Carlsen Breaks Chess Rating Record!
When Magnus Carlsen won his fourth round game against Gawain Jones in the London Chess Classic today, he not only took the sole lead in the tournament - he also achieved the highest ever 'live' Elo rating.
It was a fighting display by the 2012 British Champion, but Magnus Carlsen was just too good and his live rating is now an incredible 2857.4 Elo.
The next game to finish was the encounter between Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. Unfortunately, the position became completely blocked by pawn chains and the players agreed a draw once they reached the first time control.
If anyone find's the world champion's mojo, can they send it back c/o the London Chess Classic? 
Hikaru Nakamura's game with Mickey Adams was considerably more interesting, but the end result was also a draw.
The last game to finish was a crazy battle between Luke McShane and Lev Aronian. The game was amazing: four connected passed pawns for white, followed by two black Queens on the board, then underpromotion to a knight, before McShane was checkmated on move 76. Now that's entertainment!
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the tournament's only rest day, so round five is on Thursday.
The Sicilian eh? Gawain Jones goes down fighting against Magnus Carlsen!
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Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik cancelled each other out
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Hikaru Nakamura and Mickey Adams played down to bare Kings
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Luke Mcshane and Lev Aronian had an amazing game
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The standings after 4 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)
| Name | Fed | Elo | Gms | Pts |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2848 | 4 | 10 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2795 | 4 | 8 |
| Adams, Michael | ENG | 2710 | 3 | 7 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2760 | 4 | 5 |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2815 | 4 | 4 |
| Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2775 | 3 | 3 |
| Jones, Gawain C B | ENG | 2644 | 4 | 2 |
| McShane, Luke | ENG | 2713 | 3 | 1 |
| Polgar, Judit | HUN | 2705 | 3 | 1 |
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The 2012 London Chess Classic runs from 1-10 December , with one rest day on the 5th December. Games start at 14:00 GMT, except round four (16:00), and the final round (12:00).
The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves, then 30 minutes to finish. The 'Bilbao' style 3-1-0 scoring system is being used.
In the event of tied scores at the end of the competition, tie breaks are 1) # of wins 2) # of wins with black, 3) head-to-head result. If these mathematical tiebreakers are not enough, then there will be rapid tie-break games and if needed, a final sudden death game.
More information on all the London Chess Classic events is at the official website, including live games and video commentary.
Photos by Ray Morris-Hill. Games via TWIC.
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Another packed auditorium at the London Chess Classic today!
