Grenke Chess Classic: The Big Round-Up (Carlsen Smashes the Field)
The big story is the obvious one: Magnus Carlsen is back and playing some of the best chess of his career. He started with two wins, let Viswanathan Anand slip out of what should have been his third straight win in the event and sixth consecutive win overall - and after two more draws he finished with four more victories to win the tournament going away. His score of 7.5/9 put another 14 rating points in his pocket, bringing him to 2875 on the live rating list, just seven points short of his all-time official high rating of 2882.
(To see Carlsen talk about his recent tournament successes, here's an hour-long video with Jan Gustafsson to satisfy your chess palate.)
In second place, maintaining his role as the loyal opposition, Fabiano Caruana finished with an undefeated 6/9. He gained a few points, made some money, and showed that he is still clearly the world's #2 player. And aside from his Bundesliga loss to Peter Leko in March, he, like Carlsen, has gone undefeated in classical chess for a very long time.
Arkadij Naiditsch and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied for 3rd-4th, with Naiditsch getting the podium spot on tiebreaks. This was a success for Naiditsch and perhaps a very mild failure for MVL. Naiditsch had a particularly easy draw against Carlsen, who admits in the interview linked above that he plays poorly against Naiditsch, who is at least slightly in his head.
Anand, Levon Aronian, and Peter Svidler all had so-so events. The former should have lost to Carlsen, obtaining a lost position right out of the opening, while the other two did lose to him, as the champion got hot at the end of the tournament.
Francisco Vallejo Pons had a so-so event, finishing at -1, more or less in keeping with his rating as one of the underdogs.
Georg Meier and Vincent Keyemer finished tied for last with 2 points apiece. For Meier it was a very harsh event, and although he was the second lowest-rated player in the field, he still underperformed his rating by a significant margin. There was one bright spot, however, when he crushed Anand in what was a terrible game for the former champion. For Keymer he came out a tiny bit ahead as far as ratings were concerned, but the main thing is that it was a fantastic opportunity and experience for him. He enjoyed a decisive advantage against Carlsen in round 1, and was doing very well against Caruana in round 3. He defeated Meier in round 5 and then drew with Aronian in round 6 and Svidler in round 7 - very respectable results for just about anyone, never mind a 14-year-old making his debut at this level.
Final Standings:
- 1. Carlsen 7.5/9
- 2. Caruana 6
- 3-4. Naiditsch, Vachier-Lagrave 5
- 5-7. Anand, Aronian, Svidler 4.5
- 8. Vallejo 4
- 9-10. Meier, Keymer 2
I'll post the games from rounds 3-9 later (round 1 and round 2, and the games played therein, were already covered)--hopefully tonight.