Wijk aan Zee - Results

A great tournament just wrapped up in Netherlands. As per my previous blog concerning the age of the participants, it looks like the youth group had the best average result, followed by the most experienced. Grouped by decade of birth the results are:


GM Fabiano Caruana ITA 2675 51 1992      5.5
GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2810 1 1990        8.5
GM Sergey Karjakin RUS 2720 21 1990       7.0
AVERAGE 90'S                                           7.0

GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2708 28 1987     7.5
GM Jan Smeets NED 2657 73 1985               4.5
GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2712 25 1983    6.5
AVERAGE 80'S                                            6.2

GM Peter Leko HUN 2739 12 1979               6.5
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2788 4 1975        8.0
GM Sergey Tiviakov NED 2662 62 1973       4.5
GM Loek van Wely NED 2641 104 1972      5.0
GM Alexei Shirov SPA 2723 20 1972            8.0
AVERAGE 70'S                                           6.4

GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2749 8 1969        7.0
GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2790 3 1969    7.5
GM Nigel Short ENG 2696 38 1965              5.0
AVERAGE 60'S                                           6.5

This bodes well for the future at the top level of chess. In the B and C sections the youngest players also excelled.

• Calsen was strong throughout the tournament.
• Shirov had un unbelievable start but then slowed down and was passed.
• Kramnik was also strong throughout.
• Anand was the only undefeated player but with 11 draws it looked like he was holding back in preparation for his championship match vs Topolov.
• Nakamura played the most exciting/risky chess but stumbled in the middle of the tournament with a couple of losses.