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Magnus Carlsen wins again Gashimov Memorial

27 April 2015 12:57 (UTC+04:00)
Magnus Carlsen wins again Gashimov Memorial

By Amina Nazarli

World Champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen won the 2nd Shamkir Chess International Tournament in Azerbaijan’s region of Shamkir, held in commemoration of Azerbaijan's late grand-master Vugar Gashimov on April 16-26.

It’s the second triumph of the reigning World Champion in Shamkir. The Norwegian GM also took first place at the first Shamkir Chess 2014, winning the €100,000 money prize.

The 25-year-old champion took victory with 7/9, a point clear of Viswanathan Anand.



Carlsen defeated Azerbaijani Rauf Mammadov in the final round. He secured a significant advantage out of the opening but admitted he didn't make the best out of his chances. He noted that the position didn't offer the White much opportunity, that is until Mammadov blundered with 34...Qe5, allowing Carlsen a win with 35.Qf7 (Rd7 was also powerful).

Carlsen was a point clear of Viswanathan Anand who had an interesting draw with Fabiano Caruana. Anand was also impressive in emerging undefeated.

Azerbaijani Shahriyar Mammadyarov allowed English Michael Adams easy equality just out of the opening and the game was a drawn by repetition in 27 moves.

French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave felt that after his deep opening preparation he should surely have a big advantage against U.S. Wesley So. Nevertheless the two were not able to clearly outpace one another and the match ended up in a draw.

Anish Giri from the Netherlands and Russian Vladimir Kramnik drew a marathon game. Kramnik said that he became encouraged to play for a win after 26.f4 which might have been over-optimistic. The game remained roughly equal but after the rook and knight ending, calculation became so complicated that both players became entrenched in a tiring exchange. Although Giri gradually got on top and in sight of victory, a wrong turn cost him the win

Here are the final results: 1st Carlsen 7pts, 2nd Anand 6pts, 3rd Wesley So 5pts, 4th Caruana 5pts, 5th Kramnik 4pts, 6th Mammadyarov 4pts, 7th Adams 3.5pts, 8th Giri 3.5pts, 9th Vachier-Lagrave 3.5pts, 10th Mammadov 3.5pts

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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