Carlsen gets second highest rating in chess history after Kings Chess Tournament win

Marcel Adrian Piteiu, CEO of sponsor Romgaz, and

Magnus Carlsen holding the trophy

Hi Everybody!

Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway, at the age of 19, has notched up the second highest rating in chess history with a win at the Kings Chess Tournament in Bazna, Romania.

Carlsen's five wins and five draws in the double round-robin tournament has earned him a spectacular rating of 2826. Former world champion Gary Kasparov has held the highest rating of 2851. Carlsen finished with 7.5/10 - full two points ahead of the others.

That's even more commendable considering the rest of the field included Ukrainian GM Ruslan Ponomariov a former FIDE knockout world champion; Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the FIDE World Cup 2009; the top Chinese player Wang Yue; Teimour Radjabov, the second highest ranked player of Azerbaijan, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the best Romanian player!

The competition took place from June 14-25 and was organized by ROMGAZ and the Chess Club Society 'Elisabeta Polihroniade' of Bucharest.

Carlsen, playing the longest game of the last round at the tournament, use the Black side of a Gruenfeld Defence to beat Wang Yue. In the other games of the last round, Nisipeanu lost to Ponomariov and Gelfand lost to Radjabov.

Here is the last game Wang Yue-Carlsen. You can play it in our pgnplayer or watch it in the flash applet below. You can check the official tournament website here.

PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bd2 Bg7 6. e4 Nb6 7. Be3 O-O 8. Bb5 Be6 9. Nge2 c6 10. Bd3 Nc4 11. Bxc4 Bxc4 12. O-O Nd7 13. Qd2 Qa5 14. Rfd1 Rad8 15. Bh6 Bxe2 16. Nxe2 Qxd2 17. Bxd2 Nb6 18. Bc3 Rd7 19. b3 f5 20. f3 Rfd8 21. Re1 fxe4 22. fxe4 e5 23. dxe5 Rd3 24. g3 Nd7 25. e6 Bxc3 26. Nxc3 Ne5 27. Red1 Kf8 28. Rac1 Ke7 29. Rxd3 Rxd3 30. Rc2 Nf3+ 31. Kf1 Nd4 32. Rc1 Kxe6 33. Rd1 Rxc3 34. Rxd4 Rc2 35. a4 Rxh2 36. a5 Rh5 37. b4 Rh2 38. a6 b5 39. e5 Ra2 40. Rd6+ Kxe5 41. Rxc6 Kf5 42. Rc7 Rxa6 43. Rxh7 Kg4 44. Kf2 Ra2+ 45. Ke3 g5 46. Rg7 Rb2 47. Rxa7 Kxg3 0-1

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see my personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com