Shirov Outduels Carlsen to Win Mtel Masters

Magnus Carlsen held a half-point lead going into Saturday's final round of the Mtel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria. His slim lead was held over Veselin Topalov and Alexei Shirov, who he would face in the final round. Shirov had the White pieces and scored an impressive victory over Carlsen, finishing the game in just 30 moves. Meanwhile, Topalov could only draw China's Wang Yue, giving Shirov clear first with a 6.5/10 score, just ahead of Carlsen and Topalov.

Shirov has had a long and successful career, including defeating Vladimir Kramnik in a Candidates match for the right to play Garry Kasparov for the World Chess Championship. The match never happened after the financial backing fell through, and Kramnik instead went on to play Kasparov and become World Champion. While Shirov has been in the chess elite for over a decade, this is his first clear first in such a high-caliber event.

At the other end of the table, Vassily Ivanchuk recovered a little at the end of Mtel by defeating Leinier Dominguez Perez to bring his score up to 3/10 -- still a very poor result for the Ukranian grandmaster. This did appear to salvage a 2700 rating for Ivanchuk, which is amazing considering the time he spent time around 2800 not too long ago.

By winning the event, Shirov earned a spot in the "Grand Slam Final" event in Bilbao later this year, where he will be joined by tournament winners Topalov (who won in Nanjing), Sergey Karjakin (Corus) and Alexander Grischuk (Linares).