OpenChess

A fter two editions dedicated to the glories of the years 80-90 and the third edition which has represented a very strong tournament of XX category, the Kings' Tournament reaches now its top level (rating average 2742). This year's edition is a part of the Grand Slam Circuit and is special first of all thanks to the participation of the magnificent Norvegian Magnus Carlsen, which at only 19 years old has a rating of 2813 and is the world number 1 player! The previous year's winner, the Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk had to play in Cuba in this period and has been replaced by his fellow countryman, the ex-FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Other participants are: the 2009 World-Cup winner Boris Gelfand, the best Chinese player Wang Yue, the second-best Azerbaijani player Teimour Radjabov and the best Romanian player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. The competition will take place from the 14-th to the 25-th of June in Medias (in the heart of Transilvania) and taking into consideration the above-mentioned outstanding players it will certainly provide us with great and spectacular chess.

Ranking crosstable after Round 6
Rk. 		Name 	Rtg 	FED 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	Pts. 	 TB1  	 TB2  	 TB3 
1 	GM 	Carlsen Magnus 	2813 	NOR 	*** 	½ 	½ 	1 	½ 1 	1 	4,5 	3 	0,0 	11,00
2 	GM 	Radjabov Teimour 	2740 	AZE 	½ 	*** 	1 	0 ½ 	1 	½ 	3,5 	2 	1,0 	10,00
3 	GM 	Gelfand Boris 	2741 	ISR 	½ 	0 	*** 	½ 	1 	1 ½ 	3,5 	2 	0,0 	8,50
4 	GM 	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 	2672 	ROU 	0 	1 ½ 	½ 	*** 	0 	½ 	2,5 	1 	0,0 	8,00
5 	GM 	Ponomariov Ruslan 	2733 	UKR 	½ 0 	0 	0 	1 	*** 	½ 	2,0 	1 	0,0 	5,75
6 	GM 	Wang Yue 	2752 	CHN 	0 	½ 	0 ½ 	½ 	½ 	*** 	2,0 	0 	0,0 	5,75

Martin Thoresen wrote:Carlsen played flawlessly and Radjabov resigned.

5.5 / 7 for Carlsen now, and about 2825 in live rating.

Andrew wrote:Carlsen doesn't have any match experience does he?

Martin Thoresen wrote:

Andrew wrote:Carlsen doesn't have any match experience does he?

Not much, only a little.

4 years ago he drew Loek Van Wely 2.0-2.0 in their match, but Carlsen won the blitz games tiebreaks comfortably 3.5-0.5 to win 5.5-2.5 in total.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3085
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=52158
Carlsen was rated slightly lower than Van Wely at that time.

Then Carlsen played the already famous candidate match vs Aronian in the summer of 2007.
I remember this one, was extremely exiciting and thrilling.
They played 3.0-3.0 in the normal long time control match, then 2.0-2.0 in the rapid tiebreak before Aronian won 2-0 in the blitz tiebreak to win 7.0-5.0 in total.
http://www.chessbase.eu/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3904
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=61997
Aronian was rated over 60 points higher than Carlsen at this time.

Also in 2007 Carlsen and Radjabov played 2 x rapid + 2 x blitz + 1 armageddon games in "Match of the Hopes". Radjabov won 3.5-2.5
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3867
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=61860

Then in 2008 Carlsen beat Peter Leko 5.0-3.0 in their rapid game match.
http://www.chessbase.eu/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4672
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=64376


I think these matches are the closest Carlsen has come to "real" matches so far.

notyetagm wrote:

Martin Thoresen wrote:Carlsen played flawlessly and Radjabov resigned.

5.5 / 7 for Carlsen now, and about 2825 in live rating.

Wow.

Looking forward to Carlsen-Anand London 2012.