Magnus Carlsen has qualified from the London Candidates tournament to earn a title match against the incumbent world champion Vishy Anand of India. Final scores were as follows: Carlsen and Kramnik 8½; Svidler and Aronian 8; Grischuk and Gelfand 6½; Ivanchuk 6 and Radjabov 4. Kramnik tied for first and in my opinion played better chess but all the tie-breaks were in Carlsen’s favour. I would like to have seen a play-off between Kramnik and Carlsen. However, the 600 million worldwide who follow chess (the figure from the latest YouGov poll), will doubtless enjoy 22-year-old Magnus challenging Anand, who is twice his age. Here is one of Kramnik’s best wins from London followed by a Carlsen puzzle.
Kramnik-Radjabov: Fidé Candidates London 2013; English Opening by transposition
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 c5 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bg2 cxd4 6 Nxd4 0-0 7 Nc3 Qc7 The threat to White’s c-pawn obliges him to weaken his queenside somewhat.
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