The world champion is back on form. After winning the overall laurels in last year’s Grand Tour, and taking first prizes on tie break at both London and Qatar in December, Carlsen secured a convincing and outright triumph at the Tata Steel elite tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, last month. His margin of victory was clear and he remained unbeaten throughout. Leading scores out of 13 possible were as follows: Carlsen 9/13; Caruana and Ding Liren both 8. Wesley So, formerly of the Philippines but now, like Caruana, representing USA, scored 7, but was the only other unbeaten player. Britain’s Micky Adams gained a disappointing 5 points, which left him sharing last place.
This week, some samples of play from this important competition, one which leaves the world champion freshly dominant after a stretch of mediocre performances in 2015.
Carlsen-Tomashevsky: Wijk aan Zee 2016
The champion has used one of his favourite non-standard openings to create a tense and unusual middle game, where storm clouds are hovering around the black king.
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