"AKER CHESS CHALLENGE" Super Rapid Tournament
January 2nd - 5th
Rapid chess tournament with Norway's world chess star Magnus Carlsen, Peter Svidler from Russia, Hikaru Nakamura from the USA and Kjetil A. Lie from Norway.
Nakamura sacrificed to claim a draw by repetition in his second rapid chess game and so beat Lie 1.5 - 0.5 in the bronze final, while Carlsen and Svidler fought to the last second in a highly dramatic duel that in the end Magnus Carlsen lost. Thus it was the sympathetic Peter Svidler that emerged as the winner of Aker Chess Challenge.
See video reports of day 1, day 2 (no video, but commented games), day 3, and the decicive blitz game Carlsen-Nakamura. All made by Macauley Peterson for the ICC's Chess.FM blog site.
Download all the games, or play through day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4 at Bergens Schakklub's site.
Results in Aker Chess Challenge:
Final
Svidler - Carlsen 1.5-0.5
Nakamura - Lie 1.5-0.5
Finals, game 1 Finals, game 2
Svidler - Carlsen ½-½ Carlsen - Svidler 0-1
Nakamura - Lie 1-0 Lie - Nakamura ½-½
1. round Preliminary rounds
Svidler - Nakamura 1-0 1-2. Nakamura 6 3 2 1 4.0
Carlsen - Lie 1-0 1-2. Carlsen 6 3 2 1 4.0
1-2. Svidler 6 3 2 1 4.0
2. round 4. K. Lie 6 0 0 6 0.0
Svidler - Carlsen ½-½
Nakamura - Lie 1-0
3. runde Blitz playoff
Carlsen - Nakamura 0-1 1. Carlsen 2 2 0 0 2.0
Lie - Svidler 0-1 2. Svidler 2 1 0 1 1.0
3. Nakamura 2 0 0 2 0.0
4. round
Nakamura - Svidler ½-½
Lie - Carlsen 0-1
5. round
Carlsen - Svidler 1-0
Lie - Nakamura 0-1
6. round
Nakamura - Carlsen ½-½
Svidler - Lie 1-0
Playoff
Svidler - Nakamura 1-0
Carlsen - Svidler 1-0
Nakamura - Carlsen 0-1
A preliminary double-rounded tournament was followed by a bronze final and a final, in all eight rounds, plus one sudden death blitz match. Each player had 25 minutes per game with 5 seconds added per move.
The Aker Chess Challenge was played in the main auditorium of Gjøvik cinema, under the same roof as Thon Hotel, where Simen Agdestein in 1991 played a 2-2 drawn match with classic time controls against the long reigning world champion Anatolij Karpov.
The games had a running commentary for spectators in an adjoining auditorium, by IM Jesper Hall (2/1), GM Leif Erlend Johannessen (3 & 4/1) and GM Rune Djurhuus (5/1), and was transmitted live on the Internet.
Arbiters: IA Johs. R. Kjeken and IA Hans OLav Lahlum
Schedule:
| Thursday 1st | at 19:30 | Drawing and open press conference. |
| Friday 2nd | at 12:40 | Opening, presentation of the players for the audience. |
| at 13:20 - 14:20 | Round 1 | |
| at 14:40 - 15:40 | Round 2 | |
| at 15:50 - 16:10 | Open press conference | |
| Saturday 3rd | at 13:20 - 14:20 | Round 3 |
| at 14:40 - 15:40 | Round 4 | |
| at 15:50 - 16:10 | Open press conference | |
| Sunday 4th | at 14:20 - 15:20 | Round 5 |
| at 15:40 - 16:40 | Round 6 | |
| (Because of play-off blitz games there was a 30 minutes delay) | ||
| at 17:00 - 17:25 | Open press conference | |
| at 17:30 - 17:55 | Commented game for the audience | |
| Monday 5th | at 13:00 - 14:00 | Final and bronze final, Round 1 |
| at 14:20 - 15:20 | Final and bronze final, Round 2 | |
| at 15:30 | Prizegiving, closing ceremony | |
| at 15:50 - 16:20 | Open press conference | |
Entry fee: 60 NOK per day, 40 NOK for children below 17.
One time entry fee for all four days: 150 NOK, 100 NOK for children below 17.
Free entry on some days was included in the price of participation for several tournaments.