Magnus Carlsen has won the elite tournament split between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bilbao, Spain ahead of a squad of top grandmasters, including the world champion Viswanathan Anand. Using the 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and nothing for a loss system, the final scores were as follows: Carlsen and Caruana 17, Aronian 11, Karjakin 10, Anand 9 and Vallejo Pons 6. The tie-break between Magnus and rising star Fabiano Caruana was broken by two rapidplay games, both of which ended in Carlsen’s favour. Worthy of note was the feeble performance by world champion Anand, who failed to win a single game and finished near the bottom of the table. Even more significant was the fact that Carlsen overran Anand in the one decisive game from their individual encounters.
If Carlsen deigns to enter the Candidates tournament, scheduled for London in March next year, he will be the hot favourite to unseat Anand in a world title clash.
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