Tag: LeuvenGCT2016

Leuven GCT Final Day: Carlsen takes it all!

After winning the Rapid section by staging a fantastic comeback, World Champion Magnus Carlsen continued his rich vein of form, winning the blitz event of the Leuven Grand Chess Tour 2016 in convincing style. As a result, Carlsen also emerged as the overall winner of the Leuven leg, thus taking home all the trophies that were up for grabs.

Magnus scored a total of 23 points in the Leuven leg, a whooping two and a half points more than the second placed Wesley So. The latter put on a solid performance – keeping his losses to minimum – and edged out Levon Aronian in the race for the second place. Levon Aronian finished sole third with 20 points.

Indian hope Vishy Anand, who led the table at the end of Day One, scored 19.5 points and had to contend himself with the fourth spot.

After two events of the Grand Chess Tour 2016, Magnus Carlsen is well and truly in command with a whooping 23 points. American Grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So are placed joint second with 17 points each.

Leuven GCT Day 2: Carlsen’s stupendous comeback!

While World Champion Magnus Carlsen had a terrible first day at the Leuven Leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2016, he once again justified his top billing by staging one of the better comebacks one will ever witness. Carlsen, who took off slowly with only four points on the first day out of a possible ten, won all the four games on the second day, not only taking his tally to 12/18 but also emerging as the leader at the end of the rapid section.

So Wesley, who is unbeaten as yet, finished a close second, scoring 11/18.

Meanwhile, Day One leader Vishy Anand had a rough finish to the rapid event. After having won the first game of the second day against the super-solid Anish Giri, Anand lost his way, losing two games on the trot to Kramnik and Carlsen. A draw in the final round of the rapid event saw the Madras Tiger finish joint third Levon Aronian.

The 10 players will now battle it out in a blitz tournament, which will be played over the course of the next two days. The winner will be adjudged taking into account the points scored from the rapid tournament as well as the blitz event.