World Blitz Championship: Carlsen wins by three-point margin

11/18/2009 – Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess phenomenon, has won this event with 31.0 points from 42 games, three points ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who himself finished three points ahead of the next-closest rival (Sergey Karjakin). Carlsen's overall performance was 2894, Anand's 2835. In fourth place we find Vladimir Kramnik. Results, games and statistics.

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World Blitz Championship

This event was held on November 16, 17 and 18 in the showroom of the Red Square mall GUM. Time controls were three minutes for the whole game + two seconds increment per move. The event was a 22-player double round-robin, i.e. it had a total of 42 rounds, which were played on three consecutive days. The participants include the players from the Tal Memorial, plus twelve invitees. The average rating was 2718 – quite remarkable for an evernt with so many players.

Third Day report

The winner of the 2009 World Blitz Championship: Magnus Carlsen

Final standings (after 42 rounds)

Ratings, performance, points, tiebreaks

Statistics

Of the 462 games played in this event, only 122 were drawn, i.e. the draw quota was just 26 percent. White won 180 games = 39% and Black 160 games = 35%. The winner, Magnus Carlsen, drew just six of 42 games, winning 28 and losing eight. Vishy Anand drew 16, winning 20 and losing six. "Bronze medalist" Sergey Karjakin won 20, drew ten and lost twelve.

Blitz World Championship on Playchess

It was an exciting day on the Playchess server, especially for visitors using the new Fritz 12 program to log in. One aspect that was especially useful is the multi-game function: instead of loading games individually you simply click on a tournament or a round, and all games are loaded in a single window.

Double-clicking any of the boards will bring it in full size up front. The Fritz engine evaluates any position that you have highlighted by clicking, and the chat window shows the comments that pertain to this game.

Naturally the window can be reshaped and resized to suit your monitor (click to enlarge image)

Links

Official tournament site (Russian)
All games in PGN + all results + all ChessBase reports

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!