Magnus Carlsen’s erratic form gives hope to rivals such as Vishy Anand
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Friday 24 May 2013
There is a paradox at the top of international chess. The world No1, Magnus Carlsen, leads the ratings by a wide margin, yet his recurrent form dips during major tournaments give hope to his rivals. Carlsen faltered at the end of last month’s London candidates, then again a few days ago at the Norway elite event, which was expected to be a hometown victory lap watched online by the thousands of fans who voted the 22-year-old as Norway’s Sportsman of 2012.
Carlsen began with four nondescript draws, rallied strongly to close on the leader Sergey Karjakin, then failed at the finish when he lost a level endgame, the kind where he normally grinds out a win, to China’s Wang Hao. So Karjakin won with 6/9, ahead of Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura 5.5. World champion Vishy Anand scored 5, Wang Hao 4.5.
It was a career-best result for Karjakin, 23, the Muscovite who is being groomed to regain the world crown which Russia once monopolised. The forex company Alpari sponsors him, and will continue to so for several title campaigns. He has a specially designed €5,000 computer to help him prepare, but claims that Carlsen has a superior multiprocessor model, €50,000 and top secret, which can create and calculate unique and extremely deep variations. Their mutual games are increasingly tense, though Carlsen has the edge. At Wijk earlier this year he won a 92-move marathon, while in Norway Karjakin stood better but was overcome by a counter-attack.
So the future for chess could be Norway v Russia, but Anand, 42, stands in the way. India’s world champion is playing with much more ambition than a year ago, won some imaginative attacks in Norway, and would have tied with his title challenger Carlsen but for overpressing in the final round. He is buoyed by the prospect of defending his crown in his home city Chennai, and also by the recent signs of Carlsen’s fallibility which could influence their match.
More here.
How can anyone compare Magnus to Hikaru? Hikaru is the best. He must be +10 against Magnus in their head to head competition.
Anand is 43 and not 42.
Please, please stop saying Hikaru is better than Carlsen or anyone else in chess. He hasn’t ranked number one yet in the world and was not even included in the recent Candidates matches in London. Hikaru himself doesn’t even claim what you are claiming.
Pretty true. Hikaru is a nice player to watch. Period.
If you haven’t guessed, the Nakamura poster is a troll…and a tiresome, unimaginative one at that.
On the other hand, Carlsen is probably deep in preparation for Anand. Erratic, I don’t think so.
He, one, is probably preoccupied with the biggest event of his – or any player’s – career.
And, two, not about to reveal his best ideas at this time or play flat out.