Tal Memorial 2011

Magnus Carlsen has a recognized talent for being one of the best tournament finishers in the game, and the World #1 reaffirmed this status at the Tal Memorial with yet another dramatic  and classy  final round win to claim the title on tiebreak.

In a final round of fighting chess, the highlight was easily the battle of Garry Kasparov students past and present with Carlsen taking on Hikaru Nakamura with the huge fan-base for both expecting fireworks from the off...only it soon turned into a very Black Friday for the US #1, who after a dubious pawn sacrifice followed by an error saw Carlsen turning the screw with a very workman-like and instructive opposite-colored bishop win.

And with that clash coming also at the traditional start of the holiday season, the game features in a free ICC Thanksgiving Game of the Day special from GM Alex Yermolinsky! To view all the other GOTDs (and ICC's vast archive of regular weekly shows), click here now to join ICC!

The win allowed Carlsen to share first place with overnight leader Levon Aronian, who was pushed to his limits to save the draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi, but the Norwegian took the bragging rights to the title on the first tiebreak scores of playing the most blacks in the tournament.

There was some conciliation for Aronian though with his performance in Moscow seeing him leapfrog World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the unofficial live ratings, as he's now jumped to 2815.3, only nine Elo-points behind Carlsen. The biggest Moscow loser though was cellar-dweller Nakamura, who plummeted outside of the Top Ten in the live ratings and will now be looking to bounce back next week at the London Chess Classic.

Game of the Day

Rd Date Host   Preview Members 8 11/24 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere" 7 11/23 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere"   6 11/22 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere"   5 11/20 GM Gregory Kaidanov Kaidanov   4 11/19 GM Larry Christiansen LarryC   3 11/18 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere"   2 11/17 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere"   1 11/16 GM Alex Yermolinsky "Sweere"

 Final Standings after Round 9

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