Magnus Carlsen was a class apart from his rivals last week at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, the “chess Wimbledon”. The No 1 capped a dominant performance with a virtuoso final game against an old rival, an unbeaten 9.5/13 total, and a record eighth victory. He has finished first at Wijk on more than half his appearances there, and the organisers have promised a gold-plated trophy if he makes it to 10 victories at the small Dutch North Sea resort.
Norway’s world champion, 31, said that he felt “really good about my play. To some extent I took the obvious chances and left the more difficult ones on the table, which suggests there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement, but overall I’m very happy.”
