How quickly things change

On Friday I gave a talk to the Year 7 Chess class at Amaroo School in Canberra. Chess is part of the curriculum at the school, and part of course involves the history of the game. My talk was on the more modern aspects of chess, with an emphasis on the top players since 1972. Apart from various players whose names started with K, one player I featured was of course, Carlsen. In the talk I featured a couple of facts on Carlsen, firstly that it was his 22nd birthday on the day of the talk, and secondly, that he had the second highest rating ever.
Move ahead 4 days, and both those facts are out of date. Birthdays of course come and go, and in this case, so do rating records. By winning his first round game against Luke McShane in the London Chess Classic, Carlsen gained enough point to equal Kasparovs record, at least on the 'live' list. By beating Lev Aronian in the second round, he has now jumped clear of Kasparov, by around 5 points. The win by Carlsen had another effect in terms of the tournament, by relegating Aronian to the bottom of the field with 2 straight losses. This has also increased the gap between Carlsen and Aronian on the rating list, with Vladimir Kramnik closing in on Aronian. Of course there is still some chess to be played, so what we see in terms of ratings now, may not be reflected when a new lest is published in the New Year.
Carlsen,Magnus (2848) - Aronian,Levon (2815) [C77]
4th London Chess Classic London ENG (2.1), 02.12.2012

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Nd5 Nxd5 9. Bxd5 Rb8 10. O-O Ne7 11. Nxe5 Nxd5 12. exd5 Re8 13. d4 Bf8 14. b3 Bb7 15. c4 d6 16. Nf3 Qf6 17. Be3 Bc8 18. Qd2 Qg6 19. Kh1 h6 20. Rac1 Be7 21. Ng1 Bg5 22. Bxg5 Qxg5 23. Rfd1 bxc4 24. bxc4 Qxd2 25. Rxd2 a5 26. h3 Rb4 27. Nf3 Bf5 28. c5 Kf8 29. Nh2 Reb8 30. Ng4 Rb1 31. Rxb1 Rxb1+ 32. Kh2 a4 33. Ne3 Bg6 34. Kg3 Rb4 35. Kf3 Ke7 36. Ke2 Kd7 37. f3 Rb5 38. Nd1 Rb4 39. c6+ Kc8 40. Nc3 f6 41. Ke3 Rc4 42. Ne2 a3 43. h4 Rb4 44. g4 Rb1 45. h5 Bh7 46. f4 f5 47. g5 Rh1 48. Ng3 Rh3 49. Kf3 hxg5 50. fxg5 g6 51. Re2 Kd8 52. hxg6 Bxg6 53. Re6 Bf7 54. g6 Bg8 55. g7 f4 56. Kxf4 Rh2 57. Nf5 Rxa2 58. Rf6 Re2 59. Rf8+ 1-0