Karjakin tops Carlsen, Anand, and Nakamura in Norway Blitz

The Norway Chess super-tournament started with an interesting drawing of lots celebration, a blitz tournament. Sergey Karjakin took clear first place after getting 6.5/9 points. Interestingly, the Russian chose number 5 in order to get the white pieces in both his first and last games.

Both contenders of the upcoming World Championship, Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, finished with 6 points. They were joined by American star Hikaru Nakamura with the same score. The tiebreak rules awarded Carlsen with second place, Anand third and Nakamura fourth.

Veselin Topalov did not have a good day at the office; he finished in the cellar after getting only one point in the whole event. His excellent form shown in the Zug Grand Prix makes us think that this just was a temporarily slip and that he will be fighting for the first place in the main event.

Final standings

1. Karjakin 6.5

2. Carlsen 6
3. Anand 6
4. Nakamura 6

5. Svidler 5.5

6. Radjabov 5

7. Hammer 3.5

8. Wang 3

9. Aroian 2.5

10. Topalov 1.0