Magnus Carlsen reigns supreme! He has not only won the 2012 London Classic but has now surpassed Garry Kasparov’s all-time highest chess rating. Kasparov reached the mark of 2851 in 1999. Carlsen has vaulted over this figure to 2862.4. It is all the more remarkable for many reasons: Carlsen is only 22 years old and has a bright career still ahead of him. He comes from Norway, a small country never afflicted with chess fever. Lastly, he achieved this result against a field of great players with access to a mother lode of books and computers dealing with chess.

Carlsen took charge of the Classic (3 points for a win and 1 for a draw) right from the beginning. He had wins against Luke McShane and Levon Aronian, had a draw against Vladamir Kramnik, and then wins against Gawain Jones, Mickey Adams, and Judit Polgar, for a total of 16 points in the first six rounds. He had draws with Hikaru Nakamura and Viswanathan Anand in the following rounds.