Carlsen's Corus

There's no mistaking that we're at the start of the Magnus Carlsen era in the game, as the 19-year-old Norwegian world No.1 continues to dominate his peers by winning yet another super-tournament.

In his last five major outings, Carlsen has come 1st at Nanjing Pearl Spring, 2nd at the Tal Memorial in Moscow, captured the World Blitz crown, 1st at the London Chess Classic...and now 1st place at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament in the Netherlands! While Carlsen's +4 winning score of 8.5/13 was good enough for outright victory in the first major of the year, his performance in doing so was far from convincing as he's yet to mature into the dominating style of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov.

He also had a bit of luck on his side down the homestretch. In the final round, he struggled to draw against Fabiano Caruana, who could well have scored an upset win to ruin the script. That plus a bizarre final round finish from early leader Alexei Shirov, who was down to his final seconds and agreed a draw against Lenier Dominguez in a totally won position (see GM Gawain Jones' choice for our final GOTD below) could have changed the outcome of Carlsen's Corus.

Shirov had the conciliation of being back in the big-time with a share of 2nd equal with Kramnik on 8/13. Other standout results include US Champion Hikaru Nakamura grinding a tough last round victory over Sergy Tiviakov to come equal 4th-5th alongside Anand on a +2 score of 7.5/13.

In the coming months, Chess.FM will be back on the air for Linares, Spain (12-25 Feb), the Amber tournament in Nice, France (13-25 March), the Topalov-Anand World Championship match, Sofia, Bulgaria (23 April - 12 May), and then the US Championship in St. Louis (13-25 May) - so if you want all the best in live grandmaster commentary from these major events with the likes of Peter Svidler, Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, Jon Speelman and Gregory Kaidanov etc, then don't delay and sign-up today to be an ICC member by clicking here

Apart from the live coverage, Chess.FM also brings you our popular Game of the Day service from each of these events. As a sample of what you can expect as a benefit of being a member of ICC, below we've made all of our GOTDs from Carlsen's Corus to non-members - this is a once-only offer and will not be repeated for all those other major events on the horizon.

Svidler's Rally

Joining Mig in the Chess.FM hot-seat for round two was a very special guest in five-time Russian champion Peter Svidler (and also for an hour, GM Jan Gustafsson). Top-flight commentators is one of the many reasons to be a member here at ICC - and for non-members to tune-in to what ICC members will be getting every round of Corus, we're bringing you the full 5-hour rebroadcast of Mig & Svidler's round two action from Corus. To listen in full, click here.

Game of the Day

Rd	Commentator	Game	Free Viewing
13	GM Gawain Jones	GM Alexei Shirov vs. GM Leinier Dominguez
12	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Viswanathan Anand vs. GM Vladimir Kramnik
11	GM Larry Christiansen	GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Leinier Dominguez
10	GM Joel Benjamin	GM Viswanathan Anand vs. GM Alexei Shirov
9	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Vladimir Kramnik
8	GM Gawain Jones	GM Vladimir Kramnik vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura
7	GM Joel Benjamin	GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Alexei Shirov
6	GM Nick De Firmian	GM Ray Robson vs. FM Benjamin Bok
5	GM Jon Speelman	GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Magnus Carlsen
4	GM Larry Christiansen	GM Alexei Shirov vs. GM Jan Smeets
3	GM Peter Svidler	GM Nigel Short vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura
2	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Loek Van Wely
1	GM Gregory Kaidanov	GM Loek van Wely vs. GM Nigel Short

Macauley's videos

Macauley Peterson was also in the press room at Corus bringing us all the latest news & gossip and a round-up of all the best video action - and he'll be on the road for all those other major events on the horizon! You can view his free video player from Corus by clicking on the image below - some of the highlights include Anand Plays Spoiler, a Vladamir Kramnik interview, segments of his Carlsen post-mortem, and a special 19min worth of Hikaru Nakamura's post-mortem of his win over Shirov! You can also follow Chess.FM on our Twitter page http://twitter.com/ChessFM.

Corus Crosstable

N	Name	FED	FIDE	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	PTS	TPR
1	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2810	.	0	½	½	½	1	1	½	1	½	½	1	½	1	8½	2822
2	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2788	1	.	½	0	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	8	2801
3	Shirov, Alexei	ESP	2723	½	½	.	0	0	½	½	1	½	1	½	1	1	1	8	2806
4	Anand, Viswanathan	IND	2790	½	1	1	.	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	7½	2770
5	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2708	½	0	1	½	.	0	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	7½	2777
6	Karjakin, Sergey	UKR	2720	0	½	½	½	1	.	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	7	2748
7	Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	2749	0	½	½	½	½	½	.	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	7	2746
8	Leko, Peter	HUN	2739	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	.	½	1	½	0	½	1	6½	2717
9	Dominguez, Leinier	CUB	2712	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	.	½	½	½	1	½	6½	2719
10	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2675	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	0	½	.	½	½	1	0	5½	2665
11	Short, Nigel D	ENG	2696	½	½	½	½	0	0	½	½	½	½	.	0	½	½	5	2634
12	Van Wely, Loek	NED	2641	0	0	0	½	0	½	0	1	½	½	1	.	1	0	5	2638
13	Tiviakov, Sergei	NED	2662	½	½	0	½	0	½	½	½	0	0	½	0	.	1	4½	2613
14	Smeets, Jan	NED	2657	0	0	0	½	½	½	0	0	½	1	½	1	0	.	4½	2614

During each of our main Chess.FM events coming in the next few months, we'll also have the New In Chess trivia, where each day an ICC member can win a 1-year subscription to New In Chess magazine. There's also Game of the Day trivia sponsored by USCF Sales, where each day an ICC member can win a $70 gift certificate for the USCF Sales store.

Now is the time to join ICC for the best in all the live chess action from Linares, Amber, Anand-Topalov to the US Championship here at Chess.FM. To join ICC, please click here.