Carlsen Wins Tal Memorial 2012 by Winning His Last Round Match!

It's hard to call it a surprise when Carlsen the world's top-ranked player wins any chess tournament. But in this case, it's a pretty apt description of what happened in the final round of the Tal Memorial, as all the results went the way of Magnus Carlsen to vault him into clear first place.

After 5 rounds Alexander Morosevich seems to be on the road to the title with a 4/5 score following an impressive win over Aronian, at this point he is a clear 1 point ahead of the closest pursuer, in the game over Aronian he simply quell all efforts of Aronian to complicate the game and went on to demolish 4 center pawn of Aronian who seem to be dangerous all throughout, but Aronian consumed too much time in finding the right plan that cost him the game, after this win however Morosevich suffered 3 succesive loss that deprive him his chances for the title.

After the 8th and penultimate round, it was Italian/American youngster Fabiano Caruana who was in the pole position, and seemed set to clinch victory today. He led Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov by a half-point, with four more players sitting a full point back. But unfortunately for Caruana, his final round opponent was Levon Aronian, and the Armenian had some serious home preparation to uncork with the white pieces. Aronian won in 54 moves, making it very unlikely that Caruana would win the tournament outright.

But he still very well could have shared first, were it not for the efforts of Carlsen. On the Black side of a Ruy Lopez, Carlsen reached a very comfortable position out of the opening, then slowly built an advantage to score an impressive win. With Radjabov only managing a draw against Hikaru Nakamura, that left Carlsen as the clear winner on 5.5/9. Caruana and Radjabov shared second on 5 points.

A full recap of the final round action can be found here. The results won't cause any major shakeups in the world rankings, though Carlsen did both extend his lead at the top of the ratings list, and gain two rating points, inching himself closer to Kasparov's record of 2851. According to the unofficial live ratings list, Carlsen's rating is currently 2837.

The Tournament Crosstable

Schedule and Results

Round 1: Friday, June 8, 2012 Alex. Morozevich 1-0 Fabiano Caruana Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Luke McShane Teimour Radjabov 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Levon Aronian 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura	Round 2: Saturday, June 9, 2012 Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Levon Aronian Luke McShane 0-1 Teimour Radjabov Vladimir Kramnik 1-0 Alexander Grischuk Alex. Morozevich ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Round 3: Sunday, June 10, 2012 Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Alexander Grischuk 0-1 Alex. Morozevich Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Levon Aronian 0-1 Luke McShane Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Ev. Tomashevsky	Round 4: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Luke McShane ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura Vladimir Kramnik ½-½ Levon Aronian Alex. Morozevich ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Alexander Grischuk
Round 5: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Teimour Radjabov 0-1 Magnus Carlsen Levon Aronian 0-1 Alex. Morozevich Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Luke McShane	Round 6: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Luke McShane Vladimir Kramnik 1-0 Ev. Tomashevsky Alex. Morozevich 0-1 Hikaru Nakamura Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Levon Aronian Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Round 7: Saturday, June 16, 2012 Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Levon Aronian ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Magnus Carlsen Ev. Tomashevsky 1-0 Alex. Morozevich Luke McShane 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik	Round 8: Sunday, June 17, 2012 Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik Alex. Morozevich 0-1 Luke McShane Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Ev. Tomashevsky Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Levon Aronian
Round 9: Monday, June 18, 2012 Levon Aronian 1-0 Fabiano Caruana Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Teimour Radjabov Ev. Tomashevsky ½-½ Alexander Grischuk Luke McShane 0-1 Magnus Carlsen Vladimir Kramnik ½-½ Alex. Morozevich