Carlsen touches all-time high in ratings

 World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway cracked all-time high ratings, defeating Luke McShane of England in the first round of the London chess Classic at the Olympia here.

The rating for Carlsen stood at 2851.2 points in the unofficial live rating portals which means that the Norwegian has cracked the all-time high rating record of 2851 held by former world champion and his former trainer Gary Kasparov of Russia.

On what turned out to be a perfect opener, all the four games in the nine-players round robin tournament ended decisively and the biggest upset was recorded by Hikaru Nakamura of United States who defeated World number two Levon Aronian with black pieces.

With Nakamura calling the shots, Vladimir Kramnik turned out to be another winner of the day at the expense of world’s top woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.
The all-decisive-games record was kept intact by a late-benefitting Michael Adams of England against compatriot Gawain Jones.

World champion Vishwanathan Anand had a rest day in the opener as he drew number in the official drawing of lots.

The day belonged to Carlsen, 22, as he cracked something that Kasparov himself has termed as impossible when he got there many years back.  A victory against McShane with black turned out to be the perfect start for the Norwegian who is often referred to as the ‘Mozart of Chess’.

Results (round I): Luke McShane (Eng) lt to Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Levon Aronian (Arm) lt to Hikaru Nakamura (US); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) bt Judit Polgar (Hun); Gawain Jones (Eng) lt to Michael Adams (Eng).