Carlsen: “Kramnik’s play was too emotional”

Carlsen: “Kramnik’s play was too emotional”
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/carlsen-kramnik-s-play-was-too-emotional

In a ten-minute YouTube video World Champion Magnus Carlsen gives his views on the Candidates Tournament after Round 6. He explains how impressed he is with Anand so far, that Aronian was the only potential run-away winner and that Kramnik allowed himself to get too emotional and “wasn’t psychologically ready” for his game against Topalov. We bring you a transcript with all the key quotes!

The prize of the 2014 Candidates Tournament is of course to play a World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, so the Norwegian is a more-than-interested spectator. In the following video he’s interviewed by Espen Agdestein – once a 2450 player and now Carlsen’s manager or, as the young star puts it at the start of the video, the guy “who does all the dirty work”.

Our transcript begins from the point they start discussing the tournament:

Espen: Are you surprised by the way it’s gone so far?

Magnus: Not particularly. Also in the last Candidates Tournament there was a lot of fighting chess. Obviously there there was the factor that I was playing and Aronian was playing. We had a really good start and after six rounds we both had +3, so the others needed to win a lot of games and that automatically led to fighting chess. This time they’re just going at it from the start. That’s cool to see!

Even though it’s just two players on a plus score so far?

Today things changed quite a bit. I thought Svidler has played pretty well so far. He claimed that he was very lucky against Topalov… Well, he didn’t play the opening very well but I thought from there on he played very energetically. He did, of course, lose to Aronian, but that can happen to anyone. Today his play wasn’t so great…

I’m really impressed by what Anand has done so far. Of course his win against Aronian was very good – very, very good technique. He won almost by technique alone, which is very rare against Aronian. Aronian didn’t take it lightly, in the sense that he just gave up in a bad position. He spent all his time trying desperately to find counter-chances, but Anand had some very nice manoeuvres – manoeuvring his bishop from d4 to d2 and his other bishop to f1, clearing space for the rook, and so on. It was very, very beautiful to watch and also his game with Mamedyarov was very impressive. He just played very powerfully after he equalised in the opening – no waiting moves. Each move had its point and he just took over key squares very quickly.

Also Anand against Kramnik – he went for one of the most complicated lines in the opening. I don’t know exactly how much he knew… I was even impressed by his game against Andreikin, where he just played very, very good chess. He got a normal, perhaps slightly worse position from the opening and then he gradually outplayed Andreikin. He didn’t get serious winning chances, but it was clear who was playing the better chess in that game.

Do you think he should have played on in the final position?

I don’t really understand why he offered a draw quite yet, but there was nothing much there.

If he hadn’t taken on f3 would he have had chances then?

I don’t know. I thought the most likely scenario then would be that the c and b-pawns as well as the rooks would be exchanged and then you can play for a while with your bishop on d5, which controls the whole board, and try and push on the kingside, but it’s very far-fetched. Honestly, it’s not very typical of Anand to look for those little, little things. If there’s nothing substantial there he usually prefers a clear route.

I also think Kramnik today… obviously it was a blow for him.

Is it difficult when he had such a good position yesterday against Aronian and he couldn’t convert, and then he lost badly today?

Yeah, but one of the things you need to be good at in chess – and I think it’s one of the things that I do very well – is that you always need to adjust to the new circumstances. You can’t let what happened earlier in the game or in the game before affect you to such a degree. I think today Kramnik’s play was perhaps too emotional. He wasn’t psychologically ready for the game I thought, to be honest. Topalov played very well. Topalov is a very good player. He showed excellent, enterprising preparation today and also yesterday. Today he followed that up by playing very well after that.

So it’s four Russians in the tournament and they need to play better now because none of them are on a plus score.

Karjakin hasn’t gotten it going. He’s very solid. Kramnik played a very, very good game against him and won and the other games have been fairly normal draws. I don’t think it’s likely that he’ll make a comeback.

They’ve played six rounds but it’s such a long tournament and so tiring – 14 rounds. You remember how tired you got last year. Do you think the tournament will be decided in the last rounds?

I think so. I still think the only candidate for being a run-away winner is Aronian. If he doesn’t catch fire… I don’t think his technique was good enough today against Andreikin – I don’t have to explain that to him as he feels that himself and he should have been able to create more. If he had won today he’d have been a definite candidate for running away with the tournament. Now I don’t think so. I think it’s going to go down to the wire and it could well be that +3 is enough to win like it was last time. The one key lesson we learned last time is that anything can happen in the last rounds. When people get tired the usual rules don’t apply.

So it’s a rest day tomorrow, and then they’re on again…

I’m enjoying it both as a chess fan and as a professional. I’m the opponent of one of these guys in the World Championship match. It’s a great show.

I think we need to grab some food now, Magnus, and we can save the rest for another day.

I’ve said everything that I need to say, and more! Goodbye and we’ll talk later.

Magnus has been on a media blitz of late (again!), and you can also check out an excellent interview with him by News in English: Carlsen’s fame a game-changer. For instance, he describes his daily Candidates routine:

“The game starts at 10 every day, so I’m almost interested enough to get up at 10,” said Carlsen, laughing. “No, but seriously, I follow them for several hours each day. The openings they play, I check them with my own databases. I follow it both as a professional but also as a chess fan, just enjoying some really great games.”

Also don’t miss Carlsen’s Q & A session on Reddit. We’ve picked out the best responses for you, including some enjoyable trash-talk directed at Hikaru Nakamura.

See also: 

Round 6: Topalov’s revenge
Round 5: Svidler wins comedy of errors
Round 4: Aronian downs Svidler
Round 3: Anand leads, Kramnik escapes
Round 2: We have lift-off!
Round 1: The Tiger is back!
Candidates 2014 – All you need to know
Peter Svidler on the Candidates
2014 Candidates: Fact or Fiction
Carlsen, Grischuk and co. on the Candidates