World chess champion Magnus Carlsen played and won his first tournament, the Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, last week, following his famous victory over beaten Indian grandmaster and previous champ, Viswanathan Anand. Some of the world’s more prolific grandmasters, namely, Anand, Caruana, Gelfand, Aronian and Nakamura participated in the tournament.
Although Carlsen was the overall winner of the tournament , it was the Italian star player, Fabiano Caruana, who came away with the rapid section of the event. The ‘rapids’ are the speed sections where you are allowed four minutes per player per game. The classical version of the game is when you are given time to think longer, say like two hours per player per game. Carlsen was unbeaten in the long games but had his substantial lead effectively diminished during the rapids. The points systems in both versions of the tournament, were counted together.
The blitz games were used to determine the colours. The classical time controls gave two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The blitz time controls awarded one point for a win, half of a point for a draw and nothing for losses.
In the blitz version of the tournament, Carlsen defeated Israel’s grandmaster Boris Gelfand in their opening match. But that was the only game which he won. In a magnificent positional duel, the Armenian grandmaster and the world’s number two chess player, Levon Aronian, smashed the world champion. In a well-played Catalan, Aronian seized control of the light squares. And with precise strikes, he obtained a decisive advantage, and converted a winning endgame into a full point. Carlsen drew some other games, but his lead was so large in the classical games, that it did not affect his standing in the tournament.
