The oldies are still kicking

Speelman on Chess

Jonathan Speelman
Sunday February 10, 2008
The Observer

Despite the onward march of the young titans, it was the older generation which took the majority of the plaudits in last year’s top tournaments. The biggest event of all was, of course, the World Championship Tournament in Mexico City where Viswanathan Anand triumphed ahead of Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. Anand was also victorious in Linares, while Kramnik was first in the Amber tournament in Monaco and in Dortmund; and utterly imperious at the Tal Memorial in Moscow at the end of the year. The FIDE World Cup in Siberia in December was also a victory for an ‘oldie’ – Gata Kamsky; and it was only in Wijk aan Zee that the youngsters came through with a tie between Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov, albeit together with Veselin Topalov.

I reported three weeks ago on the early stages of this year’s Wijk, where Aronian and Magnus Carlsen were the first to show. After many adventures and much excitement it was they who finished first equal on 8/13, half-a-point ahead of Radjabov and Anand. Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk were next on 7/13 and as for Kramnik, he was cruising fairly nicely before he suffered defeat at the hands of Carlsen (below); and finished on just 50 per cent, equal with Michael Adams but still half-a-point ahead of Topalov. The next big test, the Amber tournament, not this year in Monaco but rather in Nice, is just a few weeks away; and we shall see how the older generation reacts. But given the manner of the play of Aronian, Carlsen and indeed Radjabov, the I think that it’s unlikely that the generation gap will be anything like as pronounced this year – quite possibly the reverse.

For what it matters, Aronian was first on tie-break but it was Carlsen who made the greatest impression. Just 17 at the end of November, he seems utterly unafraid of the world’s very top players and while he did lose to Anand in a hugely messy battle, was able to recover the next day against Kramnik, ‘come to his senses’ to refuse a draw when things had started to go wrong for Kramnik and bring home the victory.

Click here to see the full analysis of the Carlsen – Anand game.