Anand finishes in tied second spot

Carlsen emerges champion

Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway clinched first place with a crushing victory over Nigel Short of England.

The final round victory by the Norwegian ensured him of first place regardless of the other results as he had the best tiebreak score. With four victories, one draw and two losses, Carlsen tallied 13 points and remained two points ahead of Anand and Mcshane.
Kramnik and Hikaru Nakamura of United States finished joint fourth on 10 points each while Michael Adams ended his campaign on eight points following a draw with Nakamura in the final round game.

David Howell held McShane to finish ahead of Short who scored just two points from two draws besides five losses.

The victory by Carlsen will also see him reclaim his place at the top of the official rating list in January 2011 although Anand also gained marginally in rating points.

Carlsen’s mentor Garry Kasparov was present at the venue in the final round and see his protégé win the tournament for the second successive year.
The first game to finish was the pairing of the current world champion Anand and Kramnik. Anand faced the Berlin defence yet again and carried a token edge into the middle game. Kramnik was up to the task in exchanging pieces at regular intervals and it came down to an opposite-coloured bishop endgame where Anand’s extra pawn was of no consequence.

In the open event, GM Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shocking last round loss to Thorustur Thorllsson of Iceland while IM Sahaj Grover won his last round to finish as the best Junior player defeating David Eggleston of England.