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Let us use this thread to keep updates about chess. Men Magnus Carlsen continues his splendid run this year winning Shamkir Open to add to Wijk Aan Zee and Grenke Chess Classic. He is the undisputed best player in the world leading the rankings in classical, rapid and blitz. Anand was never this dominating although he was a monster in rapid/blitz in his younger days, Fischer and Kasparov were never the best in shorter time controls but this guy Magnus is a freak !!! Remember he won all 3 of them last year becoming only the 2nd player in history after Anand to win the chess triple crown. But TBH nobody really cares about rapid, even less so about blitz :giggle: Classical is the ultimate form of chess like test cricket and nobody is within touching distance of the Norwegian. Anand is world number 2 at the ripe old age of 45, probably the oldest no 2 since Botvinik in the late 50s. It is a shame that none of the younger guns have stepped up to challenge Carlsen instead ceding ground to a veteran who played his 1st World Championship match when they were in diapers. Caruana's run in 2014 looks like distant memory and he isn't consistent enough to challenge MC. Nakamura is Carlsen's *****, Aronian is in steep decline and Topalov/Kramnik/Gelfand are done and dusted. Giri, So, Karjakin simply do not have the quality to compete with any of the above mentioned players. Only hope is Wei Yi, the 15 year old Chinese prodigy who is ELO 2718 and ranked world number 33. OUtskwa.jpg The difference between Carlsen(World No 1) and Anand (World No 2) is 72 points ,the same as that between Anand and Ivanchuk(World No 27) :hysterical::hysterical::hail::hail: http://en.chessbase.com/post/may-2015-ratings-vishy-anand-is-world-no-2 qjq6Ija.jpg The Grand Chess Tour(outside FIDE purview) has been announced which will comprise of Norway Chess Open(June in Stavenger), Sinquefield Cup (August in St Louis) and London Chess Classic(December). The brain behind this is Kasparov. This will have political ramifications and probably result in a breakaway from FIDE like the PCA in 1993. Gazza ran for FIDE presidentship against the crazy, corrupt, Putin crony lunatic Kalmykian Kirsan Ilyumzhinov last year only to lose pathetically(ahem, ICC, FIDE aren't the only corrupt sporting bodies :winky:). Kasparov wants to topple this guy in FIDE much like he wants to topple Putin in Russia. But Kirsan(Srini Mama of the chess world) who is backed to the hilt by Kremlin is very shrewd and ruthless, expect lots of events to clash with this, especially those important from World Championship point of view in the coming days. I expect fireworks very soon. BTW the players who will play this series are all top 12 players, making it an extremely strong series of events. There will be winners in each of these events and an overall winner based on performance in all 3. There are plans to rope in Jakarta to make it 4 events per year but that will happen not before 2016. 9 players have been confirmed for this: Magnus Carlsen, Norway Viswanathan Anand, India Fabiano Caruana, Italy Alexander Grischuk, Russia Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria Levon Aronian, Armenia Anish Giri, Netherlands Hikaru Nakamura, USA Maxime Vachier lagrave, France MIVspRO.jpg Kramnik surprisingly pulled out and Karjakin(the winner of the last 2 editions, pictured below) has been dropped to the surprise of many. This is probably because he is a Putin admirer and Gazza hates anything to do with Putin. KR906wc.jpg Kirsan the FIDE President for life :dance:(extreme right), Putin the Russian President and dear leader(Centre) and Andrey Filatov the Russian Chess Federation President(Left) will do everything they can to jeopardize Kasparov's latest antics. mLeAzjz.jpghttps://chess24.com/en/read/news/a-new-era-in-chess-begins-today The Candidates will be held in early 2016. So far only Anand has qualified. 2 players from the Chess World Cup, 2 from the Grand Prix Series, 2 by virtue of rating and an organizer's nominee will complete the field of 8 challengers. The World Team Championship concluded in Armenia last week. China clinched Gold. India finished 9th out of 10 teams :(( but Anand, Harikrishna and Sasikiran, our top 3 players weren't playing. After Anand retires India will be a non entity in the world of chess sadly, absolute lack of top talent. Adox6Dv.jpg Other events to look forward to in the coming months are Biel Invitational, Dortmund, FIDE Grand Prix, FIDE World Cup and the rapid/blitz world championships. But Carlsen and Anand will play only in June(Norway open). Women Mariya Muzychuk(Ukraine) won the Knock Out event this year and will be up against Hou Yifan(China) (who is the overwhelming favourite) later this year. Hou is the highest rated woman in the world even surpassing Judit Polgar and her dominance over others in the women field will put even Magnus to shame. She is world number 55, the only woman in the top 100 by a long way. Sometimes she gets invited to play against the elite male players in top tier tournaments for example Wijk Aan Zee earlier this year.She in fact has a winning record(2-0) against Anish Giri, world Number 9. :hatsoff: Koneru Humpy is the 3rd best women's player but her best years are behind her, especially after her marriage last year. I doubt she can reach the summit unless Hou decides to stop playing in women's events and focuses only on men's events(like Judit). Harika is at world number 15, others are pretty ordinary compared to the talent the rest of the world has to offer. xHGs02C.jpgHou Yifan, the strongest woman chess player of all time after Judit Polgar and still only 21 !!! AlV22Xr.jpgMariya Muzychuk who will face Hou later this year GzeEnP3.jpgHumpy® and Harika(L), pride of India qsD4uOb.jpg I don't follow non WC matches involving women but will update in case any Indian does well !!! BTW in the World Team Championship(held in China) we finished a creditable 4th out of 10 teams. Georgia took gold. 1ODbfJ7.jpg

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Why is there separate ranking for women in chess ? Chess has nothing to do with physical capability
There is a huge gulf in class between men players and women players among the elite. Only Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan have broken into the top 100 overall rankings. Chess has a lot to do with physical capability. Playing for 6-7 hours daily for 10-15 days at a stretch requires a tremendous deal of physical stamina, especially among the better players who do a lot of calculation and stuff. Most of the top 10 players routinely run half marathons/marathons and are fitter than our cricketers. Have you the way Carlsen/Aronian/Topalov train or for that matter even Anand. I have heard from a Chess reporter in Spain that Anand used to cycle 20-30 miles at a stretch during his time in Spain had a bench press 1RPM of 240 lbs :cantstop: Aronian has a marathon timed under 3 hours, Simen Adgestein the Norwegian GM played football for Norway national team in the 90s, About Kasparov forget it, he will shame even top tennis players as far as fitness regime is concerned !!! Also men are more ruthless/competitive while women(with a couple of exceptions) are soft. Moreover in most tournaments women prefer to play with women only and not against men, so separate ranking makes sense.
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This is a recent controversy. Nigel Short says men 'hardwired' to be better chess players than women A TWIC article(over 6 weeks old !!!!) was the center of attention recently when some tabloid news picked up the story and thus ensued an attack on the British GM Nigel Short by women chess players and feminists worlwide. The controversy soon snowballed and all leading print media took up the story and chess got a lot of free publicity. :--D Full text of the article from TWIC is in this link: http://en.chessbase.com/post/vive-la-diffrence-the-full-story http://www.chess.com/news/media-storm-over-grandmaster-gender-column-9730 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/20/nigel-short-uk-grandmaster-men-hardwired-better-chess-players-women http://time.com/3828179/chess-nigel-short-sexist-inequality/ zWO30o1K3Mc

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Carlsen will remain world champion until the end of this decade and beyond. wtf is with the silly World Cup tournament with all these blitz and rapid games though. No world championship this year. Should be candidates then world championship match every year. Finalists of world cup qualify for candidates though. Want to see Carlsen v Caruana for the title in 2016.

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Carlsen will remain world champion until the end of this decade and beyond. wtf is with the silly World Cup tournament with all these blitz and rapid games though. No world championship this year. Should be candidates then world championship match every year. Finalists of world cup qualify for candidates though. Want to see Carlsen v Caruana for the title in 2016.
Caruana of present isn't half as good as he was those 3-4 months of 2014. These days he gets easily beaten by Carlsen with both colors and never looks even mildly threatening. TBH the only person i see who can topple Carlsen is Anand(surprise). His resurgence is heartening to see, if only he prepares intensely like he did before Bonn, 2008 he will end the myth about Carlsen being invincible. But his son is 4 years old and he prefers spending time with his family over competition. Anand is the only person who has a good record against Carlsen till date(19-17 in Carlsen's favor) http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=52948&pid2=12088 Aronian,Nakamura,Topalov have pathetic record against him,Kramnik hasn't beaten him for 5 years and Caruana has lost 5 out of 5 matches the last 6 months !!!!
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Caruana of present isn't half as good as he was those 3-4 months of 2014. These days he gets easily beaten by Carlsen with both colors and never looks even mildly threatening. TBH the only person i see who can topple Carlsen is Anand(surprise). His resurgence is heartening to see, if only he prepares intensely like he did before Bonn, 2008 he will end the myth about Carlsen being invincible. But his son is 4 years old and he prefers spending time with his family over competition. Anand is the only person who has a good record against Carlsen till date(19-17 in Carlsen's favor) http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=52948&pid2=12088 Aronian,Nakamura,Topalov have pathetic record against him,Kramnik hasn't beaten him for 5 years and Caruana has lost 5 out of 5 matches the last 6 months !!!!
Anand was so comfortably beaten both times that it would be pointless to have a 3rd match regardless of how hard he works, ecpecially given by 2016 he'll be even older. Did Caruana have that recent bad run after that good run in classical matches or shorter ones? Regardless Carlsen is too dominant and will comfortably beat Anand again. He will probably beat Caruana too but atleast he is still young, improving and better than the other options out there. Carlsen v Anand 3 is pointless I reckon. Cannot see it ending in any different way.
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Anand was so comfortably beaten both times that it would be pointless to have a 3rd match regardless of how hard he works, ecpecially given by 2016 he'll be even older. Did Caruana have that recent bad run after that good run in classical matches or shorter ones? Regardless Carlsen is too dominant and will comfortably beat Anand again. He will probably beat Caruana too but atleast he is still young, improving and better than the other options out there. Carlsen v Anand 3 is pointless I reckon. Cannot see it ending in any different way.
Caruana's recent bad run was in classical. In shorter time controls he is very weak and will lose to almost any of the top 10 players, so if he has to beat Carlsen he must do it in the 12 games and not take it to tie breaks. Chennai 2013 was one sided because Anand was in a mid life crisis and was pondering retirement( between 2009 to 2013 he didn't win a single classical tournament and notched very few wins against the elite). Also he had lost motivation because he had to defend the title almost every year and hence couldn't divulge opening preparation in the non WCC tournaments and this took a heavy toll on him. By contrast Karpov, Kasparov(in the 90s),Kramnik had a lot of leeway regarding scheduling during their times, so they didn't burn out. Sochi 2014 was a struggle, not one sided at all. A stroke of luck for Carlsen in he 6th game decided the outcome. In G11 Anand took an unnecessary gamble because he was trailing. Anand made Carlsen huff and puff and even his dad said that those were the 3 most stressful weeks in Carlsen's chess career. If you looks at the games Anand was getting very good positions on the board, at least in 7 out of the 11 games he was in a very comfortable position and serious close to winning positions in 3 games(:hatsoff: to Carlsens's resilience). The other players can't even get a favorable position against Carlsen(except Kramnik but he is going downhill due to age), no way are they stopping him. Anand is playing better now and if he gets into the 2006-2008 form he will beat Carlsen(I believe every great champion has one last great sparkle before they go away). Anand of Bonn 2008 would destroy the present Carlsen. That match was one of the greatest displays of chess the world has ever seen, making Kramnik(conqueror of Kasparov) look like a complete novice. Some chess program was comparing accuracy of moves for players in WCC and Bonn 2008 turned out to be the one with greatest accuracy by the victor. Even Carlsen (in 2013) or Fischer(1972) or Kasparov didn't have the same accuracy that Vishy showed in that match. Only 2-3 moves weren't computer recommended 1st lines, flawless display.
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Caruana's recent bad run was in classical. In shorter time controls he is very weak and will lose to almost any of the top 10 players, so if he has to beat Carlsen he must do it in the 12 games and not take it to tie breaks. Chennai 2013 was one sided because Anand was in a mid life crisis and was pondering retirement( between 2009 to 2013 he didn't win a single classical tournament and notched very few wins against the elite). Also he had lost motivation because he had to defend the title almost every year and hence couldn't divulge opening preparation in the non WCC tournaments and this took a heavy toll on him. By contrast Karpov, Kasparov(in the 90s),Kramnik had a lot of leeway regarding scheduling during their times, so they didn't burn out. Sochi 2014 was a struggle, not one sided at all. A stroke of luck for Carlsen in he 6th game decided the outcome. In G11 Anand took an unnecessary gamble because he was trailing. Anand made Carlsen huff and puff and even his dad said that those were the 3 most stressful weeks in Carlsen's chess career. If you looks at the games Anand was getting very good positions on the board, at least in 7 out of the 11 games he was in a very comfortable position and serious close to winning positions in 3 games(:hatsoff: to Carlsens's resilience). The other players can't even get a favorable position against Carlsen(except Kramnik but he is going downhill due to age), no way are they stopping him. Anand is playing better now and if he gets into the 2006-2008 form he will beat Carlsen(I believe every great champion has one last great sparkle before they go away). Anand of Bonn 2008 would destroy the present Carlsen. That match was one of the greatest displays of chess the world has ever seen, making Kramnik(conqueror of Kasparov) look like a complete novice. Some chess program was comparing accuracy of moves for players in WCC and Bonn 2008 turned out to be the one with greatest accuracy by the victor. Even Carlsen (in 2013) or Fischer(1972) or Kasparov didn't have the same accuracy that Vishy showed in that match. Only 2-3 moves weren't computer recommended 1st lines, flawless display.
But like in boxing Im sure legacy is a huge thing in chess too, surely Anand cannot risk a 3rd loss? The midlife crisis is a part of life, everyone has problems and things going on and Carlsen prevailed like a champion giving him a huge edge mentally. Anyways also like boxing Mayweather may beat Pacman comfortably yet Pacman may still beat the 3rd best welterweight in the world comfortably. That being said way I see it I would still rather watch Mayweather vs someone new even though Pacman may be clear No.2. Yes it was close at certain stages and yes Carlsen dropped a game last time but I don't see Anand coming back...he threw what he had at Carlsen and Carlsen prevailed easy or not easy...that's a huge mental edge. And with Anand aging, losing the psychological edge I don't see that last effort he has left in him being enough...rather see a new face, a new style. Will be hard for Anand to feel motivated after 2 losses like that also, easier said than done he will suddenly be back to his best (Bonn 2008). Carlsen is only getting better each year too as he moves into mid 20's. Everything is against Anand. Everything is against anyone facing Carlsen but like I said Caruana is younger than Carlsen and there is room for improvement and he's also a fresh face and something new. Im sure at 22 years age many Chess players had certain weaknesses but 2800+ rating at that age is something that makes him a contender regardless of recent form. Has been up to 2844 at age 22, serious potential there. Will be super match up as his form can pick up any time. He will hopefully get better in shorter formats too. But maybe not enough to match Carlsen.
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I understand your point. Caruana indeed is the best bet among the current younger generation players. He will most probably still lose comfortably(his weakness in rapids/blitz means he has to take unnecessary risks in the match to wrap it up in 12 games and that is never good against someone like Magnus who thrives on opponents over pressing). Nakamura,Aronian,Karjakin,So,will get massacred unlike Caruana who at least has experience of taking down Carlsen and hence won't panic unlike others in winning positions. But yeah I don't see the Norwegian surrendering his crown for another 10 years at least, especially with Father Time working against the 2 players who give him real trouble, Anand(age 45) and Kramnik(age 40). But the dark horse according to me is Grischuk(Russia, age 31) who is as accurate as Carlsen but frequently runs into time trouble because he has a habit of over thinking, over analyzing after every move(BUT SUPER ACCURATE!!!). He is also psychologically very strong, has backing of the powerful RCF and if he qualifies will have a super Russian team to aid in his preparation. He is a former World Blitz champ and he needn't fear if the match extends to tie breaks. But qualifying through the candidates will be hard for him since he doesn't have a good experience of coming outright 1st in strong double round robins. FIDE has incorporated time increments from the 1st move itself this year onwards in all FIDE affiliated events which will help players like Grischuk, Caruana, Ivanchuk,Topalov etc and work against guys like Anand,Carlsen, Nakamura,Aronian who through their fast play put tremendous pressure on the opponents. Mark my words if Grischuk qualifies as the contender we have a classic on our hands. Alexander Grischuk, 'the dark horse'. julN19A.jpg H2H between Carlsen and and other elite players (guys who have the best chance of facing him in WCC 2016) in case you are interested: vs Anand Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand 10 to 7, with 36 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand 19 to 17, with 54 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Viswanathan Anand beat Magnus Carlsen 10 to 9, with 18 draws. vs Kramnik Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Vladimir Kramnik 5 to 4, with 13 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Vladimir Kramnik 13 to 11, with 23 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Vladimir Kramnik 8 to 7, with 10 draws. vs Caruana Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana 7 to 4, with 8 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana 18 to 6, with 8 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana 11 to 2. vs Aronian Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Levon Aronian 11 to 4, with 29 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Levon Aronian 17 to 13, with 44 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Levon Aronian beat Magnus Carlsen 9 to 6, with 15 draws. vs Topalov Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Veselin Topalov 8 to 3, with 8 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Veselin Topalov 14 to 3, with 15 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Veselin Topalov 6 to 0, with 7 draws. vs Grischuk Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk 2 to 0, with 8 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk 10 to 7, with 13 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk 8 to 7, with 5 draws. vs Nakamura Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 11 to 0, with 16 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 17 to 5, with 23 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 6 to 5, with 7 draws. vs Karjakin Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Sergey Karjakin 3 to 1, with 14 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Sergey Karjakin 17 to 7, with 19 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Sergey Karjakin 14 to 6, with 5 draws. vs Anish Giri Classical games: Anish Giri beat Magnus Carlsen 1 to 0, with 7 draws. (Giri beat him once and after that always plays for draw right from move 1 to maintain his H2H advantage, ultra defensive chap, can never win Candidates :giggle:) Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Anish Giri 2 to 1, with 8 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Anish Giri 2 to 0, with 1 draw. vs Gelfand Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Boris Gelfand 5 to 1, with 9 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Boris Gelfand 13 to 5, with 20 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Boris Gelfand 8 to 4, with 11 draws.

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Good read hadn't heard of Grischuk before, since Im relatively new and did know about most but not all the top 10 players :two_thumbs_up: Still 2-0 from 10 games, with Carlsen still moving into the prime of his life and Grischuk already in it gives Carlsen the edge there....the thing with Carauna is we have not seen him at his best yet given that he's only 22. We know Grischuk is at his peak but Carauna is still moving into his peak. Still though so he is 8-7 v Carlsen in shorter formats, very impressive... :nice: Regarding the head to head's though how many of Anand's 7 wins were over a younger less developed Carlsen and how many since he became the best? Or started to show signs of his peak potential? Cause Carlsen was grandmaster at a very young age he must have lost initially.... Caruana is impressive tbh considering he must have started facing Carlsen when he was a bit more experienced...he is 2 years younger after all. Also lold at that troll Giri, Carlsen must hate him :hysterical:

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Yeah Grischuk is in his prime now and I expect him to play at a very high level for another 3-4 years at least. The biggest advantage for him over Caruana,Nakamura,Aronain etc is his psychological toughness. He isn't afraid of Carlsen now, he wasn't afraid of Kasparov,Anand,etc a few years back. Even under severe time pressure he is accurate and never crumbles, in fact he is also a top poker player and you can never read his face, he looks like an SS officer across the board never showing any emotion. He is also a an extremely good rapid/blitz player and a streetfighter and never gives up. Contrast that to Caruana who was shivering like crazy in Shamkir against Carlsen, he was intimidated by Magnus and couldn't even make eye contact with him. He also gives up very easily, here he resigned against MC in 11 moves !!!! http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1756884 But sure he is very young and can get better with experience. But Kasparov doesn't think too highly of Caruana and said that 2014 Caruana was the best level he can ever attain in his career. Many eminent Russian chess writers/players/journalists seem to think that Caruana isn't talented , he is mainly a very hard worker and hard work can get you only so far. It is true that among elite players Caruana works the hardest on his game but talent wise he is inferior to someone like Anish Giri or even a Karjakin. One thing you must remember about Carlsen is that he started playing at a very high level at a very young age. In 2007-2008 itself he was a top 3 player and regularly played in the super tournaments. In 2009 he was coached by Kasparov and that took him to a different level. Because of that collaboration he knows a lot about Anand and Kramnik. Kasparov shared his database about these 2 with Carlsen and that helped him a great deal. Normally it takes many years for a player to develop a gigantic database but in Carlsen's lap was 25 years of information about his main rivals, that too with the analysis of the greatest player of all time, Gary Kasparov. People overlook the contribution of Gazza(Kasparov's nickname :winky:) in Carlsen's rise as a champion but I feel that without that training and opening knowledge passed on from his great predecessor he would never have reached these astronomical heights, at least not at such an early age. Within a few months of the training his level shot up from 2800 ELO to 2850+ELO. Also remember when Anand has to face Carlsen he is actually facing Carlsen+Kasparov. Kasparov was Magnus' consultant before his matches and no one in the world understands Anand better than Gazza. With Gazza's advice Magnus knows what lines to play, what to avoid and how to negate Anand's fearsome opening prep. http://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-carlsen-and-kasparov-join-forces http://en.chessbase.com/post/goals-met-kasparov-and-carlsen-s-new-strategy http://popchess.com/2014/04/19/carlsen-talks-about-his-training-with-kasparov-and-approach-to-chess/ Majority of Anand's wins in classical were before 2011. But Carlsen was already world no 1 in late 2009. In 2010 and early 2011 Anand beat him 4 times(in classical supertourneys like Bilbao,London Classic,Wikj Aan Zee) and even reached world no 1 in spite of not winning a single classical tournament(after Bonn 2008 he stopped caring about World Rankings and invested all his energies into defending the crown because he became world champion at a very old age).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIDE_chess_world_number_ones After that Anand suffered a mid life crisis and had a prolonged slump till Candidates 2014. Carlsen beat him 7 times in between 2011 April to 2013 Chennai. In fact Anand lost to many guys like Aronian,Nakamura,Caruana,Adams,Ivanchuk in that time period. It was the lowest he has reached as a chess player, similar to what Sachin went through in the aftermath of his tennis elbow. But he is playing better since the Candidates but still nowhere close to what he was doing in the late 90s till the mid 2000s(the toughest era in chess history). Unfortunately for us most of his career overlapped with Kasparov, probably the the greatest ever and he always played second fiddle to him. Now his career is overlapping with Carlsen. :(( As Indians we must be proud of Anand because he was in the top 3 in World Rankings from 1995 to 2011 and has been a permanent fixture in the top 10 from 1991 to today. That is 24 years of being in the elite, even Kramnik and Topalov became regular fixtures in the top 10 only in the late 90s and have dropped out many times out of top 10.(Most recently Kramnik spent his time as world no 12 for a major portion of 2014 and Topalov dropped to World no 11-17 from 2011 to 2013). Very rarely will you come across any sportsperson being in the top 10 for so long, that shows the consistency of Anand. Also he is the only person to have won the world title in all 3 formats(knockout(2000 Iran/India), round robin(2007 Mexico) and match format(Bonn 2008, Sofia 2010 and Moscow 2012). Anish Giri is a super troll. He always makes fun of Carlsen calling him his "client" etc and this annoys Carlsen a great deal. Carlsen calls him a 'coward' and that is true to a great extent. Giri is supremely talented but a phattu, he won't try to win if there is even a slight possibility of losing, that attitude doesn't help you learn about the game and hence he hardly wins against other elite players. Because of this ultra negative approach he has even forgotten how to win and blows wining positions like he did against Caruana last month in Shamkir. His dad is Nepali and his grandmother's family is from northern Bihar, an Indian connection. :--D He has the best girlfriend in chess circles, the Georgian babe WGM Sopiko Guramishvili. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=sopiko+guramishvili&biw=1366&bih=655&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jPtNVYe1OYrjuQSJ9YCgBA&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=sopiko+guramishvili+

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Huge huge news. http://en.chessbase.com/post/caruana-switching-back-to-u-s-a After Wesley So last year Fabiano Caruana changed federations to USA. USCF is like ECB now attracting the best players from the world to represent it. :cantstop: Apart from these 2 major scalps there are at least 30 other very good players who they have roped in from Russia, Eastern Europe, S.E Asia,China,India,South America etc. Now their top 4 line up is: Caruana(Italy/USA) ELO 2803 Nakamura(USA) ELO 2799 So(Philippines/USA) ELO 2778 Kamsky(USSR/Russia/USA) ELO 2673 For the 1st time in history I think a team apart from USSR/Russia is this strong on paper. Granted Russia hasn't had any Olympiad golds since 2002(Kasparov played in it) there is no doubt that they are the best team on paper, there were 4 Russians in the 2014 Candidates(Kramnik,Karjakin,Andrekein,Svidler). Of course no country can compete with Russia's bench strength even today but USA will be favorites in the 2016 Baku Olympiad !!! People switching over to USA has a reason behind it. Rex Sinquefield the American billionaire is a patron of chess, he has invested heavily in building chess infrastructure in the States, introduced chess in schools and has joined hands with Kasparov to make USA the best place in the world to play chess. Kasparov himself oversees the best USA talents in this arrangement with personalized training and guidance. And St Louis is the new world chess capital after Moscow/St Petersburg. The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis has the best minds and teachers from across the globe training students and players of all levels in chess(thanks to Rex). The CCSCSL(http://saintlouischessclub.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Club_and_Scholastic_Center_of_Saint_Louis) is the best academy for chess in the world presently and will be the future grooming ground for world class players. They even host the extremely strong Sinquefield Cup and US Championship and many other smaller tourneys. Also US has the best University chess competition culture(after Russia/Ukraine of course) overtaking Spain the last 5 years and world class GMs coach the various University teams. Sinquefield is going to be the forerunner to host the World Championship in 2016 and also the Candidates early next year. there will be an organizer's wildcard and am pretty sure Rex is going to choose one of Caruana,Nakamura,So if the need arises(at present it seems Caruana,Nakamura will directly qualify). So be ready to see 3 US men in Candidates 2016. All this is making me think we are heading towards a split in the chess world with Rex/Kasparov being the driving force behind a rebel organization(Grand Chess Tour is a precursor). Very bad if that happens,:(( 1993 to 2006 was the most turbulent period in chess history thanks to the PCA split from FIDE.

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Yeah Grischuk is in his prime now and I expect him to play at a very high level for another 3-4 years at least. The biggest advantage for him over Caruana' date='Nakamura,Aronain etc is his psychological toughness. He isn't afraid of Carlsen now, he wasn't afraid of Kasparov,Anand,etc a few years back. Even under severe time pressure he is accurate and never crumbles, in fact he is also a top poker player and you can never read his face, he looks like an SS officer across the board never showing any emotion. He is also a an extremely good rapid/blitz player and a streetfighter and never gives up. Contrast that to Caruana who was shivering like crazy in Shamkir against Carlsen, he was intimidated by Magnus and couldn't even make eye contact with him. He also gives up very easily, here he resigned against MC in 11 moves !!!! [url']http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1756884 But sure he is very young and can get better with experience. But Kasparov doesn't think too highly of Caruana and said that 2014 Caruana was the best level he can ever attain in his career. Many eminent Russian chess writers/players/journalists seem to think that Caruana isn't talented , he is mainly a very hard worker and hard work can get you only so far. It is true that among elite players Caruana works the hardest on his game but talent wise he is inferior to someone like Anish Giri or even a Karjakin. One thing you must remember about Carlsen is that he started playing at a very high level at a very young age. In 2007-2008 itself he was a top 3 player and regularly played in the super tournaments. In 2009 he was coached by Kasparov and that took him to a different level. Because of that collaboration he knows a lot about Anand and Kramnik. Kasparov shared his database about these 2 with Carlsen and that helped him a great deal. Normally it takes many years for a player to develop a gigantic database but in Carlsen's lap was 25 years of information about his main rivals, that too with the analysis of the greatest player of all time, Gary Kasparov. People overlook the contribution of Gazza(Kasparov's nickname :winky:) in Carlsen's rise as a champion but I feel that without that training and opening knowledge passed on from his great predecessor he would never have reached these astronomical heights, at least not at such an early age. Within a few months of the training his level shot up from 2800 ELO to 2850+ELO. Also remember when Anand has to face Carlsen he is actually facing Carlsen+Kasparov. Kasparov was Magnus' consultant before his matches and no one in the world understands Anand better than Gazza. With Gazza's advice Magnus knows what lines to play, what to avoid and how to negate Anand's fearsome opening prep. http://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-carlsen-and-kasparov-join-forces http://en.chessbase.com/post/goals-met-kasparov-and-carlsen-s-new-strategy http://popchess.com/2014/04/19/carlsen-talks-about-his-training-with-kasparov-and-approach-to-chess/ Majority of Anand's wins in classical were before 2011. But Carlsen was already world no 1 in late 2009. In 2010 and early 2011 Anand beat him 4 times(in classical supertourneys like Bilbao,London Classic,Wikj Aan Zee) and even reached world no 1 in spite of not winning a single classical tournament(after Bonn 2008 he stopped caring about World Rankings and invested all his energies into defending the crown because he became world champion at a very old age).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIDE_chess_world_number_ones After that Anand suffered a mid life crisis and had a prolonged slump till Candidates 2014. Carlsen beat him 7 times in between 2011 April to 2013 Chennai. In fact Anand lost to many guys like Aronian,Nakamura,Caruana,Adams,Ivanchuk in that time period. It was the lowest he has reached as a chess player, similar to what Sachin went through in the aftermath of his tennis elbow. But he is playing better since the Candidates but still nowhere close to what he was doing in the late 90s till the mid 2000s(the toughest era in chess history). Unfortunately for us most of his career overlapped with Kasparov, probably the the greatest ever and he always played second fiddle to him. Now his career is overlapping with Carlsen. :(( As Indians we must be proud of Anand because he was in the top 3 in World Rankings from 1995 to 2011 and has been a permanent fixture in the top 10 from 1991 to today. That is 24 years of being in the elite, even Kramnik and Topalov became regular fixtures in the top 10 only in the late 90s and have dropped out many times out of top 10.(Most recently Kramnik spent his time as world no 12 for a major portion of 2014 and Topalov dropped to World no 11-17 from 2011 to 2013). Very rarely will you come across any sportsperson being in the top 10 for so long, that shows the consistency of Anand. Also he is the only person to have won the world title in all 3 formats(knockout(2000 Iran/India), round robin(2007 Mexico) and match format(Bonn 2008, Sofia 2010 and Moscow 2012). Anish Giri is a super troll. He always makes fun of Carlsen calling him his "client" etc and this annoys Carlsen a great deal. Carlsen calls him a 'coward' and that is true to a great extent. Giri is supremely talented but a phattu, he won't try to win if there is even a slight possibility of losing, that attitude doesn't help you learn about the game and hence he hardly wins against other elite players. Because of this ultra negative approach he has even forgotten how to win and blows wining positions like he did against Caruana last month in Shamkir. His dad is Nepali and his grandmother's family is from northern Bihar, an Indian connection. :--D He has the best girlfriend in chess circles, the Georgian babe WGM Sopiko Guramishvili. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=sopiko+guramishvili&biw=1366&bih=655&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jPtNVYe1OYrjuQSJ9YCgBA&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=sopiko+guramishvili+
One of the commentators at World Championships :nice: Anyways I agree with that thinking completely. With the genetic/natural potential part. It is there for everything from intelligence, looks, how good a chess player you can be, how good a cricketer you can be....list goes on. I agree everyone has a potential for everything which is maximised through hard work and an ideal environment. It's like this game called football manager. In 2005 version Ronaldo and Messi have potential ability of 195/200, their current ability is alot lower. However later on through world class training facilities at bigger clubs, and due to their high work ethic they reach their potential like they did IRL. Carlsen had the equivalent of those excellent training facilities with Kasparov as coach. He is nearing full potential. But regardless, a guy who reached one of the highest ratings of all time, that too before he is even 23....there is no way that guy does not have talent. I think nothing can be concluded about him for a few years at least because he should be getting better. And about the giving up easy who knows...sometimes people change alot when they realise mistakes. Djokovic I remember let go a grand slam final, withdrew due to something silly like a sore throat. Since then though he has shown so much fight, especially vs Nadal in that 7 hour Aus Open final where he looked out of it in 5th set. So point is people can change and Caruana probably has high natural potential due to the rating he achieved and the age he achieved it in. I think we should wait a few years before drawing any conclusions tbh.
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Jon Ludvig Hammer(one on the left in the pic) the 24 yr old Norwegian(and Carlsen's second) clinched the final spot for Norway Chess Open 2015 by winning the qualifiers ahead of 5 others. He also happens to be Carlsen's best friend, his oldest friend from the chess circuit and regular sparring partner. WlOliIH.jpg The line up looks very strong: 1.Magnus Carlsen(NOR) 2.Viswanathan Anand(IND) 3.Fabiano Caruana(USA) 4.Alexander Grischuk(RUS) 5.Veselin Topalov(BUL) 6.Levon Aronian(ARM) 7.Anish Giri(NED) 8.Hikaru Nakamura(USA) 9.Maxime Vachier Lagrave(FRA) 10.Jon Ludvig Hammer(NOR) Will start on June 15th.

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Kasparov Addresses SLU Graduates, Receives Honorary Degree http://www.chess.com/news/kasparov-receives-slu-honorary-degree-2086 Below you can watch the full spring commencement — Kasparov's speech begins at 1 hour, 5 minutes and 30 seconds. f69PHok3b_Q Transcript: Garry Kasparov: The Happiest Day Of Your Life Thank you everyone. My thanks to President Pestello for having me here, the first commencement for both of us. It is an honor to be speaking to you all, and to receive my honorary doctorate from Saint Louis University. That is especially true considering the two other honorees here today, Anita Lyons Bond and Gene Kranz. There could be no better examples of the power of dreams, values, and courage that I am here to talk about. And thank you, Rex [sinquefield], for that flattering introduction. However, he omitted one important fact about me; that I was born in the Deep South, right next to Georgia. That is, in the Deep South of the Soviet Union, at the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, right next to the Republic of Georgia. I hope you can understand my Southern accent! I also hope you have read about the USSR in history books. It is an odd feeling to think that most of you were not yet alive when the country I was born in ceased to exist in 1991. It’s always difficult to explain what it was like to be born and raised in a totalitarian country to those who have enjoyed the fruits of freedom and democracy from birth. To make a modern metaphor, I would say it was like being the only kid on the block whose family doesn’t have internet or television and your parents keep telling you how lucky you are not to have those things. I have been visiting St. Louis frequently in recent years, as the city has become the world capital of chess, leading the way in education and at the competitive level. This is actually restoring an old tradition. You might not know that St. Louis hosted the first official world chess championship, back in 1886. It’s a great pleasure to be here for today’s special occasion, and to finally find out what a Billiken is. When I was a little boy, growing up in Baku, my mother told me I could become the world chess champion someday. I don’t know if anyone else believed her, but I believed her. Years later, the sports authorities in the Soviet Union told me that I was a troublemaker, and that I could not become the world chess champion. Well, in 1985 I did become world champion, and this taught me the first important lesson I wish to share with you all today: listen to your mother! Six years after that, the Soviet Union and all of its sports authorities ceased to exist while my mother is still going strong. And she is still telling me what I am capable of – and to eat my vegetables. Everyone will tell you to believe in yourself, and this of course is true. Only you can decide your course and only you can make it happen. But you must also listen to those who believe in you and to take strength from their love and from their support. Often they remind us to aim high, higher than you might aim on your own, especially when you are young. I am quite sure that if you all accomplish what your mothers believe you can accomplish, that this will be the most successful graduating class in the history of the world. And for those of you who lost a parent or parents at a young age, as I lost my father when I was seven, your achievement here today reflects a special kind of strength. We are all shaped by absence as well as by presence. By the way, as soon as this is over I have to hurry to New York for the graduation of my eldest daughter, Polina. And so, congratulations as well to all my fellow parents of graduates. Well done, parents! We did it! When I won the world championship in 1985 I was 22 years old and it was the greatest day of my life. I imagine today is a similar feeling for many of you. You are young, you are strong, and you have a long-time goal in your hands. On that day in 1985, a strange thing happened. I was standing there on the stage, still with my flowers and my medal, the happiest person in the world, when I was approached by Rona Petrosian, the widow of a former world chess champion from the 60s, Tigran Petrosian. I was expecting another warm congratulations, but she had something else in mind. “Young man,” she said, “I feel sorry for you.” What? Sorry for me? Sorry for me? The youngest world champion in history, on top of the world? “I feel sorry for you,” she continued, “because the happiest day of your life is over.” Wow, I couldn’t believe it. What a thing to say. But as I got over my shock I began to wonder… what if she’s right? And while I did not think much more about it on that celebratory day, I slowly came to realize that Rona Petrosian had given me a new goal in my life: to prove her wrong! Now I realize she did me a favor that day, and so I will pass her gift on to you. Is the happiest day of your life over? Or do you already have a new dream, a new goal, a new plan? Graduation is about the future, and not just about your future. Few people expect to change the history of the world, but in some way you all will. It is up to you to decide if you will change the world with your presence – or if it will change in your absence. Watching the news, looking at the many problems and crises we face today, it’s easy to feel like a pessimist. Inequality is at record levels, there is uncertainty over the impact of all the new technology in our lives, there are worries about violence from terrorism and dictatorships. And although I spend a lot of my time analyzing and discussing these difficult issues, I am an optimist. I am an optimist because I believe we have the power to change things. We are not helpless spectators to economic cycles or the forces of history. We have the ability to take action, to change the course of the world. You, you all have that ability. By dreaming big and recapturing the spirit of risk and innovation we can do something about these problems instead of passively biding our time. Dreaming of changing the world means being prepared to take risks, to sacrifice, and to fail, and to try again. When I retired from professional chess ten years ago to join the pro-democracy movement in Russia, many people thought I was crazy. And some of them told me so! I was still the number one player in the world, after all, and challenging Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship was far more complex than the black and white world of the chessboard. Of course I understood this. In chess we have fixed rules and unpredictable results. In Putin’s Russia’s phony elections it’s exactly the opposite. I made this bold move because I realized that my own dream was not just about chess, but had always been about making a difference. I had accomplished everything I could in the world of professional chess, from world championship matches to battling against super-computers. I hoped I could still make a difference in Russia, and in human rights. I wanted to learn and contribute in other areas that fascinated me, like education, and human plus machine intelligence, and decision-making. I was 42 at the time, which tells you that it is never too late to dream. You often hear in chess and other sports that “this player is more talented” but “that player works harder.” This is a fallacy. Hard work is a talent. The ability to keep trying when others quit is a talent. And hard work is never wasted. No matter what career you end up in, or even if you have a dozen different careers, the hard work represented here today will never be wasted. Your being here shows that you have that talent and it will serve you well no matter how you decide to make a difference in this world. Human beings cannot upgrade our hardware, that’s our DNA. But with hard work we can definitely upgrade our mental software. But what is intelligence, education, and effort without the guiding hand of morality? 483 years ago today, on May 16, 1532, Thomas More resigned his position as Chancellor to the King of England, Henry VIII. Three years later More’s downfall was completed with his execution, when More said that he died “as the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” Thomas More was a complicated figure, a man of principle. As you might expect of a lawyer like More, in his novel Utopia he writes often of the law on his fictional perfect island. But instead of describing a flawless set of laws as he imagined them, More wrote that in an ideal society based on clear principles, many laws were not necessary. He wrote, “They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many.” And so More’s Utopia also had no lawyers. Don’t worry, I’m happy to tell those of you coming from Scott Hall today that a world with no lawyers is only possible in Utopia! How many laws we have is not the point. The world is a complicated place, far more complicated today than when Thomas More wrote his novel 500 years ago, and laws must keep up with the times. What has not changed, what should not change, what cannot change, is the need to base our laws, and our lives, and our dreams, on eternal human values. We can fight for our values or we can trade them away for comfort and temporary security. This is a challenge for all of us in today’s globally connected world. Every day we make choices large or small: individuals, companies, entire nations. Are those choices guided by the values we treasure? Are we loyal to the principles of individual freedom, of faith, of excellence, of compassion, of the value of human life? Or do we trade them away, bit by bit, for material goods, for a quiet life, and to pass the problems of today on to the next generation? These moral values are also the values of innovation and the free market, by the way. It is no coincidence that these founding American values created the greatest democracy in the world and also the greatest economy in the world. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urged his believers to be a “City on a Hill”, a shining example to the world, a phrase used to describe America by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. I saw that America from the other side of the Iron Curtain and I can tell you that it mattered. And it matters still. If America is to continue as a “light of the world” it will be up to you and to your generation to hold fast to these values and not to trade them away for a safe and stagnant status quo. Risk is not only for entrepreneurs. Risk is for anyone who will fight for these values in their lives and in the world every day. On my sixth birthday I woke up to find an enormous globe next to my bed. It was the best present I have ever received. I had to rub my eyes to make sure it was real. My favorite childhood stories were the ones my father read to me about the voyages of Marco Polo, Columbus, and Magellan. Our favorite game was to trace the journeys of these great explorers across the globe. These are the last and fondest memories I have of my father, and this love of exploration was his greatest gift to me. We have heard time and again that the frontiers have all been explored. And every generation likes to say that everything important or easy has already been invented. Unfortunately, believing this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think there is nothing new to discover, why try? Why take risks? Why leave the house? St. Louis was once the beginning of the unknown, the Gateway to the frontier. Imagine if the pioneers had stopped at the Mississippi, the way America hasn’t sent a man back to the moon since Eugene Cernan in 1972. We cannot turn back. We cannot stop. We must not settle for “good enough.” Life is more complicated today, yes, but our tools are infinitely more powerful. It’s easier today to reach Mars than it was to cross the oceans in the time of Thomas More. At least we know where we’re going and how far away it is. Columbus and Magellan had no maps while everyone here has GPS. Can you imagine Columbus trying to get venture capital today? You want to go where? You don’t know? You don’t have a map? Today, you all have a device in your pocket that can instantly communicate with half the people on the planet and access every piece of information in human history. One iPhone has more computing power than all the computers NASA had combined, back in 1972. But raw computing power isn’t enough. We need human creativity and human ambition to make a difference. There are still new frontiers today, and a limitless number of new inventions waiting to be discovered by people with the curiosity and courage to look for them, and the freedom to do so. It will require belief, hard work, and the values of innovation and liberty. It will require your belief, your hard work, and your ideas. You might say you aren’t ready for a new challenge right away, that you want time to relax, to celebrate, to rest on your new laurels. I’m sorry, but the world will not wait for you. The world needs you now. Today you have fulfilled one dream, and tomorrow you set course on a new one. If you always have a dream, the happiest day of your life is never over. Thank you and God bless. You may choose to agree/disagree with his political views,love/hate him but this guy is something. An inspiration to youngsters, a force of nature !!! :hatsoff:

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