At the height of his career, Gata Kamsky decided to walk away from chess. Now, he is 1 point away from advancing to the next stage of the World Championship. Do you think Gata is all the way back to his full strength? Can he go all the way to Mexico City?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
It seems like the only thing holding Gata back right now has been his opening play. I think once he gets his openings in order he should be able to do some serious damage.
I hope he does really well
I cheer for any comeback player
His games are really interesting
He has an interesting life story
I have been a Gata Kamsky fan since 1990! He is a phenomenal player with deep chess knowledge. He is already right now able to hold his own against the best players of today. If he gets his openings up to today’s level he will be unbeatablae and become World Champion, which he very well may do right now!
NO. Gata plays better now.
YES. He can become World Chess Champion in Mexico.
Go Gata Go!
GO GATA GO!!!
I’ve been a fan. He got me interested in the Sicilian Dragon even. He has great talent and shouldn’t be underestimated, in my opinion.
Gata Kamsky is an extremely gifted and talented chess player. However, the flag by Bacrot was a nice gift which fired Kamsky up to follow through with another victory to virtually guarantee his advance. If not for the loss on time by Bacrot who knows how this match would be at this very moment.
I agree that if Gata did not win all the chess games he won in his life then where would he be today. haha.
The game Gata won on the clock was one win that showed his strength more than others. I suggest you try finding the winning moves in seconds in a game that you are playing for a world championship. Talk about winning under pressure. Gata showed he has what it takes.
That game was no gift to Gata. He came up with 39 most difficult moves over 4 hours to force Bacrot to use up his time. That was no gift. That was showing his super talent and great nerves.
I am a big Kamsky fan. I watch all his games. However, I suspect that he plays a different game today. He would have become world champion if he had stayed with chess. Now I am not so sure he can make it to the title.
But it is one step at a time. Right now he needs one point out of 3 games. I expect him to do it easily. But then he gets another opponent. And a new Match starts all over from scratch.
Hopefully he wins that and goes on to Mexico. In Mexico he will have to take first place. Well that is difficult to do. Even Kramnik will have problems winning Mexico. Anand will have to be strong and steady to win. Aronian has shown some good games. And there are others.
So Mexico will be difficult for everyone. I do not expect anyone to win. I do expect someone to win. But I have no expectations for any single person to be the winner.
I wish Kamsky were playing with a strong trainer or Second helping him with his game preparation. I think Topalov’s 2nd helps him win some games and that can make the difference.
he needs to work on his time contol. mtel – always in time pressure
Twenty or thirty years ago, it was a bit easier to “catch up” with openings after being away for awhile. I suspect it’s considerably harder today. And at the top levels today, you need to have not just understanding of everything that HAS been played but also your own opening novelties. That was a large part of Topalov’s success over the last few years.
Without a second/assistance, advancing further will be very, very difficult even for someone as talented and hard-working as Kamsky. I HOPE he does it, but it will be tough.
Bob