Carlsen is in India

As far as what a few of these comments have brought it really makes for an interesting twist on what I still believe happens today so I would like to go over a few of them.

fabelhaft wrote:

“The situation where Carlsen got so far ahead of the others was, in my view, unnatural”

“he’s no stronger than Anand or me”

Okay so what you are saying is you are comparing yourself to Anand and Carlsens level of chess play?

If so I feel it is a bit braisen myself to say as I know I have a long road ahead of myself to do this. I do feel at this point I would be able to give either of them a good enough game to get to a possible middle game but to beat either one of them I feel is not a good analogy at all.

fablehaft wrote:

“he selects his tournaments cleverly, and in those tournaments he really does play at 2825. If, let’s say, you take a double round-robin tournament with the top 6 in the rating list, then I’m not convinced he’ll be able to hold onto such a rating. It’s a question of his style of play – he’s very good at cleaning up against the tail-enders”

I know this happens allot which brings me back to what I feel in due to the numbers of people playing chess today the FIDE rating system has been duped.

A good example of this was the New York Masters tournament that I was following very closely.

I had been talking to two people that went to this tournament one from Canada IM Pascal Charbonneau at the time. Which He is now a GM which is the main reason He himself said to a friend of mine and I why He wanted to go down to that tournament to play.

He faired very well in this tournament which gave him his GM status but at least we all know if Pascal would not of showed up to that tournament who knows how many years down the road it would of been for him to reach the last norm He needed to get his GM Status.

Back then Pascal Charbonneau even was saying to a friend of mine and I just how hard it was to find and play people within his calibre of players.

What I am saying here is sitting around Canada playing the NMs FMs and IMs does not help you achieve any kind of a GM status which a person that is in Canada could be doing endlessly and tirelessly for years.

In the BMX racing I did years ago a friend of mine that BMX raced with me we usto do the same thing to accumilate the points we needed to get ourselves high in the standings.

It had nothing to do with either of us being good it had to do with us signing ourselves up against lower calibre racers at the certain tracks that we new where the higher end racers would not be.

We had talked with Pascal even throughout the tournament when He briefly came on WCN back then and He said himself He was loving the challenge as it was not easy at all.

He went on to say that there was some very good high end Competitors that showed up to that tournament yet my friend and I new this all along.

That is why we convinced him to go we also convinced WGM Martha Fierro to show up for it also. Check it out for yourself here for standings and Money List: http://www.newyorkmasters.com

I am not even sure if this tournament still goes on today as I have not been able to find any updated info on it at all. I do know it always seemed to attract allot of higher calibre players from around the world nothing like Canada has ever been able to offer since the mid to late 80s.

It would be a nice thing to see the Chess Olympiads here in Canada but I personally am not holding my breathe over it either.

I've heard this complaint about Carlsen before, that he wins tournament after tournament by collecting more points from the lower rated players in the field. Ahem, let me clear my throat: isn't that what players are supposed to do? Score as much as possible to try to finish 1st? & all the top players play basically the exact same tournaments anyway (anyone can go check the records) so they all have to play the exact same players. So Kramnik has the same oportunity to score against the same players Carlsen plays, they're all round robins. If Carlsen averages 70% vs the players between 2700-2750 & Kramnik can only average 60% vs. the same players who's fault is that? Also, the claim that Carlsen doesn't score so dominantly vs the elite: He wins more tournaments than any of the top players & they all play in the same events at the same time! By the way, since Carlsen turned 18 (Nov 30, 2008, there's no point in viewing results while anyone was still a kid & hadn't reached the elite yet) he has winning records against every single one of the elite players. This includes any world champion over the last 13 years (since Kramnik beat Kasparov for the title), any challenger to the world champion, any player thats ever been rated #1. That clearly defines all the very best of the elite players. All this can be looked up. Sounds like a hint of jealousy maybe........ although I'm still a big fan of Kramnik, I like his positional style, I really just think Carlsen is more talented as a positional player & as an attacking player. Kramnik will get another chance to challenge for the WC, he's already qualified to play in the next candidates tournament again. He just has to win it.

Yes, I think it is this that sometimes can irritate his opponents. It isn't only about Carlsen, of course. When Anand won the World Championship Kramnik made it clear that he had played as well as Anand, but that the latter had been lucky as always, as usual hadn't had any winning chances against the top players etc:

"I guess that my playing level was on par with Anand's. He just collected everything he could, as usual. He takes chances, he is always lucky a little, as I noticed. He played 1-1 with both the 2nd and 3rd players and had no winning chances in any of these games. This is very usual for him as a real tournament fighter"

http://chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=12088..&kpage=394

Anand later said that "Kramnik taunted me a lot" about the time between the World Championships 2007 and 2008:

http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/31/stories/2008103156551800.htm

First I would say that when you travel anywhere there is a large risk of becoming sick.  It doesn't matter whether you are traveling from a country with a wealthier standard of living or to a country with a lower standard of living.  Different parts of the world have different bacteria in the water and the enviorenment in general.  Coming to India a few months before the match was a good idea so he can expose himself to the bacteria on a new area.  Allowing an illness clause is just common sense for anyone who has traveled and should in no way be seen as an insult. 

As far as the Kramnik comment - I think its just some good ribbing between the top players.   Carlsen went out of his way in a press conference to tell people that Kramnik does not try to play drawish and plays very actively with black.  

IMO Kramnik, and Anand, really brought an end to the era of every time you lose a game or match you must hate the guy who beat you.  I saw the Anand Kramnik match and everytime I saw the two players they were cordial to eachother.   I also followed Kramnik for several years and read many interviews.   

Kramnik specifically pointed out he is not like Fischer, out to crush the egos of his opponents.  Nor is he like Kasparov who took it personally that he lost the match. 

The wwe style antics and drama that has surrounded chess for decades is mercifully over.  Anand Carlsen Kramnik Aronian and Nakamura all have great respect for eachother and see no need to take pot shots.  We should credit all these top players for being mature well adjusted adults who do a great job representing the game we love.    The wars will begin and end  over the board and we as chess fans get to watch.  

It is a great time to be a chess fan.  I think Carlsen is indeed hoping exactly what he says.  Not that Anand will blunder and Carlsen will win.  But instead that he will play a great match.  I really think he will, and I hope Anand will too.  I know I will be watching.  

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