Magnus Wins At Finish Line of Tal Memorial 2012

 Pix 1. Carlsen with his trophy. Photo © http://video.russiachess.org.

19 June 2012, Kuala Lumpur – In Moscow, Magnus Carlsen of Norway created a dramatic finish to the Tal Memorial 2012 by winning it at the finishing line or rather in the final round 9. Carlsen scored 5.5 points, a half point better than T Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

TWIC reported that Magnus Carlsen has again won the Tal Memorial after a dramatic final round. He outplayed Luke McShane who himself could have won the event if he had won this game and the other results had remained the same. McShane's solid opening allowed Carlsen to equalise quite easily and then he subsided in time trouble after missing the key move 21...a5 in his calculations.

Fabiano Caruana misplayed a Gruenfeld sideline against Levon Aronian and was quickly in terrible difficulties on the board and the clock. Aronian started "playing rubbish" in his own words but won all the same. Hikaru Nakamura played a Sicilian sideline against Teimour Radjabov and this finished in a draw. Rajdabov admitted to lousy form and many discarded chances. Tomashevsky-Grischuk was a sort of Benoni where Tomashevsky had to hang tough to draw.

Kramnik-Morozevich ended in a draw with a Semi-Slav ending where it looked like Kramnik was close to winning at one stage.

(table courtesy of TWIC)