Carlsen Wins Again In Nanjing
The 2009 Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China, has ended with yet another win from Magnus Carlsen.
Some commentators suggested that Carlsen would play for a draw in the final round, but he clearly meant business against Jakovenko despite already having wrapped up first place in the penultimate round.
Perhaps an added incentive was the knowledge that the win would take his live rating over the magic 2800 Elo mark, and his astonishing 8/10 result equates to a mindboggling TPR of over 3000! And he's still only 18! 
(I've now officially run out of superlatives to describe Magnus, so please feel free to add your own in the comments! 
)
However, Topalov is still the #1 ranked player and he fought long and hard in a fascinating struggle against Radjabov in the final round, but a repetition finally ended the game after 95 moves. Leko v Yue also ended in a shorter and rather less memorable draw.
The final standings are below. Carlsen scored 5/5 with the white pieces!
| Name | Nat | Elo | TPR | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2772 | * | * | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3002 |
| 2 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2813 | 0 | ½ | * | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5½ | 2789 |
| 3 | Wang Yue | CHN | 2736 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | * | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4½ | 2733 |
| 4 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2757 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4 | 2693 |
| 5 | Leko, Peter | HUN | 2762 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | * | ½ | ½ | 4 | 2692 |
| 6 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2742 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | * | * | 4 | 2696 |
Carlsen plays next month in the Tal Memorial in Moscow, where he will face an extremely powerful field including Anand, Aronian, Kramnik and Ivanchuk. Will he be able to maintain his form? Or at least perform well enough to keep his 2800+ rating until the next official rating list?
