World chess champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen emerged victorious in the brutal Tata Steel Masters Chess Tournament in the Netherlands recently. No player was safe in the competition. All suffered defeats at one time or another. Early on, Carlsen and the world’s number two, Fabiano Caruana were outplayed at the hands of a Polish player, Radoslaw Wojtazek. But Carlsen rebounded, and in a series of exciting games, notched-up six wins in succession to claim the tournament. Caruana did not do as well and finished seventh in the overall points table. France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished in second place while the Indian-Dutch grandmaster, Anish Giri, placed third.
We are not clear as to the player who received the prestigious Brilliancy Prize, as that player has not yet been named. In the Challengers section of the tournament, the teenage grandmaster Wei Yi from China won, and inevitably clinched a place in next year’s Masters competition. During the 13-round tournament, Yi was in devastating form, scoring eight wins and five draws; a phenomenal performance. He added 20 points to his FIDE rating of 2675. Grandmasters David Navarra, 2729, and Samuel Shankland, 2652, were second and third respectively.
The 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is currently underway and at the end of round two, India’s grandmaster Debarashi Das scored a
