Carlsen's dismal 2015

Yes, it is difficult to hold on to such a big lead against so many strong opponents. During Kasparov's last ten years as active player (which includes the period when he had his biggest lead on the rating list) his average lead was below 40 points, while Carlsen has 43 at the moment. So maybe people have a bit too high expectations.

why care what some chessnews says, he is still obvious the best player in the world and I belive most people would agree on this. 

IMO worst thing that happend is no Kramnik for candidates

" Carlsen's dismal 2015 "

Tell me this is irony.

"why care what some chessnews says"

I don't know, it's a bit entertaining how Carlsen can rub otherwise reasonable people the wrong way so much. The Chess Mind is a great site, very interesting to read, but Carlsen is not a topic to be mentioned with delight. He can be said to definitely not have deserved to win something he won, it can be called a real shame that he won something else, it can be argued that Anand was better than Carlsen in 2014 (hello?), etc.

Tim Harding is a great chess historian, but when he writes about Carlsen at the English Chess Forum he can't hide how much he dislikes him. About Qatar he had written hopefully that it was a great chance for Carlsen to lose rating points, couldn't hide his disappointment when Carlsen won, called him "pretty contemptuous" and complained bitterly about how he wins thanks to exhausted opposition in playoffs. And in spite of many comments during an event Carlsen won after some great games, not one on Carlsen/his games/results was positive.

Most entertaining of all was the now disappeared WhyChess, with numerous articles discussing Carlsen's inferior chess understanding. But just all the usual Chessbase stuff about what a bad year Carlsen had gets repeated a lot. People keep going on about what an awful year Carlsen had, and that has quickly become the "truth" about his 2015. It also feels as if it fuels the general negativity a bit, I mean the tendency to look for things to complain about rather than appreciate, when Carlsen after all has done ok.

Hear, Hear !!

Though I would suggest that young Magnus has done a lot more than "ok"

At least no other player won as many strong events in one year before. It isn't easy to play so much and score great results all the time, one event in the second half of November, two tough tournaments in December, another one coming up in January etc. At his peak Kasparov usually wanted a few months between his tournaments.

On Qatar, I think the first playoff game was quite pretty stuff. Going for that exchange sac with 20 seconds on the clock was gutsy and it was well played for blitz. Even The Chess Mind writes that there was no controversy surrounding the playoff, in contrast to London. The playoff rules were the same though, Qatar just got lucky that only two players reached the same score. Carlsen had the best tiebreak again, and would have been in the same seat as in London with three players sharing first

"Tim Harding is a great chess historian, but when he writes about Carlsen at the English Chess Forum he can't hide how much he dislikes him. About Qatar he had written hopefully that it was a great chance for Carlsen to lose rating points, couldn't hide his disappointment when Carlsen won, called him "pretty contemptuous" and complained bitterly about how he wins thanks to exhausted opposition in playoffs. And in spite of many comments during an event Carlsen won after some great games, not one on Carlsen/his games/results was positive"

It was the same thing during the latest tournament, by the way, Harding even went as far as saying that it was unfair that Carlsen was rewarded with more tour points than MVL after winning the event. But the rules have been the same in all the previous tour events, so it can't have come as a surprise, it was the same thing already in 2015 when Carlsen won London after a playoff.

I just had to go back and see what Harding wrote then, and it was that Carlsen had played rubbish throughout the tour except for a game here and there, and that MVL was the star of the event. As in the latest tournament, I think few players can be so condemned for their play even during tournaments and tournament series they win :-)

Are you responding to anyone in particular?

Looking back at all the things Harding and others wrote about Carlsen's 2015, I wonder what will be said about his 2017. In 2015 he at least won five very strong tournaments, it might be considerably less this year :-)

Ho probably was not, as his answer indicates it was too long ago to remember, but thanks for bumping the topic.

Or were you finding current topics a bit scarce? 

Why should anyone bother about the Anti-Carlsen rant of a 70-year old "someone" who never achieved something more than a Candidate Master title, and his best lifetime rating was "just" 660 points below Carlsen's?