World's strongest chess player Magnus Carlsen of Norway has just won the 7th Mikhail Tal Chess Memorial in Moscow with an exciting last-round win. Carlsen's blog is a sponsoring agreement between Arctic Securities and the Magnus Carlsen. Magnus became an International Grandmaster at the age of 13, the youngest at the time.
After Tal Memorial, Carlsen will get the super-strong rating of 2837! He is surpassed only by the legendary Garry Kasparov who reached a rating of 2851 in January, 2000.
Magnus Carlsen in his blog:
On winning Tal Chess Memorial 2012
With the prevailing tie break rules I thought I needed to win round 8 and 9 to have a shot at 1st place. Not so. Yesterday I was white against Tomashevsky and got just what I wanted from the opening. With control over the d-file and well-placed pieces I had a clear advantage when I blundered with Nd6? I had missed his (only) resource Qa2 after exchanges on d6. The ensuing endgame is fairly equal, but the bishop against knight offered some practical possibilities. I tried to pose him as many problems as I could. Still he managed to find good defensive moves and after nearly 7 hours it ended in draw. Caruana beat Kramnik to take the sole lead with 5/8. In the last round today I (4.5 points) played Luke McShane (4 points) with the black pieces. Aronian seemed to be winning against Caruana and suddenly McShane and I was playing for the tournament victory. To his credit he was eager to create play while this allowed me counterplay. I was already better after a5! When he sacrificed the d-pawn a few moves later black had a clear advantage. He got into time trouble but played reasonable moves for a while. In the end his attempted attack fizzled out, and he resigned at the first time control a piece and a pawn down. Aronian did win. As the other games ended in draw, I won clear 1st at 5.5/9 points! Caruana came 2nd and Radjabov 3rd, both with 5 points. My last victory was Tal Memorial 2011 in November last year. It feels just great to win again and I must admit it is preferable compared to 3rd and 2nd places in London and Tata Steel last winter☺ The twists and turns of this tournament produced many great fights and nearly constant changes in the top in the second half of the tournament. Early leaders Morozevich and Kramnik stumbled in the second half and Caruana in the last round. I struggled quite a bit in the first three rounds while I’m more than satisfied with the last six. Once again the Tal Memorial was well organized, the tournament hall was absolutely 1st class, and visiting Moscow in the summer was a new and nice experience. Thank you! On the FIDE July 2012 rating list I’ll be 2837. It’s a personal record and 21 points ahead of Aronian, the other member of the “2800”-club. With the cancellation of the Kings tournament this month, my next tournaments are the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship finals in Astana, Kazakhstan from July 5th. Magnus Carlsen, Moscow, June 18th, 2012/2012-06-19 00:19:37
Also Read:
7th Tal Chess Memorial: Magnus Carlsen Comments, Tweet and Last-Round Game Against McShane
Posted in: 7th tal chess memorial,astana chess,magnus carlsen,world blitz chess,world rapid chess
