Chess - The Scotsman 03/04/13

FOOTBALL managers are fond of saying, “A win’s a win” and Norway’s young superstar Magnus Carlsen had to be thinking along those lines come the end of the Candidates Tournament in London, as he stumbled across the finish line as challenger to Indian world champion Viswanathan Anand’s for the title in November.

After leading for much of the tournament, Carlsen, 22, crashed to two losses in the final three rounds, falling to Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and in the last round Russia’s Peter Svidler. But former world champion Vladimir Kramnik – tied with Carlsen going into Monday’s final round – also sensationally went down in flames to Ivanchuk, so Carlsen emerged for his date with destiny, as the tiebreaker was decided on won games: Carlsen won five, Kramnik four.

Ivanchuk had the unenviable record of losing five games on time, but had the last laugh of the tournament by beating Carlsen and Kramnik in the final rounds.

As the dramatic final round unfolded, Kramnik – who was uncharacteristically being pushed off the board – had to be careful not to be blown away completely, as 26 ..Nxf3? 27 Nf6+! Kh8 28 Rxh6+! mates quickly.

Final standings: 1-2. Carlsen (winning on tiebreak), Kramnik, 8.5/14; 3-4. Svidler, Aronian, 8; 5-6. Gelfand, Grischuk, 6.5; 7. Ivanchuk, 6; 8. Radjabov, 4

V Ivanchuk - V Kramnik

FIDE Candidates, (14)

Pirc Defence

1 d4 d6 2 e4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Be2 0–0 6 0–0 a6 7 h3 Nc6 8 Bg5 b5 9 a3 h6 10 Be3 e5 11 dxe5 dxe5 12 Qc1 Kh7 13 Bc5 Re8 14 Rd1 Bd7 15 b4 Qc8 16 Qe3 Nd8 17 a4 bxa4 18 Nxa4 Ne6 19 Bc4 Nh5 20 Nc3 Nhf4 21 Nd5 Bb5 22 Bb3 Bc6 23 Ra5 Qb7 24 g3 Nxh3+ 25 Kg2 Nhg5 26 Rh1! Kg8 27 Nxg5 Nxg5 28 f3 Bxd5 29 Bxd5 c6 30 Bc4 Qc8 31 Qb3 h5 32 Be3 Ne6 33 Rha1 h4 34 gxh4 Qd8 35 Rxa6 Rc8 36 Rh1 Rc7 37 Bxe6 Rxe6 38 b5 Rb7 39 b6 c5 40 Rb1 Bf8 41 Qd5 Qb8 42 Rba1 Rd6 43 Ra8 Rxd5 44 Rxb8 Rxb8 45 exd5 Bd6 46 Ra6 Rb7 47 Kf1 1–0