Magnus Carlsen suffers surprise check in advance to all-time high rating
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Friday 5 October 2012 09.32 EDT
World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, 21, has encountered a surprise check in his hitherto smooth advance towards Garry Kasparov’s all-time high rating. A serious rival of his own age has suddenly emerged and they will meet on Monday afternoon in a critical test for both.
The Grand Slam final in São Paulo, and Bilbao should have been a three-way fight among Carlsen, Armenia’s world No2 Levon Aronian, and India’s veteran world champion Vishy Anand. Anand’s play has been lacklustre for many months, and he drew all his five games in the São Paulo half.
But the eminent trio were all upstaged by Fabiano Caruana, 20. Italy’s rising star beat Carlsen in the very first round, won the best game of the event by an impressive double exchange offer, survived a lost position against Aronian, and led the field going into next week’s Bilbao stage.
Caruana is the most dedicated and hard-working of all the top grandmasters, playing with hardly a break and surging to No5 in the rankings. He was close to a major success at Moscow’s Tal Memorial before Carlsen passed him in the final round. The Norwegian is contrastingly relaxed and even lazy between tournaments, undertaking modelling and other media work, and indulging his passion for soccer and skiing. But during events he is focused, determined and maximalist, with a special reputation for grinding down rivals in marathon endgames.If Caruana can stay in front at Bilbao and win the Grand Slam, it will be a blow to Carlsen’s legend of invincibility and will mark a real power shift at the top of world chess.
Hence the importance of Monday’s Carlsen v Caruana pairing at Bilbao, where the Norwegian will have the white pieces and where the tournament standings impel him to go flat out for victory.
The game will start at 4pm BST, and the best place to follow it live is on chessbomb.com, a free site which provides move-by-move computer analysis and outspoken audience comments.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Nakamura is way better.
He didn’t joined the Chess Olympiad because he is afraid that he will loose Elo points. Being No. 1 and all time high in ratings are nothing.
World Champion is what counts..
You are better than Nakamura Rick77 AKA Osmosis.
I think Fab has not yet peaked, while MC may have.
Nigel Short says both are crap
“Being No. 1 and all time high in ratings are nothing. World Champion is what counts.” –Vlad
Rustam Kazhimdzanov was “World Champion” at the time Garry Kasparov was the #1 player in the world–which one had more meaning?
Fabio Caruana has been playing amazingly in this event. You can’t surpass the likes of Carlsen, Aronian, and Anand without playing some legendary chess.
Carlsen, however, fully deserves his laurels: he’s proven himself to be the top player in the world over and over. His achievements are already legendary, and he is above reproach.
Nakamura is great too, but he’s still not at Carlsen’s level, as his recent last-place finish in London shows.