Carlsen Wins Qatar Masters

The expedient draw moved Magnus Carlsen to 7.0/9 and guaranteed him at least a tiebreak match in the Qatar Masters . Those hoping for fireworks on the top board were rapidly disappointed as Vladimir Kramnik essayed the Berlin Defense and Carlsen played the incredibly safe line 5.Re1; the drawing percentage here well exceeds 50%. The only question was how many minutes it would take the players to make the required thirty moves so that they could agree a draw. The answer proved to be 34 minutes.