The favourites’ problems developed further in the second round, as unexpected draws for Lugovoi and Kallio left
Miezis as the only GM on 2/2 - but all the others are lining up just half a point behind, as Rozentalis, Ovsejevitch
and Westerinen all hit back with nice attacking victories today. 14 year old IM Mark Bluvshtein too surprisingly gave
away half a point, while the Russian WGM-duo Tatiana Shumiakina and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya hang on the top by winning
two long and dramatic fighting games. This was a good round for the Norwegian norm hopes, even when the top seeded
Norwegian FM Bjarte Leer-Salvesen had to fight for a draw, and even while Bjørn-Erik Glenne suddenly lagged far behind
following his entertaining loss today: FM Helge A Nordahl is among the seven players on 2/2, and the players to produce
surprises against Kallio, Bluvshtein and Lugovoi were Paul Johansen, Geir Sune Tallaksen - and 12 year old Magnus Carlsen.
Having declared himself lucky in case of a draw, Magnus started up the game with a safe fianchetto
system against Lugovoi’s Queens Indian. A relatively balanced hanging pawns position followed. Having secured the pawns
Lugovoi refused a draw offer at move 20, but without running any risks. Finally about to make an intervention in the
queen and rook ending, Lugovoi reportedly remarked that he expected to win in a few moves. Magnus however defended
cooly against black’s rook invitation in the a-file, and proved right when declaring that the queen ending despite a
pawn less was a dead draw due to black’s open king position. Magnus is ahead of his scheme for an IM-norm, while
Lugovoi like Rozentalis left a half point along the short road of the first two rounds.
The only GM to have 2/2, Miezis has also been the most impressing looking one so far, but he
has hardly had the toughest counterplay. Simonsen deserves respect for his lack of respect, as he made a radical
try to refute Miezis-English by playing f5 at move 3 and f4 at move 6. It however ended up like a study in backfire:
Miezis simply took the pawn at f4, and when Simonsen took back the pawn at f2 he only helped white to turn the open
file against the black king. The end came before 25 moves, and then black was down on pawns, behind in development
and about to be mated.
Following his instructive play in the first round it was disappointing that Fäldt became
instructed in this way today, but black against a 2500-player is different from white against an unrated. Black
for the first three piece exchanges looked fine, even when it looked a little bit risky to castle long after advancing
the a-, b- and c-pawn. Fäldt however became much too loose when sacrificing first one h-pawn and then one exchange to
get an attack against the white king. Playing with reduced material and sound pieces Womacka had no problems to meet
black’s two moves threats, and when Fäldt resigned at move 32 white was about to create his own mating attack. Having
won 9 out of his 11 games at Gausdal so far, IM and Troll Champion Womacka looks not unlikely to become a GM and/or
a double Troll Champion this week.
True to his repertoire even against GMs, Tallaksen tried to push Kallio’s Benoni back with an
ambitious pawnstorm on the kingside. The middlegame turned extremely complex as both players went for a mating attack
on the kingside, Tallaksen by sacrificing a pawn. Following the time control both players felt forced to exchange into
a rook ending where white still held an extra pawn, but with only queenside left. Kallio might still have had a hope
to squeeze the win out of the young Norwegian 2200-player, but if so Tallaksen was definitely the wrong Norwegian
2200-player too meet.
This of course was a surprise, but you never know about Paul Johansen, and Bluvshtein for
some reason did not look too inspired today. Paul demonstrated sufficient knowledge in a closed Ruy Lopez, and
reached a more or less equalized position, in which both players spent most of their time rearranging their pieces
behind the frontiers. Black was the one to take initiative on the queenside just before 20 moves, but the outcome
still became only a transition into an ending with queen, knight and six pawns against queen, bishop and six. Black
if anyone had a slight initiative, but soon agreed to a repetition of moves in the queen endgame.
Hole left his usual King’s Indian Advance to transpose into a slow variation of a classical King’s
Indian. The game according to him was “interesting for a while”. Obviously eager for a win Kovalevskaya made a break
on both wings by playing both f5 and b5, and got the initiative for free as Hole did not test the pawn sacrifice at b5.
Black developed further her attacking chances on the kingside as the position opened up. Short of time Hole tried to
complicate by giving up his queen for one rook and two minor pieces, but as his king remained exposed black had no
problems to fulfil the win after 40 moves.
This was a long, dramatic and shaky battle, which an angry-looking Shumiakina won on her will
and her ability to fight on. Played aggressively on both wings black got the best of it from a closed Sicilian,
and having an active pair of bishops she looked to have excellent attacking chances. While Shumiakina spent much
time without finding anything concrete, Berning however managed to reactivate his pieces, and when he jumped in at
e6 just before move 30 it seemed that he was close to turning the kingside against Shumiakina. Her decision first to
exchange queens and then to give up an exchange still seemed strange. Black’s active bishops however made it difficult
for white to win, and clearly ahead on the clock he suddenly gave away the exchange in panic because of an unexpected
pin in the h-file. Left after 40 moves was a seemingly drawish endgame with rook, four pawns and opposite coloured
bishops. Shumiakina however played on, and soon proved able to demonstrate that white actually was in trouble on the
black squares – making both his king and the pawn base at c2 exposed. Probably white could still have activated his
bishop and held the position together by a pawn sacrifice, but missing that he faced a decisive invitation on c3 after
65 moves.
The opening was a "well..." from both players – white kept a positional edge from a slow and
closed Ruy Lopez, but black’s position still seemed difficult to crack. With queen, knight and seven against queen,
bishop and seven left on the board the position still looked drawish, because even when white had a space advantage,
it was difficult to find any intervention point. But Hanley unaffectedly played on even in the queen endgame and even
when Nolsøe passed his first dose of time trouble, and succeeded to create chances by letting his king march upstairs
on the kingside. When the position finally opened up it for a while seemed like black’s passed a-pawn could save the
balance of power, but with Nolsøe running against the clock again, Hanley by elegant techique and an active king
finally swept the board for black pawns after 80 moves.
The first and third board of the Norwegian club SOSS decided to play, and entered a sharp
Notebom variation in which white allows black to keep an extra pawn at c4. Making three inaccurate moves before
move 10, black however would have been forced to return the pawn with an awful position if white had intensified
the queenside pressure with 11.Rb1 instead of Qb1. As white refused a draw and as black had no way to get out his
pieces he ended up by taking another pawn and playing a probably lost position with two extra pawns, out of which
two being isolated a-pawns and two isolated c-pawns. Harestad however did not play accurate enough later, allowing
black to develop and exchange pieces for the reasonable price of one c-pawn. Following a queen exchange the endgame
with rook and bishop against rook and knight probably was drawish, and the players finally agreed when both had
refused a draw but cooperated to exchange all the remaining pawns.
This was an untheoretical Grünfeld-Indian, in which white seemed to have an edge despite some
ambivalence about where to place his bishops. Black’s advanced c4-pawn turned out to be weak, and following an
increasing queenside pressure it fell just before 30 moves. As Berg was short of time and Nordahl very short of time
dramatic scenes where expected, in a still tactically loaded position. While Berg turned speculative and loose Nordahl
however kept the tactics under control despite having less than a minute left for eight moves, and cooly picked up
first an exchange and then a piece, and as Berg did not get new pieces when Nordahl did get new time, it was not much
more to be discussed.
18 moves delivered with the speed of rapid chess. The Dragon start was promising, but later both
players demonstrated knowledge to and feelings for a seldom used variation, which leaves white with no more and more
less than repetition of moves. Molander has more ELO but was black, and so both players managed to smile afterwards.
Expecting first round surprise Bjørgvik to make any points out of this game was of course
unrealistic, but he should be able to make a somewhat better try. e5 true enough reportedly is a critical break
in the Sicilian, but this time it looked nothing but mysterious – and the idea turned out to be to give up a pawn
to exchange queens. If white later had any compensation at all, it totally vanished when he gave up the pair of bishops
and repaired the black pawn structure by taking a knight at d5 with his bishop. Not leaving any counterplay, Ovsejevitch
safely decided by exchanging down to a ending with rook and bishop against rook and knight, in which he first picked
up another pawn and then created two connected passed pawns in the center.
If anyone wonder where Rozentalis is, he is definitely still to be found among the favourites here –
he just came, won and left within two hours today. First round surprise Ask soon found the earth burning below him in
one of Rozentalis’ Ruy Lopez specialities. Black first allowed the GM to open doors on the kingside by taking on f6,
and then helped to make a swingdoor out of it by opening the f-file as well. White’s queen, rook and knight were observed
running after 18 moves, and so black took the respectful emergency exit instead of giving pawns en masse to evacuate
his king.
To be honest I do not understand anything about mysterious and fluid games like this, except that
they are called “Sicilian”. This undergroup is called Najdorf, recognised by the fact that black has a backward d6-pawn
and white an excellent outpost on d5 - but of course the pawn will never fall and the outpost can never be used, as it
is a Sicilian. This time white castled long and looked to have the better attacking chances, but of course nothing
dangerously happened with the king on e8. I mean, it is a Sicilian. Black in the meantime slowed forward with two
pawns on the queenside until they nearly looked like an attack, then he exchanged queens and switched his rooks to the
f-file. Black toyed around with repetition of moves, but stopped at “two”, and then started to pick up white’s advanced
middle game pawns and to pressure against the backward pawn of c3. That was the first chess logic I found in this game,
and then it was all over.
Bryn invited to a Sicilian Scheveningen duel, but more eager to fight with the brain than the book
Heikki opted out for 3.Bb5. Bryn jr probably played first too ambitiously by 4.--- Bg4 (?!) and then too respectfully.
In any case he entered a tactical group travel of exchanges which left him lost at the airport in the ending, as the
backward and isolated d6-pawn became a very helpful attacking point for white – (strangely, as it was a Sicilian. But
white was a GM). Bryn according to himself does not like to defend positionally worse endgames against GMs, and within
ten moves demonstrated how much he dislikes it by blundering first the d6-pawn in two moves and then a rook in one move.
Bisby invited to a Dragon duel, but instead got most positional asset blacks can hope for in a
Sicilian. As Bryn sr played by far too careful/toothless, black before 15 moves had a clear advantage coming from his
dominating pair of bishops and the backward white pawn at d3. White’s position soon fell apart as black continued his
straightforward centralization, and so he had to give first a pawn and then an exchange to prevent direct threats
against his king. Black so was totally winning when white after 25 moves resigned in a humorous way by sacrificing his
queen at h5.
Via 1.e4 c5 this transposed into a French advance, which neither of the players seemed closely
related to. Black playing Qb6-Qc7-Qb6-Qxd4-Qb6 and exchanging his black bishop against a knight at d4 actually looked
like if he had never met the opening before; that white still only got compensation is another evidence of the basic
soundness of the French. The black queen seemed short of squares for some moves, but at a critical stage when white
had attacking pawns at e5 and f5, he allowed an exchange sacrifice which solved all black’s problems. As black later
had two pawns for the exchange as well as a strong bishop at c6 and a dominating knight at f5, white suddenly was the
one to watch out for his king. During mutual time trouble white actually did not watch out, but on the other hand
black in his eagerness to advance the h-pawn missed Ng3+! Followed by Qh3 mate twice. Having got the pawn to g2 and
so forced white to pin a rook, black however proudly discovered the Ng3+ two moves later.
This started as a Caro-Kann, but still ended in chaos before 20 moves. As white had the better
chances on the queenside, black instead of saving 1-2 pieces already hanging around placed his dark squared bishop as
well en prise at a3, hoping for a classical Qxc3-mate. It followed a much less classical but all the more good 19.Rh3!,
which secured c3 and left approximately all black’s remaining minor pieces under gunfire. A disillusioned Bjørn-Erik
took the first train into a lost ending with two pawns for the bishop, and on the second attempt Valenti found a
pseudo-sacrifice which cashed in two pawns as well.
Via 1.Nf3 this transposed into a King’s Indian in advance a la French, in which black’s piece
attack on the queenside looked much more pointed than white’s pawnstorm on the queenside. Black’s idea to break up
with f6 on the kingside when having all his pieces on the queenside looked strange, even when it is instructive to
note that white still got nothing on the kingside. Knudsen however put on his “defending” gear, and lacking pawn
breaks on the queenside black never proved able to realize his advantage. The final position after 52 moves still
looks better for black, but Unander might be right that he still had no way to make progress.
For the first time in the tournament: A Scandinavian defence in which white actually captured
on d5 - and even got an advantage, as black recaptured with the queen. The middle game gave white both a pair
of bishops and a space advantage in the center, but Charleshouse (of course) still was willing to accept a materially
equal but positionally preferable endgame. Sander however did not want a worse endgame, and so instead got a totally
lost one by having to exchange queens after giving up an exchange.
Being white against a lower rated player, Nygren again appeared as an inspired and gifted
attacking player. Playing far too careless against a Sicilian Grand Prix attack black was forced to return his
knight to g8 when white got in 10.f5 and 12.f6. He was never again to develop the kingside, and as tricky Bb5
forced black to give up his black squared bishop with all his pawns on white squares, he was left more or less lost
from a positional point of view. Tactically white intensified the pressure crucially on the queenside by a queen
intervention and on the kingside by a Bh6+ sacrifice, and as black’s kingside still was paralysed he following a
queen exchange could easily cash in a rook with Bg7.
The players cooperated to create a truly odd Trompovsky, in which black had an exchange and a pawn
more after 10 moves, but with his queen stuck on a1 and his other pieces still undeveloped. The rest of the story
was messy as well – to mention only one corner of the board, the black queen was to be left at a1 for 25 moves –
guarded by a knight at b1 and a king at c1. As black had to give up a piece to castle long white looked to be in
control of the point, but again running short of time he missed a simple Qb2+ just in time to be mated at 40.
Especially following Fossum’s fine play and brave try against Womacka this result was a surprise,
but it also proves that the oldest participant of the tournament is still not a player to be underestimated.
Bøyum boy threw out on the board an ambitious Dutch Leningrad system which he had borrowed from GM Simen Agdestein,
but obviously without being informed that it works much less impressing for everyone not being Simen. Black got some
attacking chances on the kingside, but never showed up convincing compensation for his pawn weaknesses he had and/or
for the pawn he had no more on the queenside. Instead white’s pair of bishops came to clean the board, and helped by
black white had no problems to decide the rooks and bishop endgame with two extra pawns and a dangerous passed e-pawn.
Probably among Johansson’s better Gausdal games from the later years, even when he can get as best 5 x 19 for the style
after overlooking an elegant way to queen the passed pawn.
The second refused Scandinavian opening of the tournament also looked satisfying for the first moves,
but later white’s pair of bishops and d5-break gave some reason to worry for black’s king at c8. Black still had a
position after 23 moves, but then he lost the thread, and as white followed the straight lines and diagonals to the
queenside, black was a pawn down with nothing except killing threat against his king to wait for, when resigning at
move 30.
This started as another typical Stokke, meaning another game in which he reached a position he
knew to be preferable, but at the board failing to find out why. Black’s a-pawn advance and pseudo sacrifice at b3
looked tempting, but as Hörbing returned the piece in the right moment, the conclusion became only some exchanges
favouring white. Even when black still had an active pair of bishops, white was probably about to equalize when he
much too naive blundered a piece at move 26 and resigned without making any move 27. The end in short was a very
untypical Stokke, as it was his opponent who blundered. Kjetil was very satisfied to win his first Gausdal Troll
Masters game; was that what he needed to make his first try for a norm?
Black Terje’s Sicilian set-up was a relatively solid one, but white Terje still was left with a
pair of bishops and a lasting initiative as black had to refuse a thematic Nd5-sacrifice. Later hanging on well until
about 25 moves, black Terje suddenly lost the thread when white Terje was running short of time. Playing aggressive
and even good until reaching a winning position, white Terje when passing 40 moves had picked up two pawns and forced
a queen exchange. From then on the game however turned into a study in how not to win a rook ending, as white Terje
insisted upon getting only a passed a-pawn instead of connected passed pawns in the a- and b-file. Black Terje in
the meantime started to defend well again, and probably had the draw in a safe grip from the moment he was given back
the b-pawn and allowed to place his rook behind the white a-pawn. White Terje still managed to smile when stalemating
himself not to lose on time after 72 moves, but it did not come from the heart – while black Terje although somewhat
confused smiled for his first Gausdal half point.
Hammer went for a slow Semi-Slav position, which first seemed perfectly satisfying from a black
point of view. Black however became a little bit too ambitious when trying to attack with his pawns on the kingside
without having completed his development. White later was in control of the open c- and f-files, but the queen, rook
and bishop ending still looked drawish as black had a sound position and a strong bishop at d5. Probably black should
have been able to hold it, but having many weak black squares to care about, he again ran into problems when getting
tired in the sixth hour of play. Exchanging rooks probably was a qualified decision, but black had to pay the full
price for his kingside weaknesses after allowing the white queen to intervene a few moves later. Black finally lost
on time at move 60, but then white had just finished elegant by a bishop sacrifice at h5, forcing a mate in two.
It all started as a relatively normal Benkö, in which black’s lines and pieces gave enough
compensation for the pawn. Realizing that he had given too much compensation on the queenside white tried to strike
back with a thematic e5-e6-break in the center, but the conclusion was double edged as black got attacking chances in
the f-file. Having won an exchange black immediately sacrificed it back at f1, seemingly decisive as white could not
take back with the king without losing his queen. When Torgersen stopped the clock, Korhonen however was still trying
to find out whether his position could be drawn or even lost, as white had painful counterthreats if refusing the
sacrifice with Kh2!. It turned out that the position (probably) was winning for black, but even when allowed to move
the pieces and to talk, the player used an hour to find out why – and so we can only imagine what might have happened
at the board.
Martinsen made a modest start with a slow Colle system, and time trouble fun was already
pronounced as both players spent much time before move 10. The game however never went that far: Following an
over-ambitious f6-break black lost the thread completely, and Stig K efficiently switched from pressure against
black’s hanging center pawns to a direct kingside assault when allowed to. The conclusion came in disguise as a
knight on g6 at move 23, leading to at mate at h7 two moves later – from a Martinsen point of view it looked
promising for the rest of the week.
This was a Cambridge Springs Queens gambit, in which white prevented black from freeing himself
with c5 and/or e5, and so white’s centralised pair of knights soon came to dominate black’s locked pair of bishops.
Johansen’s decision to give up a pawn to reach different coloured bishops looked very much like an emergency exit,
as three heavy pieces were still left on the board. Black however did not find any attacking plan, and so the players
came into a rook and bishop ending which indeed looked blocked. When the draw finally seemed within reach Johansen
however relaxed too early, and at move 40 overlooked a very pseudo bishop sacrifice winning another pawn, and later
Larsen & his pawns had no problems to roll over a depressed looking rated opponent.
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