Magna cum laude

World champion Magnus Carlsen has taken first prize in the Norway tournament at Stavanger which finished last month. Carlsen had dominated proceedings but was briefly derailed by a loss to the triple Olympiad gold medallist Levon Aronian of Armenia, who eventually emerged as the runner-up. As so often, Carlsen pulled a rabbit out of the hat in the last round, overcoming Eljanov to secure first prize. Scores (out of 9) were: Carlsen 6; Aronian 5½; Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov and Kramnik 5; Li and Harikrishna 4½; Giri 4; Eljanov 3 and Grandelius 2½.
 
Aronian-Carlsen; Norway Chess, Stavanger 2016 (see diagram 1)
 
Carlsen’s only vague hope here is 26 … Bh3, speculating on the weak light squares around the white king. His actual choice swiftly lost even more material thanks to the back rank pin. 26 … Qxe5 27 Rd8+ Kf7 28 Qf3+ Bf5 29 Rxb8 Qxb8 30 g4 Qb4 31 Nd3 Black resigns
 
Carlsen-Eljanov; Norway Chess, Stavanger 2016 (see diagram 2)
 
White is on the verge of invading the black position and the only way to maintain the balance was with the counterattack 27 … Qa7.