The Chess Mind

1. The Karpov tournament in Poikovsky finished today, and Sergey Karjakin won on tiebreak over Viktor Bologan. Coming into the last round, they were tied for first, along with Dmitry Jakovenko and Nikita Vitiugov. Remarkably, all four had White, too. Vitiugov didn't come very close, though: he drew Jobava in 17 moves. Jakovenko pushed longer, but didn't manage to beat Rublevsky. But both Karjakin and Bologan won, over Sutovsky and Motylev respectively. Ironically, both won endings that should have been drawn, and that didn't appear to be terribly difficult to hold, either. (Of course, what looks - and may in fact be - easy to draw to a well-rested, tension-free commentator may not be so easy at the end of a long game at the end of a tournament.)

2. Vassily Ivanchuk continues to lead the Capablanca Memorial in Havana. He drew again today and now has 3/4; Nigel Short became the first player other than Ivanchuk to win a game, and he's now back on 50%. (English-language coverage here.)

3. In Danzhou, Bu Xiangzhi beat Ding Liren in round 3 to replace him as the leader. He (Bu) has 2.5/3, Ding and Wang Hao have 2 points in this very strong all-Chinese tournament. (Live games here.)

4. Finally, the King's Tournament in Medias, Romania, starts tomorrow (Monday). Here are the first round pairings:

Gelfand - Wang Yue

Nisipeanu - Radjabov

Carlsen - Ponomariov

Play starts at 2:30 p.m. CET/8:30 a.m. ET. It will be nice to see Carlsen in action again.

But not with each other. Here's some video from the NYC fundraiser supporting Karpov's candidacy for the FIDE presidency.

In Der Spiegel, translated here.

According to this article, Kasparov and Carlsen will scale back their collaboration in 2010. This seems a peculiar decision, at least if they are backing off as much as the article seems to suggest. Sure, Carlsen is #1 now (by a whopping seven tenths of a rating point), but he's still developing and must have a lot more he can learn from Kasparov. So why not keep going (unless the cost was bankrupting Carlsen)? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

The independence argument doesn't seem so impressive either. Kasparov kept the much weaker Dokhoian on his permanent staff for years, as did Anand with Ubilava and Karpov with Podgaets. But Carlsen is going to (largely) push off from intense work with Kasparov (Kasparov!) after just a single year? Carlsen has years to develop the virtues of independence Kasparov might be trying to help instill in him, but his years of "easy" improvement are fading away as he approaches developmental maturity. It's true that if Carlsen seems to be stagnating, they can always reverse it, but it's better to keep the momentum going. Anyway, if I were one of Carlsen's main rivals, I'd breathe a big sigh of relief at hearing this news. Carlsen's a handful and then some, but Carlsen + Kasparov + over a decade of Kasparov + Dokhoian's collaboration is monstrous.

P.S. To any Carlsen bootlickers who might be reading this: Please read my post carefully (for a change) before composing your anonymous slanders. Thanks ever so much.

...now belongs to Magnus Carlsen, but only unofficially. According to the Live Top List, his current rating is 2813.8, which FIDE would round up to 2814. The highest FIDE rating ever belongs to Garry Kasparov, who achieved an insane 2851 during his miracle year of 1999. Topalov had held the second spot with a 2813 rating achieved in 2006, and still might if Carlsen goes even slightly backward in the remainder of Wijk aan Zee. Even if that happens, however, it's hard to believe that any figure but 2851 has a chance to withstand Carlsen's assault, and I doubt that it's going to survive in the long run either.

The full list of 2700s is here, and it's especially remarkable to see that Bobby Fischer's 2785 peak still puts him at #8. Considering the rating inflation almost everyone believes has occurred in the intervening 28 years, Fischer's feat is even more amazing.

Right here.

The top 100 can be found here, and Magnus Carlsen is at the top of the top. Congratulations!