NORWEGIAN TEENAGER IS STAR OF GRAND SLAM CHESS FINAL IN SPAIN
Agence France Presse
Sept 3 2008
MADRID (AFP) — A 17-year-old Nowegian chess prodigy, Magnus Carlsen,
is the star of the Grand Slam Chess Final Masters currently under
way in Spain which features five other top players including world
number one Viswanathan Anand of India.
Carlsen, who is currently number six in the official world rankings,
could become the youngest-ever world number one chess player if he
wins the tournament which wraps up in the northeastern city of Bilbao
on September 13.
He defeated Armenia’s Levon Aronian and took the lead of the tournament
during the first round played on Monday inside a huge sound-proofed and
air-conditioned glass enclosure set up in the centre of the historic
Basque city.
The other two games — between Anand of India and Vassily Ivanchuk
of Ukraine and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria — were drawn.
The prize fund for the event totals 400,000 euros (582,000 US dollars)
with the winner receiving 150,000 euros. The second place winner
will receive 70,000 while the sixth place player will be getting
30,000 euros.