Mourning for Magnus Carlsen: Norway Chess Day 1
I'm only writing this now because I didn't have time to do so right after the round ended, so...here goes. (Also, I started this a few hours ago and then left it, which means I'm not really this far behind)
Well, I'm pretty sure NO ONE expected Norway Chess to start off like this.
Anand-Caruana finished...not so eventfully, shall we say? At least, not compared to the other games.
In Giri-Grischuk and Nakamura-Hammer (especially in the latter) white was destined to win, and that's what happened (Grischuk resigned and Hammer, always enduring, was checkmated).
And then there was MVL-Aronian. They should make a movie (and I am not making fun of Levon here) entitled Chasing Aronian's King. That was basically what everything was after the two pawn promotions. And eventually Levon had to give up, even though he could have lasted a few more moves. MVL did pretty well, I would say.
And finally, there was the EXTREMELY depressing loss of World Champion Magnus Carlsen. I say "loss" instead of "defeat" because he was nowhere near actual defeat. He was in SUCH a winning position that had they each had a minute more, I'm almost 100% sure Topalov would have collapsed. But I don't even know where to start with the complaining. If you want to see precisely my meaning, visit my Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/virginianalbino
All I can say is... Oh, poor Magnus. I hope he's fine for the rest of the tournament. If this turns out like Polgar in Linares 1994, I will be depressed for the next year (or ten). (OK, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but still...)
And no, it's not his fault that the fire alarm went off :). He's honest enough about that one. But hopefully enough of his rivals "know" his feelings.
Topalov doesn't quite: "I feel bad for him, but what can I do." Interesting.
And there is Magnus sitting at 2870, more depressed than he's been in twelve years (even though he's TOTALLY hiding it), and Veselin is just enjoying being back with the 2800 people: 2804, to be exact. I hope Hikaru beats him, somewhat. Only that Hikaru would have two points then. Topy didn't completely deserve the win. Magnus just didn't know (he probably forgot; he's too far in his own world sometimes, and he was late) and they didn't tell him again.
And as much as I don't want Fabiano to beat Magnus, I feel so bad for him. He will have to survive the World Champion's...wrath, if he has one.
We shall see.
But that moment when you first see the "0-1" and go "Wait, WHAT?"... Reminds me of MVL's #Bxg4WTF way back when... And for those of you who have read Graham Greene, you know what I'm taking about, before the realisation actually dawns upon you... And then you suddenly figure out that Magnus Carlsen just lost on time to Veselin Topalov: FOR REAL.
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Lightening up the mood: we can all get distracted by the Capa Memorial's 2nd-round results and just forget for a few hours...
And doesn't the title of this post remind anyone of Searching for Bobby Fischer?
