Magnus Carlsen 3004 USCF

ya totally true YinYang, its unfornuate about the lack of publicity for chess in the US because the majority of the public dont understand the effort and skill it takes to become a great chess player.

I wonder what the highest will end up being. ( In history ). Not to mention Carlsen's.

THATS your opinion. Waisted his life at something ... that doesnt matter? 

Doesnt matter?? to who? You?

Not to me and literally MILLIONS of others (in the US) who started playing chess... because of him (known nationally as the Fischer boom years) He put chess on the map... in the US. The 72 match he played vs Spasky was a political firestorm... and was the ONLY time... chess... made it to the mainstream media... in the US. That 72' match and all the circus that went with it made front page news... and Bobby Fischer became a house hold name back then. 

THAT.... matters.

My dad actually bought a cheap plastic set and taught me the moves because of a Fischer article in the paper in the mid 60's. I had begged him almost 3 years before then to buy  a set and teach me the moves. I was almost 8 when he bought it, and wanted one the 1st time I saw a chess set at age 5.

I was 9 when he played Spasky in 1972. I remember my dad telling me that Bobby was in wayyy over his head... chess, just wasnt "our" (american's) game. It would be like them coming over here and beating the Raiders in football. 

Beating the Spasky was huge.... suddenly, I wanted to play chess.

You purchase it, and play in a USCF event.

Tazo, people will be studying Fischer's games for centuries, long after every trace of you or I will be lost in the abyss of time, and after all our progeny will have forgotten our names.  In a very real sense, that matters.  The man was an artist, and he'll live on as long as the game does.  To say that the game doesn't matter is to say that all interests of human beings don't matter.  Chess is as trivial as movies, is as trivial as sports, is as trivial as fashion, is as trivial as the finer arts, etc... The thing the greatest chess players have given the people who enjoy the game is the same thing the greatest directors have given film buffs, and so on.  It's the joy in experiencing something abstract and beautiful.  Elegant and powerful.  Ephemeral yet lasting.  This type of joy, in whatever form people indulge, is the reason the world keeps spinning.  Chess is no trivial matter.

@ King Tazo

again... your opinion.

we will have to agree to disagree :) Im not going to call you names.

I coach at risk youth (79% poverty rate 80% single parent homes) chess against wealthy academy schools (25+ middle schools compete in four big monthly tournaments). When kids who have so many strikes against them (no fathers, and living in poverty gang/drug infested neighborhoods) "beat" kids who have every advatage in life and are told (directly or inderectly) that they are not supposed to beat (in anything) these rich kids in a game that requires intelectual skill and not physical skill... it changes their lives. Their self confidence soars. It proves to them... that given a chance... they can compete against anybody.

Your opinion vs the literally dozens and dozens of parents year after year who have come to me thanking me at introducing chess... competitive chess ... to their son or daughters life and making a difference (grades go up behaviors change)..... guess who wins?

oh..and along the way... these kids won four county chess championships.

Do you think chess matters to them?

I think I have my priorities straight.

+1

Even more impressive is he's only 22.

#36, Chess is as trivial as movies, is as trivial as sports, is as trivial as fashion, is as trivial as the finer arts, etc...

I have to disagree. It's hard to guess what the next move a player will make, what strategy he uses, etc. It's also hard to evaluate a chess position, the value of a move. It's hard to guess what the opponent defense and offense.

And comentator don't usually do a good job. Take the comentators on this site: Chess.com. Sorry, I have to be impolite. Anybody think that they do a good job? Staff, pls tell us how you choose them.

OTH, sports, fashion, finer arts comentators usually do their job quite well. But that's another subject.

KT, Fischer was strange that is true, but to be the best at chess that does matter to many all across the world. It has throughout the centuries as well.

They don't really know where the game began, nor who invented it. Many scholars think Persia ( modern Iran ), It may have been India though, because I think, IIRC that the oldest known chess set ever found came from there, it also used Elephants as the Rooks. This was in the BC's at least. Well over 2000 years ago.

Its the oldest known game I know of that is still played in major tournaments. It was prized by Kings, and Rulers, Generals, and Commanders, etc, throughout its time.

Yet you simply dismiss it. Why do you even play then ?  

Also your comments to Clms were rude, and really uncalled for.

I might not be playing, nor care about chess as much as I do today without Fischer becoming the youngest US champion in America back when he did. I know my dad wouldn't have bought me a chess set back when he did if not ( because of the article in the paper he had read ).

Also its pretty well known that the 72 World championship did have political undertones. Obviously we were still considered in the cold war. How much did it matter, in that regard, I do not know. Also Clms never said anything about that, he said political firestorm, and in that regard he is correct, because it was in all the papers, and news at that time. Sure it could have been just propaganda by the press, because of Vietnam. So to say what you did is ignorance on your part.

Also he did not say anything about credit to Fischer about it, you stated that. You also stated his english could use some improvement ? Based on what grounds ? Perhaps you need to apologize to him, because you are the one that stated he is giving Fischer any credit compared to Kennedy. He never stated anything about that except that it  ( the game ) was a political firestorm (which it was), perhaps you need to learn how to read.

Also Clms you, and your family, in particular your wife will be in my prayers.

so you are saying, in a different universe, Bobby Fischer, using the brain he had in universe 1 would be a better player than Carlsen if he had been around today, been raised the same way as to learn chess at a young age, and decided to play chess competitvely.  cool story bro.  

Fischer's rating today ?  First of all, Fischer might not be playing. He takes long vacations. He ducked Karpov. Carlsen is the greatest. But there is a way to measure Fischers rating against modern masters. Use a computer to rate each move over 100 games. Allow for differing time controls and see who  scores the highest.  

Anyone else despairing at the way a thread congratulating the top chess player in the world degrades into a comparison with RJF?  I can say fairly that neither of them will change my working day, my bills, my chances of winning a nobel prize.  Will the chess either of them play(ed) entertain me and lift my spirit?  Ahh, maybe there is some value to them.  I am not going to build a church to either one but I might consider making a stable for all the high horses people are riding.

We are amazed by chess players before computer era like Fischer, Tal, Capablanca, Morphy moves. OTH, well, Carlsen moves are Houdini's. I don't say he cheats.

But ppl compare Carlsen moves to Houdini. ppl say Wow, Carlsen is good, he makes 4 Houdini's 1st or 2nd.

Instead look at those players before computer era. They maybe didn't make Houdini 1st or 2nd. Yet, they performed an art, won it big.

I think the whole point is Fischer was American, a great player and he did bring chess to many Americans. Surely a great achievement, but...

If he had been Russian, he'd have been one of many great players, and faded into the background long ago.

Lets face it, one World Championship win would be no big deal in Russia.

Carlsen is obviously a complete genius. 

I have to admit it happens now and then during top events that my working days are changed somewhat by the live transmissions.

Anand must now be worried... :)

But seriously, they now have a real human than can seriously take on an engine. What is the current rating of houdini?

They should organise a match. The humans making a comeback!!