Let's not get the cart before the horse: Carlsen isn't World Champion, yet.
Players unfortunate enough to be born in the era of a genius
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May 18, 2013
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#3
Carlsen is beatable. He actually got very, VERY lucky that Kramnik lost his last game in the qualifier. Had he even drawn, bye bye Carlsen.
Carlsen needs to improve on his opening preparation. While opening prep isn't important at lower levels, at the 2800 level, it is.
If Carlsen doesn't score 2 more wins than Anand in the first 6 games, Carlsen's toast. Anand will retain the title. If he is able to be up by 2 that quickly, it will deflate Anand.
As for who ended up in the ERA of the unbeatable, even though he's 20 years older, the time that he was at his prime, he ran right into Karpov and banged his head against a brick wall, and as far as I'm concerned, this guy is the strongest player in the history of chess not to hold the world title, and that would be Viktor Korchnoi.
The Botvinnik era was hard on Smyslov, Reshevsky, Bronstein, Tal...
Yes Carlsen is beatable, but so is Kasparov, Karpov. They also got very very lucky in certain games. But what I am saying is: every era, there is always one player who just dominates (maybe not completely dominant, but his results will make it seem that way), e.g Karpov, Kasparov. And right now Magnus seems to be that person who fate has decided will be the one to dominate for this era, so much so that even with a significantly weaker opening preparation he still achieves remarkable results that many other top chess players can only dream of.
Well, Botvinnik lost championship match vs Smyslov and Tal and could only achieve a draw against Bronstein. That's not an overwhelming superiority and he said himself he was only first among equals.
Karpov has been unlucky to be followed so quickly by Kasparov.
Rubinstein and Pillsburry during Lasker's area
ThrillerFan wrote:
Carlsen is beatable. He actually got very, VERY lucky that Kramnik lost his last game in the qualifier. Had he even drawn, bye bye Carlsen.
That's not quite how it happened. The two games were being played at the same time. Carlsen only had to match Kramnik's result to win (because Carlsen was ahead on tie breaks). In the middle of the games Kramnik was losing and Cralsen was drawing... but this was part of Kramnik's strategy to play a wild position and hope for a win with black. so Carlsen wasn't sure if a draw was good enough and his position deteriorated.
Comically, the two players who were trying to be so careful and keep all their options open that they both lost.
Korchnoi was definitely unlucky... however other top chess players have said that in terms of talent, Korchnoi was no match for Karpov but it was hard work and his love for the game that brought him all the way to the top.
May 18, 2013
0
#9
Karpov
Didn't have the chance to test his mettle against Fischer and then
he was overshadowed by Kasparov later in his career
He got sandwiched between the two greatest of all time
I actually think Kasparov is slightly overrated... yes he did beat Karpov in their matches (except for the 1984 one), but if you look closely, out of all the match games they played, he won 21 while Karpov won 19. They are actually pretty evenly matched. However then again Kasparov is a great player. I just think Karpov has been portrayed to be rather weaker than Kasparov when it was actually not the case.
So there is this Kramnik interiew where he said that Bobby Fischer was destined to be world champion because "it was the will of fate", and that "any other player would have lost to Fischer". It was unlucky for all the players during Bobby's era because they were mostly remembered for their losses against him rather than their invidvidual victories - Taimanov, Larsen, Spassky etc.
And someone once said that the only thing stopping Nigel Short from becoming world champion was that he was born in Kasparov's time.
So are there any other examples of great players who were just unlucky enough to be born in the era of a genius? Right now I consider that someone to be people like Nakamura, Karjakin and Aronian because although they are all fantastic players, their achievements would always be overshadowed by Carlsen's since they are unlucky enough to be living during the Carlsen Era.