On Saturday November 28, BNbank Blitz Norway was
played at Oslo Central Station. Magnus Carlsen
recently won the Blitz World Championship in
Moscow, and was the big pre-tournament favourite.
Even so, Carlsen could not withstand American no
1 Hikaru Nakamura in the BNbank final.
A large crowd followed the action move by
move
The final of BNbank Blitz Norway 2009 saw
international stars and local heroes meet in an
unsual venue: Oslo Central Station. A large
crowd followed the games move-by-move via big TV
screens at the venue. It was also possible to
watch the games on the internet, both at
ChessBomb and via the webcast at the tournament
homepage. A lot of international chess fans took
advantage of this possibility.
Chess upstairs, shopping below
Of the 16 players in the final, 10 were invited,
whereas 6 had qualified from regional blitz
tournaments earlier in November.
The 16 finalists, in order of rating:
GM Magnus Carlsen, Norway (2801)
GM Hikaru Nakamura, USA (2715)
GM Emanuel Berg, Sweden (2594)
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, Norway (2588)
GM Kjetil A. Lie, Norway (2547)
GM Leif E. Johannessen, Norway (2528)
IM Viktorija Cmilyte, Lithuania (2480)
GM Monika Socko, Poland (2457)
FM Kjetil Stokke, Norway (2382) (qualified from
Bergen tournament)
FM Vadims Daskevics, Latvia (2380) (qualified
from Stavanger tournament)
Daniel Kovachev, Norway (2243) (qualified from
Oslo tournament)
WIM Ellen Hagesæther, Norway (2269)
Anders Hobber, Norway (2132) (qualified from
Porsgrunn tournament)
Pål A. Hansen, Norway (2072) (qualified from
Trondheim tournament)
Peter Flermoen, Norway (2125) (qualified from
Tromsø tournament)
Left to right: IM Cmilyte, GM Johannessen,
GM Lie
The 16 players were divided into four
preliminary groups. In each group a double round
robin tournament was played, i.e. 6 rounds. The
first two players in each group advanced to the
quarter final.
The quarter final pairings and the eventual
results:
GM Carlsen vs GM Hammer 2,5-0,5
GM Berg vs IM Cmilyte 3-1
GM Nakamura vs GM Lie 3-0
GM Nielsen vs GM Johannessen 2,5-0,5
There had been no surprises so far: The top
eight players qualified for the quarter finals,
and the highest rated players went on to the
semi finals. The semi finals followed the same
pattern. Carlsen beat Berg with 3-0, and
Nakamura beat Nielsen with the same numbers.
Hikaru Nakamura, the happy winner of BNbank
Blitz 2009
By now Nakamura had a score of 12-0, as he had
won all his games in the preliminary group play.
Nevertheless, Magnus Carlsen was still the
favourite to win the tournament. The first game
of the four-game-finale went according to plan
for the young Norwegian. In the second game
Carlsen seemed to be on his way to a 2-0 lead,
but at the decisive moment he faltered, and
Nakurama won the game. ”Magnus was devastated by
the loss in the second game”, Nakamura said
after the final. Whatever the reason, Nakamura
won the two last games and thus the final with a
score of 3-1.
Here is the position that decided BNbank Blitz
Norway 2009.
