Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine won the 71st Corus Chess tournament, held between January 16th and February 1st, 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. The 18 years old grandmaster outplayed Lenier Dominguez-Perez of Cuba in a wild and aggressive match that turned out to be the most crucial one in the final round of the prestigious chess event. By that, Karajakin had broken the six players tie, leaving behind famed and higher ranked favorites such as the Cuban World Blitz Chess Champion, and world no. 4 Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

Six finalists made it to the 13th final round of the Corus Chess tournament: Karjakin, Dominguez-Perez and Carlsen; Armenian Levon Aronian, Slovakian Sergei Movsesian and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan. Only two of the final round matches did not end up in a tie: Karjakin dramatic victory over Lenier Dominguez-Perez and the Wang Yue - Magnus Carlsen match, ended with the latter's defeat.

Corus Chess tournament could be the breakthrough point of young Karjakin, who was awarded FIDE grandmaster at the age of twelve and still holds the world record for youngest chess grandmaster. Following his Corus win, Sergey Karjakin was qualified for the Grand Slam Final Chess Masters, where he will compete against this year's major chess tournaments champions and finalists.