The Norway Chess 2022 Blitz tournament was played today afternoon deciding the pairings of the main classical event that kicks off tomorrow in Stavanger.
Wesley So triumphed in the field of 10 world class players, scoring 6.5/9 points to be the sole Winner of the Blitz tournament. So had a slow start losing to Wang Hao in the first round with the next two games finishing in a draw. Seems that Wesley needed three rounds to warm up as he then scored five consecutive victories and a total of 5.5/6 points, which was enough to win the event. Reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen came second with 5.5/9 points and two surprising consecutive losses against Wesley So and Viswanathan Anand. With score of 5/9 points, Anand again showed great form in faster time controls and tied with Anish Giri for third place. Replay all the blitz games here (scroll down for final rankings)
Before the event commenced Wesley So commented on the situation on the world chess top: “Magnus has been the best player for 10 years now — there is nobody close. It’s a bit embarrassing for the rest of us that his rating is so much higher than the rest!”. During the Grand Chess Tour Romania 2022 Wesley admired the actual world champion: “Everyone except Magnus has a lot of weaknesses“. See the full interview with Wesley So here
The Winner of the Blitz tournament got to choose the starting number for the main event. So picked number one, meaning that he will have white pieces in five rounds with the classical time control. The final list of participants of Norway Chess 2022 after the replacement for Rapport can be found here.
Chessdom.com will provide daily news coverage, interviews, and live games from Norway Chess 2022.
Final rankings – Norway Chess Blitz:
| 1 | So, Wesley | 6½/9 | 2814 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | 5½/9 | 2832 |
| 3 | Giri, Anish | 5/9 | 2766 |
| 4 | Anand, Viswanathan | 5/9 | 2758 |
| 5 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 5/9 | 2778 |
| 6 | Tari, Aryan | 4½/9 | 2567 |
| 7 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 4/9 | 2813 |
| 8 | Topalov, Veselin | 3.5/9 | 2667 |
| 9 | Wang, Hao | 3/9 | 2712 |
| 10 | Radjabov, Teimour | 3/9 | 2705 |
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