Added on 11/25/2011
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 N Name FED FIDE Score TPR 1 Carlsen Magnus NOR 2826 5.5 2851 2 Aronian Levon ARM 2802 5.5 2854 3 Karjakin Sergey RUS 2763 5.0 2821 4 Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 2730 5.0 2825 5 Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2775 5.0 2820 6 Svidler Peter RUS 2755 4.5 2779 7 Anand Viswanathan IND 2811 4.5 2773 8 Gelfand Boris ISR 2744 3.5 2700 9 Kramnik Vladimir RUS 2800 3.5 2694 10 Nakamura Hikaru USA 2758 3.0 2653 Game of the Day Trivia! ICC presents the daily trivia contests, where each day an ICC member will win 1 and 3 month membership extensions. 'New in Chess' TRIVIA! ICC and New in Chess present The New in Chess' Trivia Contest, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 year subscription to NIC! Tal '11 ICC 1 month ICC 3 months NiC subscription Round 1 Phlox sisu jazzmoves Round 2 KingSnake Abel Frankygolucky Round 3 Sylvanas Phlox DuoFold Round 4 CaptainHook MattF sly20 Round 5 sisu Arctor Rodin7 Round 6 sisu Denethor Bertomeeggo Round 7 mathman Phlox dereito Round 8 Denethor funkymunky Chealino Round 9 Denethor todd toktok