The year-end has proven especially rewarding for chess world champion Magnus Carlsen. First, there were pictures of him sitting in his new Tesla sports car (which oddly, he lacks a license to drive!) He bought his first house, and then he played in the London Chess Classic, the third and last event in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour. Going into the final, Carlsen looked very much out of contention for the overall Grand Tour title, languishing in fourth place well behind Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in first. His only chance was to win the tournament and hope that Topalov did poorly, which sadly for Topalov, he did, finishing last. Even though Carlsen won only 2 games (but lost none), he tied for first with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL for short) and Anish Giri, giving Carlsen better tie-breaking points. MVL and Giri had to play a two-game rapid match and then a “Armageddon’’ blitz game to get to play Carlsen for the championship. So, Carlsen beat an exhausted MVL (who had beaten Giri) in two rapids to win not only the London Chess Classic but also first place in the 2015 Grand Chess Tour.

And just last week, he won the Qatar Masters Open. Playing in his first Swiss in 10 years, Carlsen started off very slowing drawing his first game. He won the next four, highlighted by an exciting attacking game against the Chinese player Li Chao B. There were two more draws against major rivals Wesley So and Giri. Then we reached the crucial game of the tournament against the very talented and mercurial Azeri player, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who was having a good tournament. But Mamedyarov played an inexplicably bad game and lost in only 25 moves! Carlsen’s last-round game against Vladimir Kramnik was just, more or less, a gentlemen’s draw, leaving Carlsen in first and waiting on the winner of the Yu Yangi-Wesley So game. Yu Yangi, the defending champ, managed to win in a tough five-hour game to tie Carlsen. This required an immediate two blitz game tie-breaker which Carlsen easily won, beating an exhausted Yu, to claim the title.

Winners: MetroWest CC Holiday Swiss: Open: 1st: Joe Perl, 4-0, 2nd: Neil B Cousin: 3.5-.5. 3rd – 4th: Nithin Kavi and Robert J. King: 3-0; U2000: 1st: Alan Song: 4.5-.5, 2nd: Mark Fins: 4-1, 3rd: Stuart Hall: 3.5-1.5

Coming Events:Jan. 8, Waltham NOT First Friday #6, Waltham Chess Club, 404 Wyman St. (North Entrance), cafeteria, Waltham, WalthamChessClub.org/Schedule.html; Jan. 8-10 Boston Chess Congress, www.chesstour.com/bcc16.htm.

Answer to today’s problem: 1.RxB! (Deflection!) 1…QxR 2.QxR+! NxQ 3.d7! and there is no way of stopping the pawn from queening.