Anand ends ninth; Carlsen wins title
World Champion Viswanathan Anand finished his campaign with a draw against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the ninth and final round of London Chess Classic here on Tuesday.
Anand ended the tournament on nine points and had to be content with a fifth place finish among nine contenders as Carlsen emerged as the clear winner on 18 points under the soccer-like scoring system in place here.
Vladimir Kramnik of Russia finished second after an easy draw with black pieces against Michael Adams, who ended joint third.
Kramnik scored 16 points in all, while Adams ended on 13 points along side Hikaru Nakamura of United States.
Nakamura was involved in the lone decisive game of the day. The American accounted for Brit Luke McShane. Judit Polgar drew with Armenian Levon Aronian, who finished on eight points for sixth place, while the Hungarian woman ended seventh with six points in all.
McShane ended eighth on five points and Gawain Jones of England finished last with three points coming from three draws.
The new world rankings to be announced on January 1 will see Carlsen scaling the all-time high rating and the Norwegian will proudly stand at 2861 points. Carlsen bettered the 2851 rating scored by former guru Garry Kasparov. Kramnik also gained heavily from the tournament and he will replace Aronian as the world number two with 2809 being his new rating.
Anand lost three rating points from here and the Indian ace is now number seven in live but unofficial ratings.
Results, final round: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 18) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 9); Hikaru Nakamura (US, 13) bt Luke McShane (Eng, 5); Judit Polgar (Hun, 6) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 8); Michael Adams (Eng, 13) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 16).
