Norwegian Chess Rules

World Champion Magnus Carlsen recently won a Norwegian Chess tournament
where they tried an anti-draw experiment in an effort to try and jazz things up.

The winner in normal play (referred to as classical play) was awarded 2pts.
If this game was drawn then both players received ½ point. They then played
an Armageddon Game for the remaining 1 point. The Armageddon rules were
White gets 7 minutes, Black 10 minutes. A three second increment was then
added after move 61. Black has draw odds. (if the game is drawn Black wins).

It was treated like marmite, some like it, some not. I thought it was OK.

One main gripe was people could not quite make sense of the final placings
Who beat who and how did they do it. Was it in the classical or Armageddon?

As you can see, due to Armageddon some played more games than others.


A couple of interesting moments from the Armageddon games.

Levon Aronian - Wesley So, Norway Armageddon 2019


Here Wes So played 46....Nf5 and Aronian smartly mated with 47.Rh7 mate.


And it only took a few minutes to find the same mating pattern in an RHP game.

kooskakebeen - cdlmalherbe RHP 2017

In a later Armageddon round we saw this missed chance by Fabiano Caruana.

Yu Yangyi - Fabiano Caruana, Norway Armageddon 2019

And the Red Hot Pawn partner in crime. (though this one was spotted.)

Knightspawn5 - The Ricker RHP 2013



Look at this position.


Some will spot right away that the position is illegal and they will be correct.
How can the Black King be in check there at the same time from two Queens.

Your task, should you wish to accept it, is to place one White Pawn...

..on the board, still keeping Black in check from the two Queens and make it legal!

That should keep you busy for a while. Solution at the bottom.

Next three episodes from RHP to set up a T.R. Dawson (1889 - 1951) puzzle.

diggars - frostbite99 RHP 2017


Instead of playing 1.Qe3 and mate next move. It went 1. Kg3 stalemate.

Trigger12 - tsloan RHP 2018


Any Bishop move except 1.Bc8 or 1.Bc3 is mate next move. White played 1.Bc8.

Next we see the joyful delight that was Kostkovyc - Torrey RHP 2016


There are nearly 100 Queen and Bishop v Lone King stalemates on Red Hot Pawn.
So to make use of this untapped skill we turn to a puzzle set by T.R. Dawson. in 1911.


White to play and force stalemate in three moves. The key is the
first move. Get that and the rest follows. I’ll add the solution below.

A few days ago I put this game in the RHP Chess Forum.

ncleveng - Doug Anderson RHP 2010.

This got me wondering had if any of the other well known Queen winning pitfalls
often played here on RHP have returned the favour and given the Queen back

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qc6 4.Bb5


This position has occurred 257 times White has won the vast majority, a few Blacks have
recovered due to, as previous, White leaving their own Queen hanging a few moves later.

There have been just two draws. This is one of them.

mawk brown - Ron N Hyde RHP 2012




The two Queens Puzzle. (the illegal position)


put a White pawn on d3 and it is now legal.


We have to do a bit of retro-analysis. Play out the game below.


Solution to the T. R. Dawson stalemate.


The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 181427