Carlsen has just won one of the strongest tournaments of the year with an amazing plus five!
The way Carlsen dismantled MVL (probably the greatest Gruenfeld player in the world) in a line MVL never lost in before was brilliant.
This puts no doubt in my mind that Carlsen would rip Fischer apart.
Computers changed everything. Modern chess is much more positional. It's about reducing your opponent's ability to drop a tactic. Before modern computers and chess engines that no human could beat in a match, GM's could find an interesting line with a tactical combo in there if the opponent took a wrong turn.
Now players have to sort of manuver thier opponent into a type of position where the player has to think in terms of a safe but drawish move, or a move that has a chance to win, but risky.
The days of dazzling tactics by the likes of Tal are gone. GM's still find tactics to win, but it's more because of positional considerations made earlier in the game.
To a lesser player, it might seem convenient that a pawn is in the right spot to help win a game, after being nailed to the same square for 30 moves, but in reality, the player understood that the pawn being on that square would have long term advantages.
One of the hardest things for beginners and low level players is to learn the nuances of moving pawn from h2 to h3 vs pawn from g2 to g3 if your not following a book line.
For black, it whether to move pawn from h7 to h6, or g7 to g6.
If you move the pawn at all.
If you don't move any pawn, then that could be used by your opponent for a back rank mate. It's insidious if your battling your opponent, then realise you need to burn a tempo to give your king some breathing room. 😱
I’ve seen biographies on both players. In a way, it’s hard to compare them because they came from such vastly different eras. But, Carlsen’s greatest strength is his ability to just sit there and grind away. This is something that gets overlooked.
Also, I’m telling you, Carlsen is like the devil in disguise. He seems like an “awe Shucks” country boy. But I’ve witnessed him do things that are not humanly possible regarding chess. I watched him identify 10 board positions from note worthy historical games. He knew the players, the year, the geographical location, etc....
Then, he tells the guy, haha...
”These are too easy, why don’t you give me some hard ones?”
It was funny, but also kind of scary how his mind works.
Kasparov did this also, Naming the players, year, location, result, tournament and the next move. It's impressive how good these people's memory's are.
Kasparov has been described as a shark and one of the most intimidating presences ever at a chess board.
Carlsen’s intimidation comes from his results and determination rather than his board presence.
But one thing that most amateurs miss about Carlsen is his brutality against players rated +100 points lower than himself. Carlsen will play any opening and play to blow the opponent off the board in 30 moves or less if he doesn’t respect them. And he usually succeeds!
Fischer never faced opponents who are as well prepared as today’s best players. He never faced a murderer’s row of opponents all rated above 2725. Carlsen has faced the very best and has now won eight tournaments in a row against these great players.
This is unprecedented.
Kasparov has been described as a shark and one of the most intimidating presences ever at a chess board.
Carlsen’s intimidation comes from his results and determination rather than his board presence.
But one thing that most amateurs miss about Carlsen is his brutality against players rated +100 points lower than himself. Carlsen will play any opening and play to blow the opponent off the board in 30 moves or less if he doesn’t respect them. And he usually succeeds!
Fischer never faced opponents who are as well prepared as today’s best players. He never faced a murderer’s row of opponents all rated above 2725. Carlsen has faced the very best and has now won eight tournaments in a row against these great players.
This is unprecedented.
Agree.
Even when people are playing against him, it must be slightly worrying as there is a very high chance of loss even if you play well. His wins against MVL and Ding Liren were especially impressive despite the lack of fireworks.
Also his win vs Giri in 23 moves was shocking as miniatures are very rare these days at top level.
If Carlsen continues with this streak he will have a strong chance of breaking 2900 (although this is very difficult even in his current form.)
I heard somewhere that Kasparov had a tournament streak of about 20, but i'm not sure i'm correct.
Magnus learned from Fisher and all past greats fisher did not learn from greats who came after him so carlsen is stronger
i think mike tyson would beat both carlsen and fischer
Yeah, but he'd get disqualified and be awarded a technical loss.
Carlsen achieved a 2943 performance in Zagreb and returned to his highest rating of 2882.
(In the same tournament Wesley So had a 2881 rating performance, which must be one of the highest tournament performances without coming first).
i think mike tyson would beat both carlsen and fischer
Yeah, but he'd get disqualified and be awarded a technical loss.
Probably because they have very tasty ears.
Carlsen achieved a 2943 performance in Zagreb and returned to his highest rating of 2882.
(In the same tournament Wesley So had a 2881 rating performance, which must be one of the highest tournament performances without coming first).
Put another way, the second place performance was lower than Carlsen's overall rating!
fabehalf, maybe you are right, but saying that Fischer lost his match vs Reshevsky is a lie. They finished tied: +2 -2 =7
Just like Carlsen tied his last two matches vs Karjakin and Caruana
«Fischer never faced such strong opponents as Carlsen has» ok, but Carlsen never faced the whole elite as he did in 1972. Imagine Caruana being Carlsen's opponent and Ding, Nepo, Naka, Giri, Kramnik, Grischuk and Aronian being part of his team.
Agreed. Fischer was facing the Soviet chess empire. Not only was he good, he had lots of pressure, not the stuff like Magnus faces. Im not saying Magnus doesnt face pressure, but Fischer could very well get assasinated. Fischer's life was chess. He clearly had a disorder, but his life was chess. Magnus's life isnt chess. He does other things, but Fischers life was literally all chess.
Carlsen is the least computer dependent top player currently (together with Peter Svidler). He is the world's #1 simply because of his phenomenal positional understanding, and awesome fighting spirit.
IMO he has the potential (provided that he will work a bit on his soft spot, which surely enough is the opening preparation) to be the first one to come close to the 2900 ELO barrier.
Svidler too. He probably has an IQ around 200 or so, plays stunning chess (no need for advertisement- his SIX wins in the Russian individual championship speak volumes about his skill), but IMO he is a bit old to cure his almost pathological laziness.
I feel that if we could transport Fisher of the early seventies to our era, and settle a match against Carlsen, or Svidler in Fisher Chess/Chess960 (no opening theory involved) he would lose quite easily.
200 IQ? LOL
The core of the original work itself isn't pseudoscience, but conclusion is. Reasons have been already written here.
And people think good chess players are smart :/
"from Blackburne to Carlsen, players have been playing the same game. So no change at all"
Hard to argue against that statement :-)
That's debatable, in the (very) old days there was no time control, also, drawing rules have changed over time, mainly the 50 move rule.
Carlsen just beat Nepo (2775) as Black. He didn’t make any mistakes. He just closed up the position, kept his options open, and gave his opponent chances to blunder. Nepo obliged around move 28, and Carlsen pounced.
Players like Nepo and the other great players today simply didn’t exist before the computer age. There just weren’t any +2750 players who could attack and defend in such complicated positions. Ok, Karpov came close. But Fischer certainly never faced opponents who were that good in all phases. And not even Kasparov regularly faced such strong opposition as is seen in modern tournaments.
Carlsen is alone in first place yet again. We are witnessing something truly historic.