Casablanca Chess: Carlsen emerges champion ahead of Nakamura; Anand on third

In the tournament, in which the players were required to make moves from certain positions onwards from well-known games from the past, Hikaru Nakamura of the United States finished runner-up with 3.5 points.

Caption: Magnus Carlsen, the champion of the Casablanca Chess tournament. | Photo Credit: Lennart Ootes

Magnus Carlsen won the Casablanca Chess Variant tournament on Sunday. The World No. 1 from Norway finished the four-player event with 4.5 points from six rounds at Casablanca, Morocco.

In the tournament, in which the players were required to make moves from certain positions onwards from well-known games from the past, Hikaru Nakamura of the United States finished runner-up with 3.5 points.

Viswanathan Anand was third. The five-time World champion from Chennai scored three points. Bassem Amin of Egypt finished last with one point.

The final day featured games from the World Championship matches between Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe (1935), Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov (1987) and Anna Ushenina and Hou Yifan (2013).

Carslen said he would like to play the format again. “With one exception in game two, all the positions were very rich with lots of play,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter if you are playing White or Black, because you know that the position is equal and there are chances for both sides. It is also a lot of fun to end up in positions that I don’t play too often. I enjoyed it a lot.”