From my understanding, Carlsen can only be understood by chess engines and a handful of grandmasters in the world, so it makes me wonder what Carlsen represents to fans? Do they just want a younger player to beat the older players? Is there something else?
Good question, trysts. I cannot speak for the world, but I can tell you what I think.
I think Carlsen is great because he never, never has an off tounament. He either wins it, or comes in second. (Is the guy to beat.) The only top GM that comes close is Kramnik.
Other GM's that level, (Aronian, Anaand, Gelfand, for examples), may win a given tournament. But then the very next tournament come in like 9th, or worse.
It's like Magnus never has a bad day. (Or maybe it's like he is better on a bad day than most GM's are on their best. I wonder.) You just cannot replace that level of dependability.
Thanks, varelse1
What I've seen(and my interpretation of what I've seen), Carlsen is like a chess engine, yes, but so are Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Grischuk, Gelfand, Hou, Stefanova, and Lahno. Those are the ones I've studied(meaning 'contemplated', or 'analysed' their games with a chess engine calculation). I still don't understand why Carlsen wins so often other than thinking his nerves are better than his opponent's nerves? I really can't understand the games of these players. It's a type of concentration that I can only imagine
Carlsen has indeed been very consistent lately. The only tournaments I don't remember him doing so well at were last year's London classic and this year's Tata Steel. I'm not sure what his exact score was -- he probably did ok, but perhaps didn't live up to his #1 ranking. Also, I think the 2010 London Classic was the tournament where Magnus was nearly 2830, but was starting not to play as well, and from there slowed down temporarily. However, for most of 2012 he has been totally back on track, doing fantastically so far.