Magnus Carlsen wins Grenke Chess Classic for a third time

A sixth consecutive victory!

The last time Magnus Carlsen played in a tournament and did not emerge as the winner was in November last year, when he played on the top board for Norway at the European Team Championship — Carlsen scored 6½/8 points in Budva, nonetheless. Before that, the world number one had struggled at the Qatar Masters, where he scored 6/9 for a disappointing 16^th place in the final standings.

Since then, however, the 33-year-old (his birthday is on November 30) has collected six tournament victories in a row. Carlsen won the Champions Chess Tour Finals, the World Rapid Championship, the World Blitz Championship, the Chessable Masters, the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge and now the Grenke Chess Classic.

Master Class Vol.8 - Magnus Carlsen 2nd Edition

Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.

In Karlsruhe, Carlsen claimed his third triumph in the Grenke Classic. The Norwegian played in 5 out of the 7 editions of the event, failing to claim first place twice — in 2017, when Levon Aronian took first place, and in 2018, when Fabiano Caruana emerged victorious.

Carlsen won the previous edition of the Classic, in 2019. The event was a 10-player single round-robin with a 2724 average rating. Carlsen remained undefeated and obtained a 7½/9 score to leave Caruana a full 1½ points behind in sole second place. The impressive showing granted the long-standing world number one a 2983 Tournament Performance Rating.

Magnus Carlsen defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final round of the 2019 edition | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

This time around, the organizers put forth a more dynamic format, with a ‘fast-classical’ time control (45+10) and a playoff section at the end of the event. Following the 6-player double round-robin, those placed first and second in the standings fought for first place in a 2-game match. Carlsen’s opponent, Richard Rapport, defeated the eventual tournament winner in the first round of the event and finished the all-play-all in clear second place.

The final saw Carlsen winning the first game with the white pieces and then saving a draw from what at times looked like a completely losing position.

Matches for third and fifth places also took place on Monday. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Vincent Keymer in blitz playoffs (2½-1½) to grab third place, while world champion Ding Liren got the better of Daniel Fridman ‘in regulation’ (1½-½) to secure fifth place.

Improve your pieces - a winning system you need to know

In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave grabbed third place after winning a hard-fought match against Vincent Keymer | Photo: Angelika Valkova

Carlsen 1 - 0 Rapport

Top Choice Repertoire: Play the French Defence Vol.1 & 2

In this two-volume video course former world-champion and startrainer Rustam Kasimdzhanov shows you the ins and outs of this hugely complex opening.

All games - Round robin

All games - Playoffs

Game analysis by Robert Ris

Links

• Official website
• Grenke Classic: Magnus caps grand performance with a win (2019)
• Grenke Classic: Caruana clear first after clutch win (2018)
• Grenke Classic: Aronian misses win in exciting finale (2017)