Worst tournament performances of reigning World Champions As a Magnus Carlsen fan, it was a bit disappointing for me to see him finish clear second in Biel 2018, one and half points after Mamedyarov, after starting the tournament with two wins - and it could have been two points - had not the much lower-rated Georgiadis blundered in a drawn endgame. Although not a bad performance per se, I was wondering what were the worst tournament performances of reigning World Champions?
Looking through this list of strong tournaments, among those that stand out are:


AVRO 1938, where Alekhine finished 6/8.
Tillburg, 1996, where Karpov finished 6/12.
1st Grand Slam Masters Final (2008), where Anand finished in last (6th) place.