Magnus Carlsen managed to hang on for draws in his last two games, and finished with three wins, four draws, or 13 points, just a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik, who had three wins, three draws (and a loss). More importantly however, with 5.0/7, Carlsen improves to 2810 for the January 2010 FIDE and at 19 will become the youngest player ever to be ranked #1 on the FIDE list.
Other great players have also been top players as teenagers.
Rusian Ponomarov won the 2001-2002 FIDE World Championship knock-out tournament with a total score of 13.5/21 when he was only 18. He found himself invited to several super-tournaments and performed adquately but not at the level of a world champion. Linares 2002 (6.5/12, 2nd), Corus 2003 (6.0/13, 11th-12th), Linares 2003 (5.5/12, 5th). He was ranked as high as 4th on chessmetrics before his 20th birthday.
Vladimir Kramnik qualified for both the PCA candidates and the FIDE candidates cycles of 1993-1996, scoring 8.5/13 at FIDE (2nd-9th), and 7.0/11 at PCA (3rd-7th). He was eliminated at the quarter-final level in both tournaments. He played in two super tournaments, Linares 1993 (5th 7.5/13), and Linares 1994 (5th-6th 7.0/13). He was ranked as high as 5th on chessmetrics before his 20th birthday.
Gata Kamsky also qualified for the PCA candidates and FIDE candidates cycles of 1993-1996 also scoring 8.5/13 and 7.0/11 in the two interzonals, he only progressed to the quarter-final stage before his 20th birthday but was able to go on much further, reaching the final candidates match for PCA and the world championship match for FIDE. Kamsky also participated in the 1990 Interzonal (5.5/13, 48th-54th), making him only one of two teenagers to partifcipate in two world championship cycles at the interzonal level.
Vassily Ivanchuk failed to play in an Interzonal before his 20th birthday but did participate in two super tournaments, the 1988 USSR championship (9.5/17), and more spectactularly, winning the 1989 Linares just before his 20th birthday (7.5/10). His highest world ranking was #3.
According to Chess Metrics, Kasparov become the world's #1 player at 19 years 7 months thanks to sharing 1st place at the 1981 USSR Zonal (12.5/17) strong performance at the super tournament Bugojno (9.5/13), his win at the even stronger Interzonal (10.0/13), and his dominating performance at his quarter-final match with Alexander Beliavsky (6.5-3.5)
Bobby Fischer only reached as high as #4 by his 20th birthday, although he has the most impressive world championship and super-tournament resume. Fischer won the US Zonal in 1957 at the age of 14 (10.5/13), and then qualified for the Candidates in 1958 (5th-6th 12.0/20). In the 1959 Candidates he again shared 5th-6th with 12.5/28. In 1960, he again won his Zonal (9.0/11), this time winning the Interzonal (17.5/22), but only managed to place 4th at the candidates (14.0/27). He also got 2nd place at the super tournament in Bled in 1961, all this before the age of 20.
Boris Spassky also participated in one cycle before his 20th birthday and also got as far as the Candidates tournament. He earned a share of 3rd-6th in the USSR Zonal (11.5/19), hung on to one of the last spots in the Interzonal (7th-9th, 11.0/20), and shared 3rd place at the Candidates tournament (3rd-7th 9.5/18). He was ranked 7th for one month before his 20th birthday.
So Carlsen will become the 7th player to qualify as a Candidate (I'd rank Ponomarev's accomplishment equivalant to being a candidate) for the world championship before his 20th birthday, he'll be only the 3rd person to reach the Interzonal level twice (his loss in semi-finals in the matches in 2006 is roughly equivalant to Interzonal players in Fischer's day) and if the Candidates tournament is held before November 2010 (Carlsen's 20th birthday), he'll have a chance to become the first teenager to qualify for a unified world championship match.
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