The Norwegian has won a record eight tournaments in 2019 but Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won a chaotic
London game
Magnus Carlsen in 2019 has been the most active and arguably successful world champion ever, yet inconsistency at speed has recently arrived to haunt him.
The Norwegian, who turned 29 last Saturday, has won eight elite tournaments this year – at Wijk, Grenke, Shamkir, Lindores Abbey, Stavanger, Abidjan, Zagreb and Kolkata. That compares well with Bobby Fischer’s four wins in 1970 (Herceg Novi, Zagreb, Buenos Aires and Palma) and Garry Kasparov’s four in 1988 (Amsterdam, Belfort,
Moscow, Reykjavik), although Carlsen’s total includes three speed events that were rarely available for the earlier legends.