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Chess

Already the highest rated player ever, Magnus Carlsen is now also the World Chess Champion. He won the Championship in Chennai, India by beating Viswanathan Anand 6½-3½ in 10 games, apparently without the help of any seconds (advisors). [Update regarding seconds]

In Chennai, India, besides the World Chess Championship, there was the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess Tournament, where 14 year-old FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram bested several grandmasters to claim victory. Also in Chennai was the Women International Grand Master Chess Tournament, where Mary Ann Gomes of India, Batsiashvili Nino of Georgia, and S. Vijayalakshmi of India tied for the lead with 8.5 points each. Tie-breaker games, though, gave the win to Ms. Gomes. And the National Under-9 Chess Championships saw Nihal Sarin take the trophy in the open division and Divya Deshmukh win in the girl’s division.

The winner of the 23rd Individual World Senior Chess Championship in Opatija, Croatia was Anatoly Vaisser of France. The winner of the Women’s Senior Chess Championship was Yelena Ankudinova of Kazakhstan.

The Miami Sharks devoured the New York Knights 6½-½ to claim the champion title of the US Chess League.

Magic: The Gathering

Finally, in his 13th top-8 appearance, Owen Turtenwald took home the trophy at Grand Prix DC. Then the very next week he also won Grand Prix Albuquerque!

Two Canadians and an American (Rich Hoaen, Alexander Hayne, and Mike Hron) triumphed at Team Limited Grand Prix Kyoto.

Dominoes

A team of high school students in Austria assembled and toppled 100,080 dominoes, which sounds like a lot but isn’t even close to a record. Part of their construction, though, was a 6.02 meter high tower, which most certainly is a record—it’s higher than the previous tower by 0.745 meters! Watch it fall in this video:

Backgammon

“The Las Vegas Open Backgammon Tournament is by invitation only.” Nevertheless, the winner was Dana Nazarian.

Other

Bobby Brake, the Summer Champion, returned to conquer the Kaijudo Winter Championship in Irving, Texas.

At Melbourne Cube Day, Feliks Zemdegs set three new Rubik’s Cube world records: 6.54 seconds (average of five) for the standard 3×3 cube, 55.33 seconds (average) for 5×5 cube, and 9.05 seconds (best single try) for 3×3 one-handed.

Seven year veteran of the UK cubing circuit, Thom Barlow, won the UK Rubik’s Cube Championship, finishing first with an average time of 10.64 seconds in standard 3×3. At the top of Swedish Cube Days was Giovanni Contardi of Italy, of the Zeeland Open was Antonie Paterakis of Greece, of the German Nationals was Philipp Weyer, and of the Atlantic Open was Louis Cormier of Canada.