Magnus Carlsen wins Qatar Masters

Photo by David Llada

World Champion Magnus Carlsen wins the Qatar Masters Chess Open 2015 after nine exciting rounds of chess. Carlsen continues the hot streak after his win in theLondon Chess Classics and secures the first place with 7 points.

GM Yu Yangyi, winner of the first edition of the tournament, finishes also with 7 points, but he lost the blitz tie-break against Carlsen. Bronze goes to Vladimir Kramnik with 6.5 points. He had the best tiebreakers in the group consisting of Sergey Karjakin, Sanan Sjugirov,Ni Hua and Vassily Ivanchuk.

For Carlsen, this tournament is his first participation and win in an open tournament this decade. His tournament story is one of peaks and troughs – he started off weakly by tying with GM Nino Batsiashvili in the first round, who became the hero of the tournament, but recovered quickly and won every game afterwards, until round 6. In it, Carlsen faced Wesley So – the players were unable to best each other. Another tie followed next round, this time with GM Anish Giri. A clutch win next round against GM Mamedyarov kept Carlsen’s chances for the gold alive. In the final round, he tied with 3rd place winner Kramnik, taking home $27 000; even Yu Yangyi’s solid win over Wesley So in the 9th round could not compensate for his weaker earlier performance.

Final standings (6 pts or more):

1. GM Carlsen Magnus NOR 2834 – 7
2. GM Yu Yangyi CHN 2736 – 7
3. GM Kramnik Vladimir RUS 2796 – 6.5
4. GM Karjakin Sergey RUS 2766 – 6.5
5. GM Sjugirov Sanan RUS 2646 – 6.5
6. GM Ni Hua CHN 2693 – 6.5
7. GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2710 – 6.5
8. GM Giri Anish NED 2784 – 6
9. Xu Yinglun CHN 2470 – 6
10. GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2648 – 6
11. GM Harikrishna P. IND 2743 – 6
12. GM Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2710 – 6
13. GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 2648 – 6
14. GM Duda Jan-Krzysztof POL 2663 – 6
15. GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son VIE 2642 – 6
16. GM Vitiugov Nikita RUS 2724 – 6
17. GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2639 – 6

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