Maurice Ashley: "You think there’s going to be a third match? What about the youngsters, Fabiano Caruana…"
Ben Finegold: "Those guys are no good."
For his sake, I do hope Finegold's speaking ironically! Otherwise, well...
[DM: I first met Finegold 31 years ago, and can tell you that facetious/sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek speech is the norm with him.]
I kind of admire Nakamura's chutzpah, here and elsewhere, in his refusal to sing paeans to Carlsen despite the latter's domination of him. I'd love to see a Tal-Botvinnik match between the two, but I fear Nakamura just isn't capable of that supernatural level of play. (The mind-bending brilliance of Tal's best years is often underestimated IMHO, partly because he couldn't sustain it. But like Ivanchuk at his best, he was capable of blowing absolutely anyone off the board.)
I guess you will have a link to the Caruana interview too. Imho he comments a bit too much in hindsight regarding choosing the sicilian in general (not so much regarding the bad choice of this particular line in game 6 that was critiziced here too):
"What was Vishy’s main mistake in this match?
The strange way in which he twice played the Sicilian Defence. Already on the first attempt it didn’t go so well, but he continued it a second time. The whole course of the match in Sochi showed that Carlsen had nothing special prepared against the Berlin and Vishy should have stuck to his guns. The idea of playing the Paulsen was very bad and very strange, in my view. "
Many people liked Anand's choice in game 4 back than. Caruana doesn't mention game 2 here and I guess we would have seen more d3 ruy lopez rather than what followed in game 7, 9 and 11 with Carlsen a point up if the match score would have still been even.
I haven't read about the following aspect of the opening prep - maybe it's in your advanced material, Dennis: I think Carlsen chose a somewhat risky approach for the Black games that in a degree did work: - try to outguess what Anand is playing - sidestep his prep consciously with inferior lines Anand probably wouldn't have looked up and which would require a very concrete approach to get punished. This idea came to me in game 8 (12.Ba2 instead of castling) and in game 10 (the Russian system you should consider and the particular line Anand played was played by Wojtaszek before). In game 10/15th move Carlsen took on e4 with the bishop instead of the rook when the best but very committing continuation probably would have been 16.d6 immediately or soon after. Carlsen played very fast till this point and if you have looked up the Wojtaszek game there was no surprise till move 15 ...
Maybe it was a mistake by Anand to repeat lines that have been played by Gajewski (game 6) and Wojtaszek (game 10)? But the key might be anyway that he couldn't overcome psychological difficulties and didn't use the small moment in the match when he had the psychological initiative (between game 3 and until 27. Rb7 in game 5). This initiative became very clear if you rewatch the press conferences after game 3 (logical), but particularly after game 4. Carlsen was as bugged out here as at the beginning of the Chennai match.
FIDE president, during the closing ceremony, announced the 2016 WCC will be held in the US !!
See, from 1:21:15 - 1:21:19, courtesy of Norway's VGTV http://www.vgtv.no/#!/live/104395/direkte-sjakk-vm-2014-avslutningsseremoni
where can I buy tickets ?? Chances are it will be in St. Louis.
[DM: Very cool! St. Louis is a pretty natural guess, although I wouldn't expect it to take place at the club there - it's too small a venue for such an event. Hmm...thinking about this some more, Agon was "sold" to an American for $1, so - assuming this actually happens and it doesn't wind up in Sochi or Khanty-Mansiysk or some such place - this probably isn't a Rex Sinquefield show.]
Reader Comments (3)
Maurice Ashley: "You think there’s going to be a third match? What about the youngsters, Fabiano Caruana…"
Ben Finegold: "Those guys are no good."
For his sake, I do hope Finegold's speaking ironically! Otherwise, well...
[DM: I first met Finegold 31 years ago, and can tell you that facetious/sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek speech is the norm with him.]
I kind of admire Nakamura's chutzpah, here and elsewhere, in his refusal to sing paeans to Carlsen despite the latter's domination of him. I'd love to see a Tal-Botvinnik match between the two, but I fear Nakamura just isn't capable of that supernatural level of play. (The mind-bending brilliance of Tal's best years is often underestimated IMHO, partly because he couldn't sustain it. But like Ivanchuk at his best, he was capable of blowing absolutely anyone off the board.)
I guess you will have a link to the Caruana interview too. Imho he comments a bit too much in hindsight regarding choosing the sicilian in general (not so much regarding the bad choice of this particular line in game 6 that was critiziced here too):
"What was Vishy’s main mistake in this match?
The strange way in which he twice played the Sicilian Defence. Already on the first attempt it didn’t go so well, but he continued it a second time. The whole course of the match in Sochi showed that Carlsen had nothing special prepared against the Berlin and Vishy should have stuck to his guns. The idea of playing the Paulsen was very bad and very strange, in my view. "
Many people liked Anand's choice in game 4 back than. Caruana doesn't mention game 2 here and I guess we would have seen more d3 ruy lopez rather than what followed in game 7, 9 and 11 with Carlsen a point up if the match score would have still been even.
I haven't read about the following aspect of the opening prep - maybe it's in your advanced material, Dennis:
I think Carlsen chose a somewhat risky approach for the Black games that in a degree did work:
- try to outguess what Anand is playing
- sidestep his prep consciously with inferior lines Anand probably wouldn't have looked up and which would require a very concrete approach to get punished. This idea came to me in game 8 (12.Ba2 instead of castling) and in game 10 (the Russian system you should consider and the particular line Anand played was played by Wojtaszek before). In game 10/15th move Carlsen took on e4 with the bishop instead of the rook when the best but very committing continuation probably would have been 16.d6 immediately or soon after. Carlsen played very fast till this point and if you have looked up the Wojtaszek game there was no surprise till move 15 ...
Maybe it was a mistake by Anand to repeat lines that have been played by Gajewski (game 6) and Wojtaszek (game 10)?
But the key might be anyway that he couldn't overcome psychological difficulties and didn't use the small moment in the match when he had the psychological initiative (between game 3 and until 27. Rb7 in game 5). This initiative became very clear if you rewatch the press conferences after game 3 (logical), but particularly after game 4. Carlsen was as bugged out here as at the beginning of the Chennai match.
FIDE president, during the closing ceremony, announced the 2016 WCC will be held in the US !!
See, from 1:21:15 - 1:21:19, courtesy of Norway's VGTV
http://www.vgtv.no/#!/live/104395/direkte-sjakk-vm-2014-avslutningsseremoni
where can I buy tickets ?? Chances are it will be in St. Louis.
[DM: Very cool! St. Louis is a pretty natural guess, although I wouldn't expect it to take place at the club there - it's too small a venue for such an event. Hmm...thinking about this some more, Agon was "sold" to an American for $1, so - assuming this actually happens and it doesn't wind up in Sochi or Khanty-Mansiysk or some such place - this probably isn't a Rex Sinquefield show.]