Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:37PM Here's the main clip from this weekend's 60 Minutes show:
Next, some extra material. First, a clip where he allegedly explains how his mind works:
Here's Frederic Friedel of ChessBase fame offering some laudatory remarks about the youngster:
Finally, here's GM Danny King about chess as a brutal game:
Enjoy!
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:16AM The news magazine show "60 Minutes" is one of the longest-running television shows in U.S. history, airing every Sunday night on CBS since the invention of dirt (or so it seems). 41 years ago Bobby Fischer was interviewed on the program
and this coming Sunday night they will have a piece on Magnus Carlsen. Hopefully it will be available afterwards on the web; if not, then those who can see the program and are interested will want to watch or set your DVRs or VCRs. After all, we might have to wait another 41 years until our next opportunity!
UPDATE: Macauley Peterson comments that the show will be be available online Monday after 12 a.m. ET. Who needs VCRs? (For the kids out there, that's what we used to record TV shows and watch movies back in the dark ages.)
(HTs: Brian Karen and Brian Perez-Daple)
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 9:36PM It's a two-man race at Wijk aan Zee - or at least that's how it seems. In fact, while Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian have been taking turns leading (both alone and with each other), Teimour Radjabov is and has been only half a point behind most of the way.
Today was Carlsen's day. He didn't have much with White against Boris Gelfand, who played very well for the first 30 moves. As often happens against Carlsen's opponents, however, Gelfand burned a little too much time trying to keep everything under control, and once time trouble started looming he really fell apart. Carlsen does deserve some credit, obviously, but Gelfand is playing pretty poorly in this tournament.
Levon Aronian had been alone in first, and remains tied there after a pretty easy draw with Black in a Catalan against Vassily Ivanchuk. Not a bad result! As for Radjabov, he also drew comfortably and quickly with the black pieces; in his case against Hikaru Nakamura in a Sveshnikov Sicilian.
The other four games may have been less significant to the race for first - though it's really a bit too early to tell, with six rounds left - but they were all hard-fought. The longest game was the 99-move marathon between Sergey Karjakin and Veselin Topalov, which was not just a battle between players but a battle of streaks as well. Karjakin had only decisive results (two losses, then two wins, then two more losses) while Topalov, uncharacteristically, came in having drawn all six games. For a good chunk of the game it looked like both streaks would come to an end, but from around move 30 on Topalov went from winning to better to equal to worse to lost. Thus Karjakin not only kept his streak alive but kept the 2-2-2 pattern alive as well. (I'm sure he'd like it to continue in round 8 but change afterwards.)
Loek van Wely also came into the round having drawn all his games, but his streak continued. Like Topalov, he had very good winning chances - in his case, against Anish Giri - but a late lapse enabled his young countryman to find an ingenious escape.
Gata Kamsky won a very nice game on the white side of a Berlin against David Navara, while Vugar Gashimov and Fabiano Caruana drew in a different line of the Ruy.
Standings After Round 7 (of 13):
1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 5
3. Radjabov 4.5
4-7. Caruana, Giri, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 4
8. van Wely 3.5
9-11. Topalov, Karjakin, Kamsky 3
12. Gelfand 2.5
13. Gashimov 2
14. Navara 1.5
Round 8 Pairings:
In the B-group, Pentala Harikrishna drew, but is still a point ahead of Alexander Motylev. (They have 5.5 and 4.5 points, respectively.) Timman lost again and dropped to a -1 score.
In Group C, Maxim Turov drew with Hans Tikkanen, his closest pursuer, and thus they maintain their relative positions. Turov leads with 6 points, Tikkanen is in clear second with 5.5. Meanwhile, Matthew Sadler drew yet again - that's six in a row! - and is in a tie for 4th-6th on 4 points.
I've analyzed several group A games, which you can find here.
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 8:15PM Garry Kasparov's all-time rating record is in trouble! Kasparov reached 2851 (twice, if I recall correctly), and with his win over world #2 Levon Aronian the young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has taken the lead in Wijk aan Zee and reached a live rating of 2842.6. (Egads - he's still just barely 21 years old!)
Carlsen's win over Aronian started smooth and grew bumpy, but in the end he brought home the point and his score of 2.5/3 bumped Aronian out of first. The latter is still in second with 2 points, tied with Teimour Radjabov, who crushed David Navara, and Fabiano Caruana, who drew with Hikaru Nakamura. The round's other winner was Sergey Karjakin, who lost his first two games but bounced back with a win over Anish Giri.
In the B-group, there was a lot more blood: five of the seven games finished with a winner. One was Pentala Harikrishna's victory over countrywoman Dronavalli Harika; he leads the group with a 3-0 score. Erwin L'Ami is in clear second with 2.5 points and Sergei Tiviakov is the lone remaining plus score, with two points. Fans of Jan Timman will be pleased to learn that he bounced back to an even score with a win over Ukranian prodigy Ilya Nyzhnyk. It took 97 moves, but he ground the youngster down in a rook ending that became a queen ending. The finale was especially nice, and what one would expect from a great study composer like Timman:
Timman played the spectacular 97.g7!! and Nyznhyk resigned. It's not the only winning move, but it's the fastest and most elegant. After 97...Qxg7+ 98.Kf5+ Kh7 (98...Kh5 99.Qh2#) 99.Qc7 eliminates the queens, when the b-pawn will promote.
In the C-group Maxim Turov continues to roll. The second seed beat Lisa Schut (tied for the second-lowest seed) is at 3-0. Meanwhile, top seed Matthew Sadler only managed a draw with Elizabeth Paehtz, and is in a tie for 3rd-6th at 2-1. In second - for now - is bottom seed Etienne Goudriaan. Along with Turov, he was the only winner in the group, and it propelled him to a 2.5/3 score.
Group A Pairings for Round 4:
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:03PM The world's #1 and #2 players increased their rating edge over their closest competitors by starting the tournament with wins. Magnus Carlsen used Ulf Andersson's old anti-Hedgehog line to obtain a slight but persistent edge, and when Vugar Gashimov got mistakenly excited about his own tactical possibilities Carlsen won material and converted the winning opposite-colored bishop ending.
Levon Aronian defeated Sergey Karjakin with Black in a non-mainline Closed Ruy. The position became surprisingly complex in a hurry, and Aronian negotiated the complications better than his opponent.
Finally, Anish Giri won with the black pieces against Boris Gelfand in some kind of oddball Slav. Gelfand's pawn sac in the opening looked pretty interesting to me, and in return his bishop pair seemed to offer some chances. As things went, though, Giri was able to absorb the pressure a bit at a time, and finally went on to win a long double rook ending. The champion of Reggio Emilia has continued his winning ways!
The other four games were drawn, so Carlsen, Aronian and Giri lead the A group after the first round. In the B group, Harikrishna, l'Ami, Nyzhnyk and Lahno were the first-round winners, while I'll note that Timman drew with second seed and current European champion Potkin. Finally, top seeds Turov and Sadler led the pack in the C group, with Adhiban, Tikkanen and Goudriaan also winning.
There's lots of good coverage on the tournament site, while TWIC's report on the first round is also worth a look.
Here are the round 2 pairings for the A group:
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 1:27PM Here's an interesting quote:
One of the wonders of chess history was the appearance in the chess arena in the mid-20th century of a young Brazilian, who in a few years acquired sufficient strength and experience to fight for the title of world champion. In Brazil, a country famous for its football but with a lack of chess traditions, there emerged a youngster who at the age of 13 scored 50% in a very strong grandmaster tournament, the so-called 'Interzonal' in Sousse in 1967. The youngster did not rest on his laurels, and in 1973 he won the Interzonal Tournament in Petropolis! Looking at the history of chess competitions, I have to conclude that [Henrique] Mecking's successes were exceptional. I consider the Brazilian player's talent to be comparable with that of the brilliant individuals Mikhail Tal and Magnus Carlsen.
Who said it?
Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 10:38AM The original and full Magnus Carlsen interview is in Russian, but WhyChess [Updated with the correct link, with thanks to the 375 people who pointed out the error] has published substantial excerpts in English for the rest of us. Topics include his general approach to chess, how much - or rather, how little - he works at the game, and his essentially positive feelings about his work with Garry Kasparov.
HT: Brian Karen
Magnus Carlsen