Chess followers - Magnus Carlsen

Salvation said:
Anyone else tracking his games? I'm sure a few resident Noggies are. He recently defeated Kramnik in the ongoing Tata Steel tournament. Although he hasn't faired well overall, with an excellent end game here:

Nakamura Leads Tata Steel - Again! - Chess.com (Game 3 in the list)
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Yup, I watch pretty much all his games. He has a good position as we speak. He might in fact equal his score from last year, when he won, though he won't win it this time.
 
The Taurean said:
Though I haven't followed the sport much recently, he is considered to be a very good talent. Kasparov was his trainer for awhile.
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Yeah and later went onto join Anand's team, until recently defeating him too.

pillory said:
Tournaments often have video streaming, but I just follow the moves with computer analysis and discussion at sites like this one and this one.
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Yup. Same here.

It took a while to rid the dullness of watching chess games. But Paul Morphy came to sort that out and it's one of the most accessible sports between top class players and fans.

Out of curiosity for the posters in this thread, whose game seems most models yours? Also, ratings?
 
Salvation said:
Yeah and later went onto join Anand's team, until recently defeating him too.
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It was rumoured then that Kasparov assisted Anand in order to help Carlsen who was on his way to challenge for the next title championship. It might just be right or a ridiculous theory. But I guess it was highly unexpected to see Kasparov and Anand on the same side.
A nice interview post that championship against Topalov last year.
ChessBase.com - Chess News - Anand in Playchess – the helpers in Sofia
 
So weird I watched the exact same video yesterday. When I was randomly browsing.
 
Carlsen is probably the best tournament player in the world right now (he is ratings wise). He can be dominant for a long time, as he is still so young.
 
nm03 said:
Carlsen is probably the best tournament player in the world right now (he is ratings wise). He can be dominant for a long time, as he is still so young.
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His tournament record in the last three years is rather good:

2009
1st Nanjing
2nd Tal Memorial
1st London Chess Classic

2010
1st Tata Steel
1st Bazna
3rd Bilbao Chess Masters
1st Nanjing
1st London

2011
3rd Tata Steel
1st Bazna
1st Biel
1st Bilbao
1st Tal Memorial
3rd London

2012
2nd Tata Steel
1st Tal Memorial

And it'll get better when he learns how to play openings.
 
pillory said:
His tournament record in the last three years is rather good:

2009
1st Nanjing
2nd Tal Memorial
1st London Chess Classic

2010
1st Tata Steel
1st Bazna
3rd Bilbao Chess Masters
1st Nanjing
1st London

2011
3rd Tata Steel
1st Bazna
1st Biel
1st Bilbao
1st Tal Memorial
3rd London

2012
2nd Tata Steel
1st Tal Memorial

And it'll get better when he learns how to play openings.
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That's what I said :lol:.

I follow every tournament and most matches played! It is a pity he pulled out of the world championship candidates though.
Still that means Anand will be champion for longer, so no complaints!
 
nm03 said:
That's what I said :lol:.

I follow every tournament and most matches played! It is a pity he pulled out of the world championship candidates though.
Still that means Anand will be champion for longer, so no complaints!
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Yeah, I wasn't arguing with you, just adding some data.

Disastrous third day for him in the rapid WC, though. 2/5, and he finished second behind Karjakin.
 
So tomorrow he's playing his most important game ever, with white against joint leader Aronian in round 8 of 14 of the Candidates Tournament. A win for either would be a huge step towards winning the tournament since the first tiebreaker is the results between the players in question (their first game was a draw). This means the loser would need to better the winner's score from the final six rounds by 1,5 points, and even a mightily impressive +4 =2 finish could very well be too little.

But anyway, Carlsen is in ridiculous form (one loss in his last 60 games or something, +18 =15 since October), so I think he's the favourite after tomorrow's inevitable draw. He was lucky not to lose today, though, but that'll probably just make him sharper.

(The winner of the tournament will play Anand for the World Championship.)

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Tournament site
Watch the games live
 
pillory said:
So tomorrow he's playing his most important game ever, with white against joint leader Aronian in round 8 of 14 of the Candidates Tournament. A win for either would be a huge step towards winning the tournament since the first tiebreaker is the results between the players in question (their first game was a draw). This means the loser would need to better the winner's score from the final six rounds by 1,5 points, and even a mightily impressive +4 =2 finish could very well be too little.

But anyway, Carlsen is in ridiculous form (one loss in his last 60 games or something, +18 =15 since October), so I think he's the favourite after tomorrow's inevitable draw. He was lucky not to lose today, though, but that'll probably just make him sharper.

(The winner of the tournament will play Anand for the World Championship.)

7BjmY3t.png


Tournament site
Watch the games live
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I reckon tomorrow will be a draw, but Aronian might nick the tourney. Whoever wins will be a clear favorite against Anand though. A Carlsen win means Anand is in a lot of trouble as his old second is on Carlsen's team now. Vishy has relied on novelties to defend his title. His second will know most of them.
 
Gelfand surprisingly beat Aronian today, so it's looking good for Carlsen even though he's done nothing in his last three games. He's done with Kramnik and Aronian, he scored +3 =2 against his remaining opponents in the first half, and his now outright lead should give him a possibly much-needed mental boost.

Standings after round 9:

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Aronian will be on top if he catches Carlsen by winning while Carlsen draws (as opposed to drawing while Carlsen loses), since the second tiebreaker is number of wins. And Kramnik isn't completely out of it.
 
NM said:
I reckon tomorrow will be a draw, but Aronian might nick the tourney. Whoever wins will be a clear favorite against Anand though. A Carlsen win means Anand is in a lot of trouble as his old second is on Carlsen's team now. Vishy has relied on novelties to defend his title. His second will know most of them.
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Who among his team is this?
 
Carlsen has played badly the last few games and is still ahead on points - the mark of a champion. Kramnik played too safe today. If he would have chanced it, he may have won. As rounds run out, both Kramnik and Aronian will have to take risks.
 
NM said:
Carlsen has played badly the last few games and is still ahead on points - the mark of a champion. Kramnik played too safe today. If he would have chanced it, he may have won. As rounds run out, both Kramnik and Aronian will have to take risks.
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I can't believe how things were turned around today.. Gelfand semi-blundered (strategically) and looked to have gifted Aronian at least an easy chance to neutralize (if not more) [with Qe3], while Carlsen a pawn down and in quite a bit of trouble looked very close to losing the game... And everybody were talking about a decisive Aronian lead after today, and Kramnik getting back into it (catching Carlsen and trailing Aronian by only half a point).....

Then Aronian blundered [h5?], and Carlsen managed to grind out a draw, and Aronian ended up losing!

Now Carlsen with a vital 0.5 point lead, but there are still many games to be played.
 
The top three all won today. Carlsen looked on course for increasing his lead at one point, but Ivanchuk slipped up in time trouble against Aronian and then lost on time a full ten moves before the control. That's Ivanchuk's fourth loss on time in the tournament, and his second against Aronian. Being a Carlsen fan it's tempting to call Aronian lucky, since his positions against Ivanchuk were equal before the time-trouble meltdowns, but they were also unbalanced and very difficult to play with little time, which might have been a deliberate strategy from Aronian's side, especially now that it's been thoroughly established that Ivanchuk is completely unable to manage his clock. At least it hasn't yet come to this:

By now we just have to mention German grandmaster Fritz Sämisch (1896-1975), who at the age of 73 played two tournaments, one in Büsum, Germany and another in Linköping, Sweden, where he lost all games (fifteen in the former and thirteen in the latter) on time.
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Carlsen was much sharper than in the previous three rounds. It did look like he gave Gelfand a chance or two to escape (I'll need to consult a computer and/or brain much stronger than my own), but it was always very uncomfortable for black.

Grischuk's loss to Kramnik is already the subject of Cold War style conspiracy theories because of the former's move in this position:

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Grischuk (with very little time on the clock) took the knight, which loses in a flash. What fascinates me about the position after Bxd4 is that I think it should look instinctively completely hopeless even to amateurs, since it seems very obvious that the black king will be able to penetrate and wipe out white's kingside pawns, but at the same time computers don't see any big advantage for black until you get to depths well beyond 20.

Looking at the position with Houdini 1.5, I think what might have happened is that Grischuk thought he would be in trouble if he allowed Nxb3 by playing Ke3, and in fact it looks like he would have been (long-term) if he hadn't followed up with the probably hard-to-find pawn sacrifice 31. e6, which lets the bishop loose on black's pawns and gives white better chances than black.

(Disclaimer: I haven't played chess since I was a kid, and all of the above might be bollocks - in which case I blame Houdini and my computer)
 
Aronian fading. Kramnik now half a point behind Carlsen.
 
Kramnik wins. Carlsen loses. Incredible!! Kramnik now has the edge ahead of the rest day. Everybody else is done!! Aronian has been shocking. Threw the draw away today/
 
I've been away, so I missed all the drama and came home today to Carlsen and Kramnik fiddling with dead positions for hours. But tomorrow should be fun. Carlsen will win if he beats Svidler with white and Kramnik doesn't beat Ivanchuk with black. Unfortunately there's a 50% chance Ivanchuk will lose on time.
 
Oh wait, something just happened in Carlsen's game! The position might not be completely and utterly drawn anymore.
 
Radjabov erred badly - same as Aronian yesterday. Both have managed to lose a drawn position!!

I want Kramnik to win as I think Anand has a better chance against him.
 
Ivanchuk's clock looks less ominous now, but he could of course pause to think for 15 minutes about an obvious move at any time.
 
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