The group stage of the Arctic Securities Chess Stars was dominated by World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who cruised to a first place finish. He drew both games with Magnus Carlsen, while winning all of his encounters with Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer, cruising to a 5/6 score. Carlsen's group campaign didn't go quite as smoothly, but after a 2.5/3 performance on Day 1, it would have taken a pretty disastrous performance on the second day not to get into the final. Despite a loss to Hammer, draws against Anand and Polgar were enough to get him to 3.5/6, still comfortably in 2nd place. Hammer finished 3rd with 2 points, while Polgar brought up the rear with 1.5.
However, today's final was another story. Carlsen ground out a win against the World Champion with White in a Gruenfeld, then had no problems holding the Black side of a Ruy Lopez to defeat Anand 1.5-0.5 and take the Arctic Securities title. It's a nice win for Carlsen, if not an important one; the tournament was only a rapid event, though in some cases, wins seem even harder to come by over Anand at faster speeds. This was also Anand's first appearance since retaining his title against Veselin Topalov, so this might serve as a warm-up for more substantial events to come. Also cool for Carlsen: this tournament was carried live on Norwegian television! I can only imagine what it'll be like if when he someday plays for a World Championship; hopefully, Norway has their own version of Shelby Lyman ready to go.
In the 3rd place match, Hammer made it a clean sweep for the Norwegians, defeating Polgar 1.5-0.5, scoring his win on the White side of a Queen's Indian.
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