2014 Chess Olympiad (Tromsø)

I guess Hungary will get some attention today:

pairings:

USA - Hungary ( open)

Russia - Hungary ( women )

A big day for Hungary, agreed.

LOL superking500 and superqueen500 are just too much... I must say that comment was my daily laugh, it's just very amusing to hear a guy who's ~1500 online emotionally ranting and calling an established grandmaster a patzer. Note: devoting hours a day to creating Carlsen threads and deifying the guy with sock puppet accounts won't have an osmotic effect on your own chess skill.

In other news, that pawn sac e6 by Carlsen was one of those rare moves that immediately produce a visceral reaction- I winced and thought "this can't be good unless there is an incredible tactic" while playing over the game. Naiditsch's comment about being lucky seemed a little petulant; he could have just said "no I wasn't lucky" and it would have come off better. Another commenter called it a possible lack of character and despite my tremendous respect for his wonderfully played game, I have to agree. (not as glaring a lack of character as a 1500 sockpuppet player dropping an F-bomb and ranting about Carlsen, but still)

It's perfectly reasonable in my opinion that he says he was lucky. However, saying that Carlsen is usually quite lucky might not be the best thing to say about the WC.

Strong players are almost always lucky... in the sense that they can pounce on fortuitous opportunities that the rest of us miss.

I wonder if what Naiditsch wanted to suggest rather was that he didn't win because of luck at all, just because he was the better player, just like Carlsen doesn't win because of luck.

fabelhaft wrote:

I wonder if what Naiditsch wanted to suggest rather was that he didn't win because of luck at all, just because he was the better player, just like Carlsen doesn't win because of luck.

I think this is pretty much what he wanted to say. But it was worded in such a way that one might be forgiven for thinking he was calling Carlsen a lucky player. Certainly he could have been more charitable.

The biggest controversy involving Naiditsch is probably the one Nigel Short wrote about here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/chess/3634337/The-Sunday-chess-column.html

If he had wanted to say that, then he would have said it.

By the way, I'm shocked to see that Ding Liren has a live rating of 2750.9. I completely neglected following his rating progress!

Ivanchuk-Topalov and Leko-Nakamura could be two top games today, but a couple of those players might well be rested today since they have played many rounds in a row.

He definately didn't mean that because he mentioned specific games from the olympiad where Carlsen was lucky not to lose.

"he mentioned specific games from the olympiad where Carlsen was lucky not to lose"

That sounds strange, it's not as if he had lost positions in several games, he had only played five and it hasn't exactly felt as if he has been lucky not to lose two-three games before the one against Naiditsch (regardless if one subscribes to the often repeated theories about Carlsen's rating being caused by luck and non chess factors etc).

I think the one game that he explicitly referenced was how Carlsen was worse against Caruana, but he implied Carlsen was lucky in other games too.

Carlsen was definitely worse against Caruana, as all black players after a few moves of the Scandinavian. Then Carlsen just outplayed him because he is the stronger player, and that is hard to attribute to luck.

I think its good that Arkadij said that. Magnus needs a bit of trash talking thrown his way. When Nakamura said that he was the only one who could challenge Carlsens dominance (I don't know the exact wording) then Carlsen kicked his ass even more afterwards. Even more so after the Sauron comment. So its good that Arkadij said that, it will make Carlsen kick his ass the next time they play & its just what Carlsen needs right before the Sinquefield Cup & the title match. I think when a player says something insulting about Magnus it motivates him to prove theyre wrong, he plays even stronger. Thats a good thing. Chess needs more trash talking & controversy.

Hi guys, I think it's completely right that MC lost yesterday and stopped boosting his rating. Finally!

p.s: I'm not a Carlsen fan.

Naiditsch is just a pathetic man, end of story. Not even Aronian or Grischuk could or would say that about the number 1 player and best since the days of Kasparov - image then the opinion of a 2600-2700 GM ... ridicolous...

Ohh and a cheater also?!? Nice, then I don't need to add any comments.

DISGUSTING.

How is the indian team doing today in top board against armenia? World number 2 Levon aronian will be playing P.Negi(2600+) , so aronian will do every bit to beat his lower rated compaititor, if somebody is following the match between india vs armenia than please post in the updates #thanks.

Oops: Onischuk just blundered a piece against Rapport.