Carlsen Hangs On For Corus Title

Sunday January 31, 2010

It wasn't pretty, but Magnus Carlsen added another notch to his belt by hanging on to win the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen found himself in a difficult (perhaps even losing) position against Fabiano Caruana in the final round, but Caruana couldn't find a way to win, allowing Carlsen to draw. Combined with draws by Vladimir Kramnik and Alexei Shirov, Carlsen's 8.5/13 score left him a half-point ahead of his nearest competitors.

The only decisive game in the final round came from Hikaru Nakamura, who scored a victory over Sergey Tiviakov to claim a share of 4th place. Along with Viswanathan Anand, Nakamura finished a point behind Carlsen.

In the lower groups, there was less drama in the final round. Anish Giri drew to take first place in Group B with a 9/13 score, a half-point ahead of German grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch. This victory earns Giri a spot in next year's A Group. In Group C, Li Chao finished 1.5 points ahead of the field with an impressive 10/13 score, coasting to first place. American Ray Robson, who led earlier in the event, finished in a tie for 5th. Robson did well against the bottom half of the field, but had no success at all against the leaders, losing all four of his games against the top four players in the group.

Overall, Corus was a successful tournament for the winner Carlsen, despite a few rocky points and a bit of luck in the final round. Some might have expected an even bigger score, but the world's #1-rated player still outperformed his rating, and it's hard to fault a 2800 player who does that. The other big winner in Wijk aan Zee may have been Hikaru Nakamura, who showed that he can compete at the elite level with a solid +2 score. That might be enough to start securing Nakamura more invitations to top-level events -- something American fans would be very thankful for