Now that we're past the longest day of the year, we needed something to help us survive as the nights are drawing in. Fortunately, there was a Titled Arena to occupy our attention as 325 titled players gathered to duke it out in 1+0. The usual suspects were there in force such as: GMs Magnus Carlsen (@DrNykterstein), Andrew Tang (@penguingim1) and Oleksandr Bortnyk (@Night-King96); as well as a scattering of very strong mystery masters and some less frequent participants like GM Eric Hansen (@chessbrahs) and new participant GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (@Praggnanandhaachess).

Speculation was rampant as there was no Magnus when things kicked off, but he was just being fashionably late - allowing GM @msb2 to take an early lead with three quick wins. A lead not fated to last however, and 30 minutes in Eric Hansen was out in front, closely followed by IM Saveliy Golubov (@Boss1005), the anonymous GMs @LyinTed and @Watneg, and speed-master GM Andrew Tang. Just a few minutes later though, the standings were completely rearranged - needless to say things were close at the top. Magnus was closing in now though, with some masterclasses in having an active king.

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[EDIT: There is some chance of rain on Saturday. The plan is still to meet outside near Smith House in case of clear skies. If there is rain we will head down the hill to the Café des Amis in the Pavillon du Lac-aux-Castor. ]

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Six classical games, five draws, five Armageddon wins, tournament domination.

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It's back again, the Lichess Titled Arena! Join us for some world class bullet fun on Saturday the 22nd June at 19:00UTC.

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The seventh edition of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger is no ordinary super-tournament.

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I arrived at Clarion Hotel Energy, the playing venue of Norway Chess 2019, at 17:07. The games start at 17:00, and missing the first seven minutes normally doesn't mean much. The players are usually still in deep theory, far from anything spectacular going on. What met me when I arrived, however, were a bunch of confused people – some organizers, journalists and chess fans – wondering what happened between Alexander Grischuk and Wesley So. Apparently they had both left the playing hall together, something that doesn't make sense happening minutes into the game. It quickly became clear that they had already drawn the game! Could the introduction of Armageddon games have the exact opposite consequence than intended? If the White player is happy with Armageddon, they could steer the game towards a draw from the very beginning. Alexander Grischuk later explained to the Norwegian TV channel TV2 that he didn't feel like playing because he was so disappointed after his Round 1 loss.

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The main tournament of the Altibox Norway Chess kicked off yesterday and it brought with it Armageddon! In an attempt to make chess more interesting to the audience and to encourage players to play harder for a win, Armageddon games were introduced in case of a drawn classical game. Therefore, there will always be a winner, either in the classical or in the Armageddon game.

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This year's edition of one of the world's strongest chess tournaments, Altibox Norway Chess, started Monday with the preliminary Blitz tournament. Like previous years, the results in this tournament decide the starting numbers in the main tournament. The players showed great fighting-spirit, as the four first rounds all had 4 decisive games, with only one draw. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got ahead early, winning the four first games to take the sole lead. Fabiano Caruana put an end to his streak in Round 5, but the lead was already too big to be overtaken.

https://lichess.org/mAz4GTZJ

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Magnus was in trouble! You have to believe me! He really was!

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Welcome to the new Lichess! We have been working extra hard in the past few months, and we are quite proud of the result. We hope you will love it as much as we do.

Changes are mostly cosmetic, and all your beloved features are still here. All your data is still here. Lichess is still 100% free, without ads or tracking. We made lichess work on mobile browsers, and we added a few features in the process!

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