Magnus Carlsen -is he finished?

Well... today he demolished drawmaster Leko with the Black pieces, but this apparently won't make the kindergarten prophets to reconsider.

That's gotta be great for his confidence, beating Leko as Black. But even so, his rating has been slowly declining for the last two years. Something is definitely missing in his game. 

REALLY...

Chess wrecks your head. Or .... too much of a good thing is bad for you.

Everyone has highs and lows. But when you're the king the highs are simply taken for granted and the lows are all that people want to focus on.

His play is always lower quality when he's playing anything thats associated with Norway. This team event and the fact that hes never won a Norway Chess event.

I think the best way to beat Magnus is to host the world championship match in Norway.

Agree.

It means you're better than 61% of the chess.com live standard playing population. 

It means he's in the top 61% rather.

Obviously he's fallen from his peak, but you have to come down from a peak eventually, and he's still #1.

However, as someone who doesn't know anything about it, my mind does wander to prosaic explanations... such as it's boring at the top, no one to push him, climbed every mountain (WC title), that sort of reasoning. So now he's lost some motivation.

That said, a few bad games doesn't erase years of record setting. What these performances mean remains to be seen.

"Carlsen's closest predecessors played much less, won much less and lost less, but the most important difference is probably that they won much less."

Yeah, for sure. Isn't it kind of a good sign in a way that Magnus is willing to try lots of strange stuff (I don't know, like his game against Hammer in Norway Chess 2015)? Maybe he goes overboard sometimes, but it does show that he's not complacent with one particular style of play; he wants to expand his horizons, and importantly, he's not afraid if that means he will lose sometimes! It takes a lot for a world champ to do that! And indeed it seems that players at that level do have the temptation to get lots of draws, protect their prestige, look "invincible," world champs like to feel invincible. Carlsen I don't think has that as his number one priority.

Also, uh... it's not exactly surprising that Kasparov would lose less, since he was, after all, much much higher rated than everyone else, that kinda had something to do with it! If Kasparov (even at his peak) had to play people like Caruana, Naka, Grischuk, all the time, I'm pretty sure he'd lose "occasionally" as well :) I mean, Magnus plays damn strong tournaments. He's been in some of the strongest tournaments in history, like Sinquefield Cup, Norway Chess, and he plays in them often :)

The difference between Carlsen and the players that were World Champions just before him is easiest shown with a comparison.

Kramnik won the title in 2000 and lost it in 2007. The six years in between he won in all less than 50 games of classical chess.

Anand won four games of classical chess in 2012, none of them against an opponent rated higher than 2730. The year before he won seven games.

Carlsen won more than 20 games of classical chess last year. This year he has won 20 games, with the rest of the European Team Championship, London and Qatar left, while winning the rapid World Championship and playing the blitz as well.

In less than three years Carlsen has won 65 games of classical chess, combined with playing lots of rapid and blitz events, as well as one Candidates and two title matches, things that tend to take some preparation time.

This year Carlsen has lost a bit more than usual, but that is quite natural given his tough schedule compared to previous World Champions.

Carlsen's win against Leko was very impressive. He went for a two knights vs B+N endgame knowing his 2 Ns were better. I am pretty sure that most masters would not have resigned at the point Leko did, and without engines, few non-masters would have understood why Leko resigned.

This was an incredibly high quality win for Carlsen, and yet it felt normal. Carlsen doesn't blow his opponents off the board with tactics, he makes them look like they don't understand chess!

This is why his occasional losses seem so stark. That, and today's engines point out every flaw instantly.

thanks to engines chess is gone real boring.

Danny King has done some really good analysis of the Leko-Carlsen game. It can be found on youtube or at chessbase.com. It's well worth a look. Carlsen really played a great game!

Maybe it is also true that he is keeping his powder dry. He is preparing all the time for the next challenger. His latest ideas will then surface in that match. Otherwise his opponent would analyse them to death and be ready with the best engine response.

Nope. He lost in an equal position against Pelletier. It had nothing to do with preparation.

Nice to see a thread about this that isn't a troll thread.

Several things come to mind:

A) Carlsen seems to have a "home turf" problem (like some people mentioned).

B) It's possible that he is a bit tired of the somewhat "sterile" chess at the very top, and wants to play something different when the opportunity arises. This can backfire!

C) Also, one must remember that it's dangerous to enter this kind of event, it's like having a target painted on your back! Every lower rated opponent treats their game vs Carlsen as an opportunity of a lifetime, probably knows all of his games and will probably spend a lot of energy on preparation and on this game. Wouldn't you?

D) Carlsen has been on a bit of a decline ever since he time-blundered in Norway chess. He wanted to win that tournament and he was probably psyched and intent on taking it home the third time, and I think the first game mishap and the disastrous performance in that event had a big psychological impact on Carlsen himself, and also all of his opponents! The fear is gone.