Magnus Carlsen won all his seven matches at last week’s $210,000 Meltwater Tour online final in San Francisco, as the world champion continues to dominate internet events. Fast time limits suit his powerful and resourceful all-round game, his alertness to fleeting opportunities and his ability to grind out endgame wins.
If online tournaments were rated like classical chess, his San Francisco performance would rank above or close to the record 2900 level he has twice narrowly missed over-the-board. Discounting tiebreaks, Carlsen won 14 games, drew nine and lost only to Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem. His 18-move win against Shak Mamedyarov featured an early g7-g5 by Black, a move which Carlsen himself has used as a surprise but which here led to the black queen being trapped on e5.
