akshaya Kalaiyalahan and Zoe Varney. The open team will aim for the top six, and even top 10 would count as a success. The US will be clear favourites for gold, with China and the two Indian teams contenders for silver and bronze.

Englands youngest chess hope Kushal Jakhria, who was London under-eight champion at five, shared first in the Blackpool Intermediate at six, and won the world under-eight blitz at seven, managed another success last weekend.

The Pointer School, Blackheath, pupil, who learned his early skills at Charlton chess club, shared first prize on 4/5 in the East Anglian Major at Newmarket. Jakhria met three of the top seeds, all rated above ECF 1900, strong amateur standard, and scored 3-0 against weak resistance in an average of under 24 moves.

The No 2 seed chose the Tarrasch, found his black king trapped in the centre and was overrun by the white army.

Kushal Jakhria (1764) v Jason Long (1967), Tarrasch Defence

1 d4 e6 2 c4 d5 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 c5 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bg2 Nc6 7 0-0 Bf5 8 Nc3 Ne4 9 dxc5 Nxc3 10 bxc3 Bxc5 11 Nd4 Nxd4? 12 cxd4 Bb6? 13 Ba3! f6 14 Qb3 Be6 15 e4 Qd7 16 exd5 Bh3 17 Rhe1+ Kd8 18 Be7+ Kc8 19 Rac1+ Kb8 20 Bxh3 1-0

The No 1 seed opted for the Albin Counter, stayed a pawn down, then missed a chance to equalise and fell for a back rank trap.

Kushal Jakhria (1764) v Mervyn Hughes (1970), Albin Counter Gambit

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e5 3 dxe5 d4 4 Nf3 Nc6 5 g3 Nge7 6 Bg2 Ng6 7 0-0 Ngxe5 8 Nxe5 Nxe5 9 a3 a5 10 Nd2 Be7 11 Nf3 Bf6? 12 Nxd4 0-0 13 c5 Qe7 14 c6 b6 15 Qc2 Ba6 16 Nf3? (16 Nf5!) Ng6 17 Be3 a4 18 Rfd1 Rad8 19 Rxd8 Rxd8 20 Qxa4 Bxe2 21 Re1 Bxf3 22 Bxf3 Ne5? (Bxb2!) 23 Be2 Nd3 24 Bxd3 Rxd3 25 Kf1 Bxb2? 26 Bd4 1-0

Jakhrias ECF rating is now up to 1843 in the newly published June 2022 list, and since March he has performed at around 1925 over 21 games.

Round numbers are significant for all ambitious players, starting with 2000, which is officially Expert in the US, then 2200 (Master), 2300 (Fide Master), 2400 (International Master), 2500 (Grandmaster), 2600 (strong GM), 2700 (world top 50), 2800 (world title candidate level) and finally 2900 (Carlsens Everest). Computers clock in at 3300 upwards

For teenagers and sub-teens, the lower round numbers matter most, and the junior who currently has a monopoly of them is Abhimanyu Mishra of Englishtown, New Jersey. Mishra became the youngest ever 2000 US Expert at seven years, six months, then went on to become the youngest ever US Master at nine, the youngest ever IM at 10, and the youngest ever GM at 12. Now, at 13 and rated 2535, he still has a year to become the youngest ever 2600.

Mishras Expert and Master titles are effectively world as well as US records. Last month at the online Chessable Masters the US teenager finished last of 16 in the all-grandmaster field, but his 3/15 total still included a win against the then world No 7, Shak Mamedyarov.

Could Kushal Jakhria break Abhimanyu Mishras remarkable monopoly by becoming the youngest ever 2000-rated player? He has four and a half months to bridge a gap which is still at least 75-150 points away from his current strength.

One action that would boost his chances of a world record would be for someone or some organisation to sponsor a grandmaster coach to teach him several days a week. This is normal practice for the best talents in major chess nations, but is difficult to finance in England due to zero official support for chess.

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Even with daily grandmaster support, reaching 2000 from 1850-1925 in four months would be problematic. Improvement becomes progressively harder as a player advances and as opponents make a special effort against rising talents. At some moment, too, even fast improvers find that they hit an invisible wall when a further advance suddenly becomes slow and tedious.

But its a possible world record, the opportunity is ephemeral and will not recur, so the conclusion is to go for it.

3818 1Re8! 2 Qxh5 (if 2 Bxh5 Qe4+ wins) Re4+! 3 Bxe4 Qxh5 wins the queen and the game.

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Chess: Carlsen starts badly in Stavanger while seven-year-old eyes Expert record - The Guardian

The first half of 2022 is almost over, and what a start to the year its been. So much has happened over the last few months that it can be hard to keep track of all the amazing events, tournaments, and updates weve seen. Lets take this opportunity to look back at the first five or so months of 2022, as well as look ahead to exciting new Chess.com features, community events (including the Global Chess Championship), and more. Going forward, well be updating you on a monthly basis!

Here's what this update will cover:

Our Product team is working hard to bring you useful new features, as well as improve existing ones to make everything smoother, faster, and better than ever. The teams focus this year is on quality and performance. Here are some of the highlights so far:

Lots of the above wouldnt be possible without our hard-working engineers, who do so much of the heavy lifting in the background. Theyre always focused on maximizing the quality and performance of our site and app. In 2022 so far, theyve focused on things including:

Its no exaggeration to say that 2022 has had some of the most exciting events we can remember in recent history, as well as some BIG announcements.

Weve also had some excellent new additions to our broadcast coverage team:

Call us biased, but we think Chess.com has the best community on the internet. But its not just one gigantic chess hivemind (now theres a terrifying thought); Chess.com is made up of many different sub-communities, all of which have their own unique contribution to what makes this such a special place to play, learn, and make friends. Here are some of the community-based highlights from the last few months:

Our Content team works hard every day to provide you with up-to-date news, insightful articles, and the finest chess memes found anywhere that isnt Lularobs Twitter profile.

Overall, were looking to create things that are as relevant and interesting to you as possibleso if theres anything you want to see, let us know. We're listening.

Finally, let's talk about Fair Play. Something you might not know about Chess.com is that we have a whole team of people who spend every day working to make sure your games are fair. If someone cheats against you, theres a very good chance we will catch them. If we do, they dont just get banned (for good), but we will give you back any rating points that you lost by playing them.

Fair Play doesnt just involve cheating to win. Playing fairly also means not being a jerk to your opponent. Sure, we all try some sneaky tactics every now and again when time is running out, but directing abuse and hateful comments towards your opponent (or other members of the community) is not acceptable. So far this year:

We really care about the quality of your experience on Chess.com. As a team, were always focused on improving, and we want to hear from the community when things arent working well! Instead of pushing out as many new features as possible, we want to make sure that all of the existing features are smooth, easy-to-use, and work the way they should. Our goal is to provide all of our users with a quality product, as well as a fun and welcoming environment for everyone to participate in.

Have any ideas? Is there something that you think could be better? Whether its a small issue like a minor bug fix, or a bigger thing that would really make life easier for lots of people, wed love to hear from you.

Lastly, we just want to give a huge shout-out to everyone who is playing in leagues, participating in clubs, playing variants, joining tournaments, sharing in our forums, analyzing their games, and streaming chess onlinewe appreciate you so much! Please accept our gratitude for making Chess.com the biggest and best place to play chess online.

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Chess.com Update: Exciting Events, Fabulous Features, And 100K New Puzzles - Chess.com

The greatest tacticians of the world are those who think ahead. Chess grandmasters, famous generals, great world leaders, and mafia dons all share one skill: They are all many more steps ahead than their rivals.

We each have the ability to think ahead. In fact, its hard to imagine a functioning human who didnt think ahead at least some of the time. Youve probably planned what to do tonight, and you likely know the route youre going to take to get home. Thinking ahead is one hallmark of intelligence. Without it, were simply slaves to our instincts and reflexes a bit like a plant or a baby.

What about the role of forward thinking when dealing with others? Its something addressed in a recent study out of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. It shows just how far ahead we think when we interact with and manipulate other people.

The problem with the world is that its full of other people. Unlike you (of course!), those people are often unpredictable, independent, and infuriatingly unreadable. Theres no way we can get inside their head to know what they are thinking or what they are going to do. But given that humans are a social species, it is no surprise that we have developed ways to calculate what other people might be thinking.

This is known as theory of mind, the ability most of us have to put ourselves in someone elses shoes. (To varying degrees, people with autism may not have this ability.) Theory of mind is something that we learn as we grow up. Children will learn other people have their own mental lives their own desires, emotions, and so on around 15 months old, but they are still bad at compensating and adapting to that for a while. For instance, if a two-year-old sees another person in distress, they will seek to help them by giving them their toy or their favorite thing. They recognize someone has their own feelings but cannot step beyond that to think what the other person might want.

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Most people have a hugely sophisticated theory of mind. Heres an example: Lets say you and I are talking about something, and you see me look up at the clock. What assumptions or thoughts now go through your head? Are you boring me? Do I need to be somewhere? Is there a spider on the clock? In fact, people who overthink things often get lost and trapped in this elaborate game of speculative theory of mind. As with most things, a useful brain habit becomes toxic when its taken too far.

What the recent study from Na et al. adds to the discussion concerns just how much we employ this theory of mind when trying to persuade or manipulate others. The team from Mount Sinai had 48 participants sit in a brain scanner and play a kind of ultimatum game. Essentially, they were divided into teams and told to split $20 with one another. In one version of the game, there were no rules whatsoever. They could haggle, negotiate, manipulate, and bargain as much as they wanted.

The study revealed two things:

First, after a computational analysis of all the finished games, they discovered that the results were what would be expected from people who thought two, three, or four steps ahead of others. In other words, if people were only thinking one step ahead, or from reaction only, the results would have looked completely different.

Second, the brain scans revealed that the choices made during the negotiations were accompanied by activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This is the same part of the brain used in most forward-thinking decisions. So, at least in neurophysiological terms, manipulating others is much the same as any other plotting.

Theres a memorable scene from The Wire, where DAngelo uses the real world of drug dealing to explain the rules of chess. It works well, and now we might know why. What Na et al. show is that when we are trying to sway or manipulate others, our brain activates in much the same way as when were playing chess.

Every social interaction is a game of chess, trying to get inside someones head to navigate what they are thinking or what they will do. Its the bane of relationships, and the source of much conflict. So, what if we can be better at it? We know that chess gives us a whole host of benefits, but perhaps we can add makes you better at getting your own way to the list? Its time to dust off the chessboard, indeed.

Jonny Thomson runs a popular Instagram account called Mini Philosophy (@philosophyminis). His first book isMini Philosophy: A Small Book of Big Ideas.

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Theory of mind: What chess and drug dealers can teach you about manipulation - Big Think

A board theme says a lot about a person... like, it says which color board you like. But more than that, it gives important insight into your personality and play style. We looked at some of the most popular and some of the most divisive board themes on Chess.com. Prepare to feel seen.

Jump to:

You totally knew you could change your board color (yup, you can, right here) but you kept it to the classic Chess.com green anyway. "If it's not broken, don't fix it" right? I bet you haven't changed your coffee order, haircut, or favorite pair of shoes for a while either. No. Your green board says you don't like to rock the boat.

Chess.com really said "what if we yassified Walnut or Dark Wood?" when they created the Brown board. Honestly, it's kind of an offbeat choice; the feeling of playing on a real board, but without the pesky wood grain that reminds you the offline world exists. It's the neo-classical choiceno really, please tell me about the new line you're learning in the Grunfeld.

As a true admirer of the classics, you probably prefer playing over-the-board chess, but acknowledge that this is as close as it gets. You think it's impolite to decline a rematch, and you prefer replaying through annotated games books to doing online puzzles. I won't tell anyone you sleep with Capablanca's My Chess Career on your bedside table.

Icy Sea has all the class of one of those frosted glass chess sets that people display in their homes, but without the constant worry that you'll drop a rook mid-blitz game and shatter it into a thousand pieces. Yet another case where online is just better... but you use the Icy Sea set, so you've known that for a while. Fancying yourself as someone who can play any opening, you're pretty cold-blooded in blitz, and you've banked way too many games of 3+0.

The dark green of the Tournament board gives the feeling of playing a weekend congress without having to be sat across from someone who kicks you under the table every time you make a good move. This is a nostalgic board theme, not used by anyone who learned to play the game post-Pogchamps. Reminiscent of the plastic roll-up sets at your local chess club, it's trying to be a serious board, just like you're trying to be a serious player.

Sitting somewhere between Green and Icy Sea, the Blue board is refined but plain. You didn't want the default, but weren't ready to stray too far from it. It's like ordering the same latte as always, but with an extra shot of vanilla. No one's judging you for it, don't worry.

Using the Bubblegum chessboard makes you the Elle Woods of your Chess.com league division. You know what they say, underrated board color... underrated player? Yeah, people definitely say that. You show up, blitz out 15 moves of theory (or at least, 15 moves of... something), and win on the board in style. What, like it's hard?

You picked one of the most dignified board styles on Chess.com. This design was practically made for longer games of 15+10 in classical mainlines. Every move played on this board theme feels kind of weighty, and even the Botez gambit comes with some heft and grandeur here. You definitely have a full bookcase of chess books at home, and you wouldn't be caught dead playing 1.b3.

The Glass board may be niche, but it's pretty sophisticated. You drink your coffee black and all of your phone apps are on dark mode. You're a 1.e4 player because you think it's "best by test," and I'll bet 10+0 is your favorite time control.

Players with the Lolz board should truly be feared. Anyone who thrives on this amount of glitter is a force to be reckoned with. Lolz board users have no regard for pawns or material in general, favoring activity and chaos. In this way, they are the opposite of Bubblegum board users. The silver sparkles of the Lolz board serve a Y2K aesthetic that reminds you chess is actually supposed to be fun, with a clear message that "I'd rather play 1.g4 every game than ever face a Berlin."

3D board users grew up playing Battle Chess on CD-Rom, and probably have Arcade Animations enabled for their pieces. The top-down view gives the full board game experience, while the board color is left up to the player (and although I'm personally biased towards Bubblegum, all the best board colors also look great in 3D). Plus, the knight pieces that come with this board style have no eyes, so at the very least they can't see when you blunder.

While the 3D look may not be the most popular choice, you can finally say you've found a way to play bullet chess "over the board" without knocking the pieces off the table.

Check out Lularobs on Twitch for more fun content! Be sure to comment below and tell us how you customized your board theme. Which one did you choose, and why?

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What Your Board Theme Says About You - Chess.com