Anad shows his cards, Carlsen refuses

For all we know, Anand might be using this as a tactic to confuse Carlsen not to play tactical chess if both sides look even as that is Carlsen's srtong suite...

Watching the press conference, I think there is a lot of gamesmanship going on both sides. Think Kasparov is helping Carlsen and I wouldn't be surprised if Kramnik was helping Anand.

If Carlsen gets a strong start he will run away with it...But it might get interesting if he stumbles. Rarely has Carlsen been in a position where he is down and having to fight back. It is easier to take risks when you are at the top in tournament play than when you play if you have to come from behind!

It's a joke. mr smith.

They are "adventurous to the point of silliness". if that\s a style

rooperi wrote:

I have it on good authority that Carlsen's seconds will be Michael Basman and Johnny Hector.

I'm betting on Keene, Pandolfini and Schiller.

Dr Zukhar

Rustam Kamsky!

In the next press conference, Anand ought to whip out an Ouija board and yell "I've got Tal, Fischer and Capa on my side, b$%#@hes".

And Anand can follow it up with "so now what? Top dat!"

Edit: I forgot to add b$%#ches .

I actually think Gata Kamsky would be a brilliant team mate. His style is similar and he also was incredibly gifted strategically at a young age.He also beat Anand in a candidates match before he played Karpov. He also beat Kramnik in a match.

Hmmm.Yes. Quite. Indeed

Generally, you want someone who has experience playing matches, someone who has a wealth of original ideas on openings that you play and that you don't currently play, but are similar, and you want someone who is willing to be a team player.

Garry Kasparov fits the first two perfectly, but not really the last bit. Most really good seconds are ranked around 100-400 in the world, but some are stronger. Quite often, you will find someone who isn't terribly strong, but is well known as a theoretician. One player who fits that description is Boris Avrukh. I think he helped Gelfand. I wouldn't be surprised if he, or someone similar were helping Carlsen.

But in truth, it doesn't matter much. Carlsen's strengths are well known, as are Anand's. This will not be a match marred by the sort of gamesmanship that Topalov pulled in his two world championship matches. 

I am hoping these two combine for some of the most memorable chess games in decades, but most world championship matches are determined by only one or two great games. 

Go back and look at the Anand-Topalov match. That match was full of great games, but few people even remember it now.

There was always a team of seconds.  At least the last 50 years.

I can recall most of the games from the Spassky - Fischer Match. But that´s only because that was one of my first chess books and I was checking it with great emotion, then some of Karpov - Kasparov that appeared in a Karpov book.

But for most modern matchs I only replay them fast on chessbase, and of course, I don´t really learn anything "studying" them in that way.

And you are short with that estimate.

Now I remember about this game:

I think it was Kortchnoi who did not want to be a second for Petrosian because he said Petrosians style sickens him. 

anand's seconds were mostly pretty well known by those 'in the know', plus they were also mostly players who had already worked for anand in some capacity already so the public announcement doesn't really change much.

i know hammer had at least something to do with carlsen's prep... but really so much not opening prep, surely.

fischer's seconds did not help with chess.  they just kept him there.

yeah, lombardy (a priest as well as a chess player) broke [well, removed something from] fischer's car so he couldn't leave. xD

Chess at the highest level.This will be awesome.

Fischer had Larry Evans track down old ideas that he revamped. The myth of Fischer without seconds is just that, a myth. But Fischer was probably the most anti-social and individualistic world champion ever. He probably had the fewest seconds and the least help of any match candidate since World War II.