There it would make sense though if people are interested in matches where the players basically have to play for several wins to win a tournament. I think that could be rather exciting.

Thanks, netzach, dashkee, Charlotte, and corrijean

"So Canadians know there's a sport called Cricket. I'm surprised. "

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Balachandar, your first mistake is assuming that I am Canadian...I am not.

okay, the flag besides your profile shows Canada. Maybe its location and not nationality. But there are many members who put nationality in their profile so that their national flag is shown in their profile rather than their location. Or you can modify it like this - "Live in Toronto, Canada - But I am from, (your nationality)" so that your national flag appears in your profile and in forums, team matches etc while you can tell that you stay elsewhere. 

"well every champ goes through a downward spiral eventually (due to age).though in anands case I think it's more due to disinterest than age"

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"CerebralAssassin", although I agree with your assessment of the ineviable downward slope of the performance curve...in Anand's case, a host of commentators have also speculated as to the "why". The fact is that there are too many factors that can be the cause. I find it interesting that everyone says motivation or disinterest, but no one has even considered health or other personal stresses which may be affecting Anand. I think we may never really know, unless he chooses to reveal same at some point in the future. 

Gelfand says that he lost because of "luck".  Lame excuse.

Did I miss anything?

yes...it's pure speculation...I don't know for sure....he became a father recently so maybe that has to do with it.

People doubted Karpov when he recieved the title in 1975

Yeah but he shut everyone up afterwards lol. We haven't seen Anand play that way for a while now...

People doubted Karpov because he won the title by default when Fischer refused to play. Nonetheless, Karpov's play was consistently of a very high standard, with precision and technique of a world champion.

I agree.

I just read through about 12 pages of this thread. Thanks for reminding me about it Abhishek2! Kind of makes me excited for the Candidates tournament starting March 15th, a little over five weeks away.

Awesome games!

Sad that it ended because gelfand blundered a drawn ending under time pressure in a rapid game. Can't wait for the 2013 championship in about a week.