Carlsen won again today against Wang Yue at Pearl Spring. He's now on a ridiculous 6.5/8. Thoughts?

I wonder why Wang went into such a sharp line, usually it's the most dull variations of the a6 slav for him.

I think everyone is thinking the same thing: Omg Carlsen + Kasparov = MONSTER!

Usually players of that level play that sharp and hard because they want to win NOT draw. It is a risk and one that didn't pay off this time.

LOL That's a good one!

Who was the last player to win 5 of 8 games at this level ?  Kasparov maybe ? When did he last do such a thing ? Carlsen's performance is simply incredible and he has a white left, in his last game with Jakovenko. He has won all his whites so far..... amazing.

The question is, will Carlsen attempt to avoid Jakovenko's Berlin? Or try to grind out another win like he did in MTel?

I think he needs just one more draw to win the tournament

A win and a draw will put him at or very close to 2800.

Reb, Kasprov had some good results in Linares over the years. Twice having 7 wins in 13 games ('92 and '93) and once with 5 wins in 10 games (2001). I'm not sure about the relative strengths of the fields between all these events. Of course, Karpov's 1994 Linares is supposed to be the strongest tournament performance of all time where he had 8 wins and 6 draws in 14 games.

I guess we'll see Where Carlsen's performance lands amonsgt (or at the top!) of these when the tournament is over. So many times you see someone in this position draw out the remaining games for the tournament victory.

 Ivanchuk comes to mind in the 2008 M-Tel tournament.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=64274

 Wow !  Thats a great performance by Chuky too ! He will also be playing in Corus next year.....

 If I am not mistaken Karpov won 9 games in Linares 1994 and drew the remainder. Probably the greatest Linares result ever.

Linares 1994 was one for the ages.

It was also the same tournament that Kasparov took a move back against Judit Polgar.

Before the tournament Kasparov said the winner could legitimately be called the Tournament Champion of the world.

hmm.. good enough!!

Yes, he's unstoppable! Anybody knows how the other games went? If drawn, I suppose Carlsen has already won the tournament?

All the games were decisive in round 8 !!

Jakovenko beat Radjabov with white and

Topalov beat Leko with black .

Thanks, NM Reb. Guess Carlsen can make it with a draw tomorrow, but a last win with white wouldn't be that bad... :)

As far as i know, Carlsen won the tournament when he dominated in the first 5 rounds ! (4.5/5 But couldav been 5/5 if he hadnt run into time trouble against Yue)

This guy is unbelievable!

You're absolutely right, thanks for the correction. He had 9 wins and 4 draws for 11/13. (Somehow I had 11/14 and calculated the wins/draws from there.)