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Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen; born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster, No. 1 ranked player in the world and reigning World Chess Champion in classical and rapid. His peak rating is 2882, the highest in history.

Carlsen was regarded as a chess prodigy as a youngster, and became a Grandmaster in 2004, at the age of 13 years, 148 days. This made him the third youngest grandmaster in history. On 1 January 2010, at the age of 19 years, 32 days, he became the youngest chess player to be ranked FIDE world No. 1.

Action-Packed in Round 1 of the Candidates Tournament 2018

We saw a lot of blood drawn in the opening round of the Candidates Tournament 2018, the tournament that will determine who will be this year’s challenger to Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2018.

Shahkriyar Mamedyarov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Fabiano Caruana led the opening round rampage. The victims: Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, and Wesley So, respectively.

Candidates Tournament 2018 Round 1 Results

WhiteResultsBlack
Kramnik, Vladimir1-0Grischuk, Alexander
Caruana, Fabiano1-0So, Wesley
Aronian, Levon½-½Ding, Liren
Karjakin, Sergey0-1Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar

Caruana Wins London Chess Classic 2017; Carlsen Bags Home the Grand Chess Tour 2017 Title

Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi won 3 games each and tied for first place in the 9-round London Chess Classic 2017, the last and final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2017.

London Chess Classic 2017 Final Results

#NameFEDRtg12345678910Pts
1Caruana FabianoUSA2799*½½½½½½1116
Nepomniachtchi IanRUS2729½*1½½½½½116
3Carlsen MagnusNOR2837½0*½½½1½½15
4Vachier-Lagrave MaximeFRA2789½½½*½½½1½½5
So WesleyUSA2788½½½½*½½½1½5
6Nakamura HikaruUSA2781½½½½½*½½½½4.5
7Aronian LevonARM2805½½0½½½*½½½4
8Karjakin SergeyRUS27600½½0½½½*½½3.5
9Anand ViswanathanIND278200½½0½½½*½3
Adams MichaelENG2715000½½½½½½*3

They headed to the 4-round 10m+5spm tiebreak matches, and Caruana eventually won with 3 draws and the Game 4 win.

FIDE World Cup 2017 Semi Finals

From 128 players, now we’re down to just 4: Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So and Ding Liren.

Big names that were not able to make it to the Final Four include Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Viswanathan Anand, Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri.

Remember, the winners (2) of the Semi-Final round are secured a spot in next year’s Candidates tournament.

Wesley So lost anew in Round 6 Sinquefield Cup 2017

With six rounds down and 3 to go, the defending champion of the Sinquefield Cup 2017 as well as the Grand Chess Tour 2017, Wesley So, finds himself solely at the bottom of the standings as he lost his 6th round game against Levon Aronian. [replay]

The rest of the Round 6 games were draws.

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Round 6 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-results-r6.csv”]

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Ranking after Round 6

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-ranking-r6.csv”]

Replay all Sinquefield Cup 2017 games.

Photo credit: Grand Chess Tour Flickr

Carlsen defeats Wesley So in Round 5 Sinquefield Cup 2017

Magnus Carlsen defeated Wesley So in the fifth round of Sinquefield Cup 2017 to remain within striking distance of the leader, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. [replay]

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Round 5 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-results-r5.csv”]

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Ranking after Round 5

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-ranking-r5.csv”]

Replay all games here.

Photo credit: Grand Chess Tour Flickr

Carlsen, Caruana and So win in Round 2 Sinquefield Cup 2017

Another action-packed Round 2 in Sinquefield Cup 2017 as 60% of the games are once again decisive. The top 3 players in the world in terms of FIDE ratings won their games in this round.

Wesley So bounced back from his Round 1 loss by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in Round 2. Magnus Carlsen displayed his dominance against his former challenger Sergey Karjakin in the world chess crown. Fabiano Caruana delivered a fine win against Levon Aronian after a rook+bishop vs. rook ending.[replay]

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Round 2 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-results-r2.csv”]

Thus at the end of Round 2, Carlsen, Caruana and MVL lead the tournament with 1.5 points apiece.

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Round 1 Results

The third leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2017, the Sinquefield Cup 2017, kicked off with a bang as 3 out of 5 games in Round 1 were decisive.

The defending champion of the tournament, Wesley So, suffered a setback right at the opening Round 1 at the hands of MVL. See the rest of the results below:

Sinquefield Cup 2017 Round 1 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sinqcup17-results-r1.csv”]

Replay all the games in Round 1 here: Sinquefield Cup 2017 (All Games Replay).

Magnus Carlsen wins Your Next Move 2017 – Leuven

Magnus Carlsen may have been down by 3 points when the rapid rounds of the tournament concluded against the then leader Wesley So, but after a spectacular performance of 14.5/18 in the blitz rounds, Carlsen came out the runaway winner of the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2017, the Your Next Move 2017, which happened in Leuven, Belgium.

This is a back-to-back tournament wins for Carlsen as he also won the the tour’s Paris leg last month. Remember that the Grand Chess Tour 2017 is composed of 5 tournaments as follows: