Only if Carlsen draws his last game with white against Anand AND Kramnik wins both his last two games, they will play an Armageddon tie break to decide the winner of the trophy because their tie (18 points each) wouldn't be broken by all the following tie break criteria applied.

1) number of wins (5 each)
2) number of wins with black (2 each)
3) head to head encounter (draw)

In that case, the Armageddon game would be played with 6 minutes + 2 seconds per move for White, versus 5 minutes + 2 seconds per move for Black (with draw odds for Black). Prize money would be shared regardless of the outcome.

Assuming that Anand doesn't win, but draw against Nakamura tomorrow, if Carlsen wins his last game over Anand (seems well possible with white), he might even be 99 Elo points ahead of the world champion on the January 2013 rating list, missing a whopping 100 Elo gap by the tiniest possible margin of 1/10 of an Elo point! ;-) If it happens, this should also be a truly historic achievement.

Soon we will see the world championship Naka vs. Magnus. It will go down to blitz and Naka will win!!!! He will win!!!

Naka is the King of Chess! He has drawn all his games against Carlsen for 2013. All hail to the King!

Too bad MC isn't world champion....which in the eyes of the public is the only meaningful achievement.

granted the rating difference between the world no.1 and the world champion is more than substantial and indeed something to talk about, but was there really anyone who thought that Magnus would not break Kasparov's record sooner or later? what i really don't get is all this recent elo mania and the countings and calculations of tenths of points. Are we chess players or accountants?

My gosh, some one finaly buried Babe Ruth's batting record.

This is the last tweet from G. Kasparov: "Congratulations to @MagnusCarlsen! Could my rating record last other than 13 yrs? It was always 'my' number. 22 was also a good age for me!"

Carlsen has this record. Congratulations. Whatever it's worth, at least he gets rid of one stupid question.
The big gap to #2 is impressive.
The way he played in London is how a confident stronger player handles weaker opponents. Patient, businesslike, picking up things the others don't see.

It appears that the person who wrote the report missed the fact that Adams missed the win a few times at the heavy piece endgame.

Anand should really stop hiding his preparation. Come on WCh, win a game or two! Giving up a line or two of analysis is not that bad.

So will MC enter the world championship cycle of matches next time around?

Quote
""Ratings inflation is a myth, disproved by Ken Regan. Ratings are going up over time, yes, but so is quality of play. Some or all of this is due to community progress in opening theory... better understanding of how to play certain positions, etc, rather than people getting smarter, but it remains the case that the #50 player in the world today could smash the #50 player from 1980, and his rating is higher as a result."

This is totally wrong. Elo represents a relativistic value based on expactations of results among players. What you wrote above is like saying.... Prices of houses are getting more and more expensive because the houses are getting better isolated and modern inovations.

Ok not the amount of ratingpoints are interesting but the difference between the players say more. Agree with that one.

Despite not playing, Carlsen can "win" tomorrow with a Kramnik draw.

Carlsen is so elated about his inflated Elo rating. Well done kid. Let's see when and if you decide to compete for the championship.

Till yesterday's comments I was starting to wonder if it was just me the one that had been thinking of Carlsen as the Lasker of our days: Yes, he plays "inaccurately", So what? I wish him to keep his inaccurate play to further heights, and if he finally gets tired of chickening out, work his magic in match play (and against the unpredictable Jhon Doe in the Tromso Olympiad, if he dares!). Congrats to him.