Carlsen's Conquests – at 22 he has broken all records

Carlsen's Conquests

By Michael von Keitz

Record winners in Wijk aan Zee: Max Euwe (four times), Lajos Portisch (four), Viswanathan Anand (five)

Started in 1938, in its early days, Wijk aan Zee played host to the Netherlands' favourite son, Max Euwe. No slouch, he managed to take the title an impressive four times. History, however, had another dominant force in mind for the all-time record. This came in 2006 when, in a tie with Topalov, Anand clinched his fifth title. In comparison, Carlsen has now taken the title thrice: once in 2008, again in 2010, and, most recently, in 2013.

Leading up to this year's edition, the largest margin of victory in recent memory had been a full point, as achieved by Aronian in 2012 en route to a 9/13 score. A nice 2891 performance rating accompanied the result, the best-ever in this event up to that point.

Carlsen's +7, however, has now earned him a noticeably better performance of 2930 and, equally important, a 1.5-point margin. In fact, under the modern 13-round model, the record margin of victory is 1.5 points, achieved twice before: once by Short in 1986 (9.5/13) and once by Kasparov in 2000 (9.5/13). Carlsen was well-placed to eclipse this mark, but Giri had other plans, leaving the Norwegian with nothing more than a share of this particular record. Other players over the years that have secured the same margin, over greater or fewer rounds, include: Taimanov (12/15 in 1970), Portisch (10.5/15 in 1972), Browne (11/15 in 1974) and Nikolic (7/9 in 1994).

Although he only managed to edge Anand by a half a point in doing so, as opposed to the 1.5 margin of the year following, Kasparov also has the highest score ever achieved under this format (10/13 in 1999), now joined by Carlsen, who, again, perhaps seemed poised for something greater. The main difference between these two outings, though, lies in the fact that Carlsen managed to remain unbeaten, while Kasparov did not.

The takeaway message seems to be that Carlsen, at the tender age of 22, may have just logged the best showing Wijk aan Zee has ever seen: an undefeated +7, with the highest performance rating, margin of victory (tied) and total points (tied) ever witnessed at this event under the 14-player RR format. To top it all off, with years of play ahead of him, he is already only two tournament victories away from the all-time record for this event. Shudder-inducing, to be sure.

These event-specific accolades, of course, are great, but Carlsen also rose to the challenge of leveling a few lifetime scores, which are included amongst the following (reflected as Carlsen's record against [post-event], under standard time controls, followed by the result of their encounter in this event):

What Carlsen has achieved to date is monstrous, but it is surely only the beginning. Some highlights:

If Carlsen made a New Year's resolution, one can only assume it was to add to this list in November by equaling Kasparov in securing the World Championship title at the age of 22. Until that time, however, we can continue to follow his uncompromising style in super-tournaments, of which he has now won 18. Alekhine, who might be considered the recordholder, won 39 "super-tournaments" of his own, over a span of 30+ years. Meanwhile, Carlsen's 5+ years of success, starting with Biel in August 2007, puts him on pace to achieve well over that indelible mark.

As goes without saying: "Lights! Carlsen! Action!"

Copyright von Keitz/ChessBase