Was Fischer afraid of Karpov

Rihanna was a mythical Welsh witch, last I heard.

Ofcourse rating inflation is real .  Do you really believe that every 2700 player today is better than Spassky was at his peak ?  He never broke 2700 .  Neither did greats like Tal , Petrosian , Geller ... etc . 

Fischer also studied the Torah and the Talmud.  I think Nimzowitsch and Botvinnik also studied it.  This just makes Fischer's later anti-Semitism more confusing however. 

As for rating inflation someone used a computer to prove that today's players do indeed play stronger than in the past.  Even if Fischer in his prime played today without updating his understanding he'd have a hard time winning against players like Gelfand.  He can defend some pretty tough positions!  He is strong positionally and has a mean Petroff. 

The challengers in 1972 and 2014 have the same rating, 2785.

What about the title holders?

"What about the title holders?"

The title holder last November was rated lower than the title holder 40 years earlier :-)

You're tricky! ;)

Rating inflation is definately real. The guy that invented the mathematical system unfortunately had part of the calculations performed with a compound interest formula. So when Fischer started getting more money pumped into chess, due to his strong personality, the compound interest part kicked in and went bananas.

That's all assuming Mickey Rooney was being up front with me.

Herebrocker wrote:

Reb hat geschrieben:

Who/what is a Rihanna ? 

i am not sure - maybe the same as raiderette, but for another team - or is it just another word for sissi - really - american slang is not easy : ) but rihanna sounds nice, could be the name of a racing horse also - yeah it sounds similar to the name of the horse that kara ben nemsi effendi got (karl may) -

this is a picture of Rihanna:

i think if fischer also had a team of chess players and access to the cloud,

he would have won

Ok at this point, make me an Ariana Grande fan!

Kasparov crushed karpov. Tactical always beats positional players

See Karpov was about 12 years older, so in the first match Kasparov just bided his time waiting for Karpov to age and when that policy worked, Bob was his uncle.

People just assume rating inflation is real and refuse to accept that it's possible that people today, wait for it, might actually be BETTER than people 40 years ago! Shocker! Ken Regan did some interesting study on this, you can find a very detailed explanation on Sam Copeland's blog.

It's always the same argument.  The key is how you define "better".  Players today have 40 more years of accumulated game knowledge and all the computer advances that allow for better opening prep, understanding of endgames, etc.  

Would today's players actually be "better" than Fischer et al?  Those who define the argument as taking a Fischer clone from 1972 out of cryogenic stasis and having him play completely unprepped say one thing, and those who define the argument as kidnapping Fischer as a child and bringing him to future to grow up in today's environment with the same knowledge and technology advances at his fingertips say another thing. 

"Inflation" is also a definition that has to be agreed upon in this context.  Some people say that overall improvement of the chess world's playing capabilities is not inflation, and some say that this overall rising tide is the inflation.

Is a player a "better" player because they can use databases and engines to perfect their opening play, something you'd have had to hire a trainer for in the past?  Or are they just lucky to be living in a better time for playing chess?  

You're never going to convince either side that they are wrong.

Naw man, that was J.F. Kennedy Jr.

I think most people accept that they are better in terms of play, but they attribute this superiority to chess engines. So even though Carlsen/Caruana would mess up Fischer in a 10 game match, they think Fischer could beat them if he was a modern day chess player because he would have more knowledge to work with.

Well Fischer is to clever to play for his title defense. To make sure  he will retain his title the unlimited games he proposed  will big advantage to him there is no way karpov will win that race.

When Fischer dominated Petrosian during the 1971 candidates match, Petrosian was not in his prime like some has claimed. Fischer was 28 years old, Petrosian was 42, about a decade past his prime. 

Yes. Fischer had low confidence that he could win against Karpov and he couldn't face the thought of defeat.