Magnus rocks Wijk!

     The Tata Steel Chess Festival has come to an end. It's been two weeks of uncompromising fight and I really enjoyed watching it, as the most of us, I suppose.
     The star of the "A" group- Magnus Carlsen- scored a fantastic +7 (10p out of 13)-  more than enough for claiming the win in the tournament.

     It's interesting that his games were not that spectacular (the one against Nakamura might be an exception). Let's take Fischer or Kasparov for example- they could simply crush their opponents in an "all in" style,not necessarily correct- but surely spectacular.They had such an energy bursting out, they were driven by chess. I don't see much of it in Carlsen's play, it seems for me that he doesn't like to take risks, no poker bluffing,no emotions, just machine's precision.

    Aronian finished the tournament in 2nd and Anand in 3rd. Aronian was unlucky to lose by preparation from Vishy and then to miss the chance of winning against Magnus. I think that with some more luck, he could challenge Magnus for the 1st place.

      It was nice to see the World's Champion-Anand- come back. It seemed that he didn't have a good period lately, not scoring more than 50% in any major event. I think his win over Aronian inspired him and brought more life into his play.

     The "B" group's 1st place was shared by 2 players- Naiditsch Arakadij and Rapport Richard, both scoring 9p out of 13.

A very talented Hungarian player, one of the youngest GM's in the World-Rapport Richard

     An Italian GM- Brunello Sabino won the "C" group with an amazing +9 (11p out of 13) and a 2764 performance!

Brunello Sabino

     My congratulations to the winners and I hope that the tradition of Wijk aan Zee will continue to offer us the same thrill for many more years!