chess: Magnus Carlsen wins FIDE World Rapid 2014 -DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL ___________________________________

World Champion and world number one in international chess, Magnus Carlsen of Norway added ON June 18 June another fine feather to his decorated chess crown by winning the gold medal at the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in Dubai. Carlsen concluded the event with

11,0/15 points, half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana (10.5). Caruana is awarded with the silver, thanks to the best tie-break score (average rating of the opponents). The world’s top rated player in rapid chess, Hikaru Nakamura, had a setback in the first round against Eduardo Iturrizaga and couldn’t achieve more than 29th place (8,5 points). Viswanathan Anando came fifth took the bronze with a shared 9 points.

The key moment was the penultimate round to which Caruana, Carlsen and Anand arrived with equal points – 9,5 each. Carlsen defeated Alexander Grischuk after miraculous escape from the poor position. Finally, Caruana lost to Aronian with white pieces and slipped down in the standings. In the same round, Aronian and Sergey Karjakin caught up with Anand on the shared second place.

In the last round Carlsen easily held Radjabov to a draw, waiting to see if any of his nearest followers could catch him on the shared first place. Aronian pressed hard against Anand, but could not make more than a draw. At the same time, Karjakin went down against Alexander Morozevich, and Caruana bounced back with a win against Le Quang Liem.

The defending World Rapid Champion from Khanty-Mansiysk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, had a bad start with 3/7 and a series of wins in the middle of the tournament was canceled by another poor display on the final day. 7,5 points and 54th place for the popular Shakh.

The FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship was held on 16-18th June at the Dubai Culture & Chess Club. The event was completed over 15 rounds with the time control 15 min + 10 sec.

In October Carlsen will met Anando for retaining the World Championship. Last year, Carlsen defeated Anando in Chennai, India to become the World Championship.