Photo: Peter Doggers
Magnus needed some help in the last round. To have a chance of winning, Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi must not win his game against Andy Woodward. When Erigaisi had to fight hard to save a draw, Carlsen caught up with him by defeating the young challenger Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
This meant that the winner would be decided in a blitz game playoff. Carlsen won the third game in sudden death, after the players had won one each of the first two normal blitz games.
In the tournament, both Magnus and Arjun scored 5 points in 7 rounds, while Erdogmus shared third place with Nodirbek Abdusattorov with 4 points each.
Close behind was Jorden van Foreest with 3½ points = 50%. Finally, Andy Woodard finished with 3 points, followed by Jiner Zhu with 2 points and Nils Grandelius with 1½ point.
Carlsen’s win against the prodigy Erdogmus, which took him to the playoff against Erigaisi, was a typical “grind”, following the Carlsen patented modus operandi.
The playoff format was 3 minutes per game, with a 2 second increment per move. Erigaisi lost the first game, but made an impressive comeback by winning the second game. This led to “sudden death”, where Carlsen managed to win.
When Magnus Carlsen played the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament in 2004, it was his first tournament as a grandmaster. He had to wait for his return as the world number one, before actually managing to win the tournament. After three playoff games.
