Mozart of Chess

On January 24, 2004 13 year old Magnus Carlsen played the following charming game after which Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, called Carlsen "The Mozart of Chess." 

Eight years later Kavalek explained:

Kavalek went on to say "Bobby Fischer was also 13 when he was called the chess Mozart for his astonishing victory against Donald Byrne in 1956.... The brilliant American, Paul Morphy, who dominated the chess world in the late 1850s, was another chess Mozart. You can play over his marvelous victory against Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard de Vauvenargue in the Paris opera in 1858 to understand why."

NIC did a feature on Carlsen in this Tournament for its Feb. 2004 issue using the following image:

IIRC the game up to something high (like move 23) had already been played before, but the players agreed on a draw.

Even so, again IIRC, Carlsen found the winning tactic OTB, it wasn't prep.

Well, here are some notes by Kavalek in 2012:

17.Qe2 (Magnus knew the queen move was endorsed by theoreticians, but he didn’t remember the variations. He took 25 minutes to study the position.) 17...c5 (The fun begins now.)

18.Ng6! (A similar knight sacrifice, but in a different position, was played in the game Bologand-Anand, Dortmund 2003, and Carlsen knew the game.)

22.Rxh6+!!
(This gorgeous rook sacrifice opens the h-file and is based on a vulnerable seventh rank.)

Carlsen himself wrote: 17.Qe2 "This was the last move that I knew, but I had already spent 45 minutes on what line to choose. "

Is this also the game where after it was over, some guy (I don't remember who, maybe a coach or just some fellow tournament player) ran around trying to show it to people, saying "this is the game of a genius" ?

Actually, I really see very little similarities between Mozart's style and genius and Carlsen's. The unbreakable solidity and resilience of the current WC are much more akin to a "Richard Wagner" of chess, IMHO.

The only real analogy is that they were both child prodigies but, nowadays, young prodigies are not that uncommon in any field...

Just for fun some (silly) correspondence  I see between famous chess players and classical composers:

Botvinnik > Bach

Tal > Beethoven

Spassky > Vivaldi

Fischer > Mozart

Kasparov > Mahler (or R.Strauss.... really undecided here  )

Carlsen > Wagner

(Philidor > Philidor LOL!!!!)

Indeed, Carlsen is the biggest talent of this generation, and possibly of any generation.

Fischer was more like Beethoven.

Beethoven, because Beethoven and Fischer had this invincible will!

They both also pushed for better pay in their field.

I had no idea Beethoven picked a fight with Goethe! Please tell us the story!

ha

Who would win in a fight between Beethoven and Goethe? My money's on Goethe. Sure Beethoven has the intense nuttyness of a street scrapper, but Goethe's mind is likely way more focused on the task at hand.

Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

I believe in taking such analogies too literally we lean towards the preposterous,

Maybe a better way to look at it is how the Creole writer, Gaston Doussan, expressed  in L'Athénée Louisianais in 1892 talking about Paul Morphy :  "Ce que Mozart avait de génie inné, naturel en musique, Morphy l'avait aux échecs."

or as Charles de Maurian expressed in his obituary for Morphy for the Times-Democrat in 1884:  "What Mozart, as to innate, natural ability, was to music, Morphy likewise was to chess. He stands, in this characteristic, unique, alone, without a rival, however much in other respects his claims to pre-eminence may be disputed."

I agree with batgirl. 

The context of the comment was that it was made when Carlsen was a child.   The point is that, like Mozart, Magnus was hailed as a child prodigy.  

That’s this one (which is even better, I think):

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1274856

It was Kasparov’s old coach Nikitin:

<Q: I still recall the scene with Alexander Nikitin, Kasparov’s coach, who at one of the first “Aeroflots” stood next to your table and witnessed you crush Dolmatov in 20 moves. He then went around the hall with the scoresheet of that game and breathlessly informed everyone: "This is the game of a genius">

Carlsen: Yes, I remember that, I was 13 then (laughs). I want to thank Nikitin for the good promotion he did for me then. He’s an authority figure, and I even heard about it when I returned home. Yes, he also predicted a great future for me.>

Wonderful find.

That's when Carlsen became the Rossini of chess.  (a joke)

2004 was a good year.

Thanks for the article!