Monday 28 January 2013

It's tough at the top

Magnus Carlsen has convincingly won the Tata Steel Tournament with an impressive 10/13. He finished 1.5 points ahead of Lev Aronian, with Anand and Karjakin tied for 3rd on 8. With Carlsen taking a lead from around the half way point of the tournament, interest soon turned to (a) whether he could break Kasparovs record 10/13 score for the tournament and (b) how high could his rating get to. In the end he tied Kasparov's record, and his rating went up another 11 points (according to Live Ratings). The somewhat modest rating gain is of course a function of how far ahead on the rating list. Despite 7 wins and 6 draws, he picked up less than a point a game, as any drawn game loses rating points for him. This of course happens to every Number 1 player, but the further in front he gets, the less he gains from his wins to make up for this.

3 comments:

Chris said...

Makes you think that instead of comparing his rating to Kasparov's + Inflation, we should rather compare his rating to how far ahead of the competition he is, compared to how far ahead Kasparov was. (Subjective, but meh)

Anonymous said...

His performance rating was 2930, and I reckon that's about what he's playing at. Is he at the peak of his powers?
AO

Anonymous said...

The guys a machine. But then again, you wonder how the greats of the past would have been with endless computer assistance and analysis? Just a thought....