BOTW: 2017.06.05

Altibox Norway
June 5-16, 2017

With 10 of the world's top 12 players, this will be the strongest 10-player RR of the year.

Altibox Norway boasts an average rating of 2797, just behind the all-time high of 2802 for the 6-player 2014 Sinquefield Cup. When the tournament was announced in Februrary, it had the entire top 10. Since then, Shak Mamedyarov and Ding Liren have gained enough rating points to sit 5th and 10th respectively, pushing Karjakin and Giri just out of the top 10.

Fighting Chess?

A risk with such a tightly-packed and well-prepared field is that many games will be mostly preparation ending in sterile positions. The organizers hope to mitigate this risk by adding three conditions to their tournament: 

1. Draws are allowed only after a three-fold repetition or when there is a clearly drawn position on the board, which I expect will require arbiter approval. 
2. A €249,000 prize fund, with €70,000 for first place
3. Ties for first will be settled by a blitz playoff.

Schedule

June 5, 12:30pm EST:  Opening Blitz
June 6-16, 10am EST: Rounds 1-9
June 9, 13: Rest Days

Live Games

The official site has two commentators -- Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, the editor-in-chief of New In Chess, and GM Nigel Short, who is described on the event homepage as "easily the most successful pentagenarian on the planet" -- and can be watched for free: http://live.norwaychess.com/.

Chess24 will have live games with commentary by GMs Jan Gustafsson (for all 10 days), and Peter Svidler (who will miss rounds 7-9 when he is playing in the World Team Championship). Commentary is free for the blitz (June 5), but requires a chesss24 subscription for the rest of the event ($9.99/month)

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/altibox-norway-chess-2017-blitz/1/1/1