Carlsen Wins London Classic
There were two decisive games in the final round of the 2009 London Chess Classic, but neither came in the crucial games that decided the fate of the title.
Carlsen held an advantage for a long time against Short but almost blew it in a tricky queen and pawn ending. Eventually, both players promoted pawns and a draw resulted.
The game between Nakamura and Kramnik was an entertaining struggle, but a draw was a fair result.
The last-round wins came from Mickey Adams who beat Luke McShane, and David Howell who ended the tournament on a high by beating Ni Hua.
So Magnus Carlsen wins the inaugural London Chess Classic, and thanks to his +3 score has surpassed Veselin Topalov on the unofficial live rating list. With no further rated games expected to be played by either player until the next official FIDE rating list is published on 1 January 2010, Carlsen will become the youngest official #1 in chess history!
The final result:
| Score | Win | Draw | Loss | |||
| Carlsen, Magnus | 2801 | NOR | 13 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 2772 | RUS | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Howell, David | 2597 | ENG | 9 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| Adams, Michael | 2698 | ENG | 9 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| McShane, Luke | 2615 | ENG | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Ni, Hua | 2665 | CHN | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | 2715 | USA | 6 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Short, Nigel | 2707 | ENG | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
