Carlsen Retains World Rapid Title With Practical Chess

Magnus Carlsen won the World Rapid Championship on Monday in Berlin, Germany. The Norwegian GM finished a full point ahead of the pack, clinched the $40,000 first prize and retained the title he won last year in Dubai.

Photos by Lena Kashirsky, Nailya Bikmurzina & Gregor Anthes.

“My form was decent, but it was more a triumph of practical strength,” said Magnus Carlsen at the press conference after winning the Rapid World Championship — again.

Winning the rapid title must have given the Norwegian mixed feelings: on the one hand he had clearly been the best player over 15 rounds, but at the same time he wasn't able to demonstrate his superiority with chess moves.

Carlsen went as far as describing his play as “nothing spectacular.” Twice he mentioned that his advantage on the clock was often more significant than that on the board. “Many of my games, most of them were pretty even but I didn't blunder much and I usually took the opportunities when they were there. And I usually had more time.”

The surprising co-leader after two days was Sergei Zhigalko, who was Carlsen's opponent in round 11. The Belarussian gave up the bishop pair for a pawn and was doing OK for quite some time, but it was too hard to defend against that passer on d3.

The big game in round 12 was Carlsen versus Vassily Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian hasn't scored big results in recent years, but remains a very dangerous player who can beat just about anyone on a given day.

After a brief think Chuky decided to go for the Petroff, and all went well: if anyone was better in the rook ending it was Black. But, with less time on the clock, Ivanchuk erred and found himself in a lost queen and pawn endgame.

The queen ending was in fact drawn for one move.

After missing some chances against Kramnik (that game was a draw), Ivanchuk had a typical Chuky moment (really, this kind of thing has happened to him many times): he forgot to press the clock and lost on time in a promising position against Teimour Radjabov.

Ivanchuk convincingly beat Akopian in the final round and so the 46-year-old Ukrainian can still be reasonably satisfied. With this form, he'll be fighting for the top prizes in the blitz.

Which chess fan isn't happy to see Chuky playing well?

Back to Carlsen, who finished his tournament with three games that were indeed not very spectacular. We cannot complain that he drew a solid game as Black against Leinier Dominguez, but a 16-move draw with Vladimir Kramnik in a 5.Re1 Berlin was rather disappointing for the fans. Practical chess!

This draw clinched the title for Carlsen, who was a point ahead in the standings and had the best first tiebreaker: average rating of the opponents. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was a dangerous opponent in the last round, had he got some chances, but Carlsen managed to hold:

“I think it's important not to let the result affect you too much,” said Carlsen. “For me, even in the first round I get a very strong grandmaster, 2600, and especially with the black pieces you shouldn't be afraid of draws when you're playing 15 rounds. You just keep going.

“I think there were many games which could have gone either way for me but I always had a bit more time and a little bit more control of the position at critical junctures.”

Carlsen: back to winning chess tournaments.

Last year Ian Nepomniachtchi didn't do so well in the rapid, but finished second behind Carlsen in the blitz. This year the Russian GM came second in the rapid, and so he's surely one of the favorites again in the coming days.

“You know it couldn't be worse! Of course I'm kidding. The tournament is sort of good, second place in such a strong tournament is always a success,” Nepomniachtchi said. “I think I gave up most of my chances to win yesterday in my game against Zhigalko but once in 15 games such a collapse can happen so I couldn't go much about it and I just kept playing.

“In general, maybe if I would be a bit more lucky I would score half a point or a point more but still it's not so clear because Magnus was clearly playing for the draw in the last two rounds. I think in general the result is somewhat fair.”

Nepomniachtchi sitting next to Daniil Dubov (l.)

Carlsen had a few nice words for frenemy Nepomniachtchi, who was born in the same year: “I never beat Ian in a tournament game, either classical, rapid or blitz. Whenever we play eachother I just try to survive and beat the rest. I'm very happy for Ian, we've known each other for a long time, he's doing well here. But I was also happy that I was first, of course!”

Sergey Karjakin scored 3.0/5 on the last day and eventually finished in shared 13th place. Baku took its toll, also for e.g. Pavel Eljanov. The Ukrainian, shared 50th, admitted to Chess.com that he was still tired.

One has to go down the list and look carefully to find more big names. Vishy Anand was in the same group as Karjakin with 9.5, but Aronian scored a full point less. Grischuk collected 9 points. Ponomariov (7.5) and Morozevich (6.5) did even worse.

Aronian and Anand, here chatting with Tigran Petrosian, have known better (rapid) times.

How strong was this World Rapid? Eljanov finished 74, Tomashevsky 42, Svidler 34, Gelfand 32, Grischuk 31, Anand 24, Karjakin 21 and MVL 10.

— Olimpiu G. Urcan (@OlimpiuUrcan) October 13, 2015

The first three days in Berlin were well attended. Especially on Saturday, when more than 500 spectators showed up, it was seriously crowded. If held in a big city, and with the world champ playing, chess can be a fine spectator sport.

Carlsen: “I should apologize to everybody who I have refused an autograph or a picture. I sometimes need to concentrate but thank you all, press and especially spectators for coming. Without you it's not possible for us to play.”

It must be mentioned that the organizers could do a better job for those spectators. The Bolle Meierei, a former factory in the city center, is indeed a magnificent venue but two basic things are sorely missed: food and drinks, and screens that show the games.

In chess terms, this can only be described as blunders in an otherwise well played game.

No TV or projector screens showing the games. Some spectators brought
their smartphone or tablet to follow the games via a chess app.

It was quite special last year in Dubai, when Carlsen added both the rapid and blitz titles to his classical crown. If he'll retain the blitz title as well, the word "special" will be an understatement.

Job half done. Getting ready for my favorite event, the World Blitz. pic.twitter.com/ObJ382rZLe

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) October 12, 2015

2015 World Rapid Championship | Final Standings (Top 30)

(Full standings here.)

German readers might want to check out Ulrich Stock's excellent coverage in Die Zeit.