Vachier-Lagrave Wins Norway Chess Blitz, Beats Carlsen Again
Monday, June 3, 2019 at 11:22PM
Dennis Monokroussos in 2019 Norway Chess, 2019 Norway Chess blitz, Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, blitz chess, ratings

That's three straight wins in blitz for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave over Magnus Carlsen, though it should be acknowledged that he was losing in two of those games, including today's. Had Carlsen converted his advantage in their last-round game, he would have won the blitz and maintained his status as the world's #1 blitz player. Had he...but he didn't. The result doesn't matter for the tournament - what counted there was coming in the top 5, to get an extra game with White (which could in theory prove a disadvantage, with the Armageddon format), and Carlsen managed that. Anyway, MVL wins bragging rights both in the tournament and in the blitz ratings, so a double congratulations to the Frenchman with three names.

Final Blitz Standings:

1. Vachier-Lagrave 7.5/9
2-3. Aronian, Carlsen 6
4. Mamedyarov 5
5. Ding Liren 4.5
6-7. Yu Yangyi, So 3.5
8-10. Caruana, Anand, Grischuk 3

Here are the first round pairings for the main event, which starts tomorrow at 5 p.m. local time in Norway (=11 a.m. ET):

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