GMs Hikaru Nakamura of USA, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Peter Svidler of Russia, Photo Courtesy Geir Olsen/Aker
At the Aker Challenge in Norway (Gjovik Sjakklubb, January 2-5), GM Hikaru Nakamura cameback from a first round loss to GM Peter Svidler, scoring three wins. Nakamura, Svidler and Carlsen all finished the preliminaries with 4/6, and had to play a three-person blitz playoff to see who would make the final. Unfortunately, the famed American blitz player came last of the trio. In the bronze medal consolation match, Nakamura won 1.5-0.5 over the fourth player in the event, GM Kjetil A. Lie of Norway.
Meanwhile, Svidler beat Carlsen 1.5-0.5 to earn first place.
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The event was nicknamed on the homepage, "Super rapid tournament" and the fast time control meant that there were more mistakes than usual by such high rated players. Try to solve some of the tactical highlights:
Svidler-Nakamura, Round 1,
White to Move
White to Move
Carlsen-Svidler, Blitz Playoff
White to Move
White to Move
Nakamura-Lie, Round 2
White to Move
White to Move
Carlsen-Svidler, Round 5,
White to Move
White to Move
Lie-Nakamura, Round Two Bronze Medal Match
Black to Play
Black to Play
Find out more on the homepage or download a pgn file of all the games. Also be sure to check out Hikaru Nakamura's blog, where he recaps each day's action.
There are also several Swisses in Gjovik including a GM Swiss (January 2-7), with one player under the American flag, GM Nick De Firmian. At the time of writing, Nick is tied for 2nd-9th with two rounds to go.