Biel 2012, Round 1: Wang Hao, Giri Win

The first showdown between the top two players in this year's big event in Biel was drawn, and if someone zipped through the game they might suspect that the Magnus Carlsen-Hikaru Nakamura contest was a non-event. Not so, though I confess to thinking that after 24.Rcc1 White's advantage was merely symbolic. Houdini 2 agrees (though I didn't look at any of the games with an engine while they were ongoing), but about three half-moves later "Faust" (Ian Nepomniachtchi) kibitzed on ICC that White had a very serious advantage.

It's true that White's advantage had increased in the meantime, but even so, his point that Black's bishop was especially awful was an important one. It may seem that White's bishop's prospects weren't much better, but that's only in the short-term. There are ways for that to change, and for White to lever open Black's kingside, and in the meantime Black must sit and wait. Nakamura did this, and did it well, and held. One important line to note is that 35.Qh6+ Kg8 36.h5 Qxb2+ 37.Kh3 would be absolutely crushing for White, were it not for 37...Qa1!

Wang Hao followed Vladimir Kramnik's recipe in the Bayonet Attack against the King's Indian with 10.g3 (Kramnik used this successfully against both Anish Giri and Alexander Grischuk, though in the former game Kramnik goofed and forgot his own preparation), and for that matter he followed his own game earlier in the year against Ding Liren. In the latter game, Black played 12...Rb8 and won a wild game, but Etienne Bacrot followed Kramnik's opponents and played 12...c6. Interestingly, Wang Hao followed Kramnik's "oops" game and played 13.Ba3 (rather than 13.Bg2, as in Kramnik-Grischuk). Bacrot's 15...h6 deviated from Giri's 15...Ne8, and then with 17...f4 he made the first new move of the game, varying from a game Grinev (2404) - Chircu (2190) from this past April.

All was well for him at that point, but 20...Qxc4 looks like the wrong pawn. Instead, 20...Qxe6 21.Bxf3 Qxc4 gives Black an extra pawn and White the bishop pair. The chances would be roughly equal, though I'd expect White's position would be a little easier to handle. In the game, White won his pawn back quickly, while keeping an "extra" bishop and the monster pawn on e6. Black was doomed.

Finally, there was the odd game between Alexander Morozevich and Giri. Through 32.Rxa5 the position had been more or less even throughout, but now the adventures began. If Giri had interpolated 32...Rb1+ and only after 33.Kh2 played Qd6, he would have been fine. Instead, 32...Qd6?? was a simple blunder: 33.Qh6+ won a pawn (33...Kxh6 34.Nxf7+ and 35.Nxd6; 33...Kg8 34.Qh8+ insists; 33...Kf6? 34.Qf4+ is even worse for Black). But Morozevich missed it (but let's not be too hard on him - Alekhine and Euwe both missed this same trick in one of their world championship matches!), and the game went on.

A little later, 35.Qxe5+ would have been the safest way to continue: 35...Qxe5 36.fxe5 c4 37.Rc5 Re1 38.Rxc4 Rxe5 is drawn. Instead, 35.fxe5 kept some life in the position, but that favored Black. Yes, White would win the c-pawn, but his king was rather exposed, and chronically so. White was living on the precipice, and after 44.Kg4?! (better to take the pawn - one fewer attacking unit!) 44...Kh6 45.Ra4? (45.Ra8 was the last hope) 45...Rxe5, Giri was winning. Luckily for Morozevich, Giri's 46...f6? was an error - 46...f5+ kept the winning advantage. Still, the basic problem remained: White's king was terribly overexposed, and anything but perfect play would lead to disaster. That disaster happened after 49.Re4?; 49.Rg4 was absolutely forced, and White gave up after 50...Qg3+. (Not after 51.Kd4 - that's the incompetent arbiter doing his thing on the incompetently designed DGT board, episode 12584. Sigh.)

Tomorrow's games:

Nakamura (.5) - Giri (1)
Bacrot (0) - Morozevich (0)
Carlsen (.5) - Wang Hao (1)

Nakamura Wins Biel Blitz

The "real" Biel tournament starts tomorrow, but the organizers prefaced the event with an exhibition blitz competition. Not all the players from the classical event were in the blitz (or vice-versa), so it's not like the Tal Memorial, which used a blitz tournament to determine the pairing numbers. This was just for fun (and perhaps some money), and looked likely to finish in a showdown between world #1 (and blitz championship runner-up) Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura.

This did not materialize. The event was a knockout competition with a series of best-of-two mini-matches (with a third, Armageddon game, if necessary). Nakamura defeated Pentalea Harikrishna in the quarter-finals 1.5-.5, and was to face Alexander Morozevich in the semis after the latter came back from a loss in the first game to beat Yannick Pelletier 2-1 after the Armageddon.

In Carlsen's half of the draw, it was expected that his semi-final opponent would be Wang Hao, but he lost to world citizen Alexandra Kosteniuk 1.5-.5. But there was a second problem with that plan, too: he'd first have to get to the semi-final. He didn't: Bacrot beat him in their first game, and after Carlsen struck back in game two Bacrot won the Armageddon game with Black to advance.

In the semis, Bacrot defeated Kosteniuk 1.5-.5 while Nakamura blanked Morozevich 2-0, and in the finals the first game saw Nakamura narrowly escape defeat with the black pieces. In his white game he won pretty handily: first a pawn dropped, and then Bacrot missed a little tactic. Thinking he was regaining his pawn, he walked into a trap that lost his knight.

As for the main tournament, it starts tomorrow, as I noted, but I don't yet know the first round pairings. Here are the participants:

1. Magnus Carlsen (2837)
2. Hikaru Nakamura (2778)
3. Alexander Morozevich (2770)
4. Wang Hao (2739)
5. Etienne Bacrot (2713)
6. Anish Giri (2696)

Grischuk Wins World Blitz Championship

Not for the first time, either - he won the title back in 2006 as well. So Alexander Grischuk is a two-time world blitz champion, winning this year's event by a hair over Magnus Carlsen. Grischuk played well both days, and thanks to a winning streak in rounds 22-25 was able to coast a bit near the end. In round 26 against Carlsen he was a bit careless - he could have held a draw pretty easily but pushed for more. After all, with a three point lead with just five rounds to go, what could go wrong?

Well, in addition to losing that game (now just a two point lead), Grischuk lost to Peter Svidler in round 28, and it was only a one point lead with two rounds to go. Grischuk beat Viktor Bologan with Black in round 29 and clinched first by repeating a known theoretical draw on the white side of a Petroff against Nikolay Chadaev. A good thing, too, as Carlsen was just half a point behind at the finish.

In fact, Carlsen, whose score after 22 rounds was a miserable (by his standards) 11.5-10.5, won the last eight games. It was a pretty remarkable run, and once it got started you could feel Carlsen's self-confidence grow to epic proportions. The hubristic high point came against Teimour Rajdabov in round 26, when Carlsen opened with 1.a4. (I'm guessing these two don't like each other - especially not now!) Had this monster awakened earlier in the event, he might have won  with a colossal margin; as it was, it was still a good performance.

Sergey Karjakin took third, but was in the hunt for first or certainly second before he repeated his late-round collapse from day one, first losing to Shakhriyard Mamedyarov and then to Carlsen. (Badly in both cases.) Still, it was a good week for him: winning the rapid championship and coming in third here.

Dmitry Andreikin was in the hunt for a long time too, but some tough losses in the late going pushed him out of contention and into a tie for fifth with Radjabov, half a point behind Alexander Morozevich. Vassily Ivanchuk had also been in contention after the first day, but he really plummeted, only managing to finish with an even score overall.

Turning to games of interest, other than those mentioned above:

Mamedyarov-Jumabayev was nice - through move 28 the game gives the impression of being one very long opening trap.

Karjakin-Bologan was a blown opportunity for Karjakin, failing to win an ending with an extra exchange and a pawn. It's only blitz, but until his next tournament success he may rue some of the half and whole points he gave away here.

Chadaev-Karjakin: Kramnik's Scotch Four Knights with 10.h3 strikes again! I haven't a clue why people play as they do against it (to take one obvious approach, 11...Re8 12.Bf4 Bd6 gives White a big pile of nothing), but until they do it will keep making the occasional cameo. Chadaev played boldly and caught another big scalp, and in general one has to be impressed by his fearlessness in this event.

Bologan-Gelfand: An amazing endgame "fail" by Gelfand.

Ivanchuk-Jumabayev: 59...g5! is a nice king and pawn ending trick worth noting and remembering.

Carlsen-Mamedyarov: A nice win by Mamedyarov, who won with Black in the Philidor against both Carlsen and Karjakin.

Jumabayev-Svidler featured a very nice (for us) and nasty (for Svidler) defensive trick. It looked like Svidler had at last worked out the mating combination, but there was this one teensy detail he missed.

Topalov-Carlsen was one of the few bright spots for Carlsen early in the day, but one worth savoring. It's usually White who gets to enjoy the boa constrictor-style strangulation games in the Ruy (there's a reason it's called the "Spanish torture"), but this time it was White who was suffocated.

Morozevich-Gelfand featured 10.e5 in the Anti-Moscow Gambit in the Semi-Slav, a move with a reputation for relative harmlessness. I don't know if Morozevich prepared something new and big or if Gelfand was just playing poorly, but the finale was 1-0, 25 moves.

Mamedyarov-Kotsur was an absolutely spectacular game, in which Mamedyarov sacrificed a pawn (declined), then another pawn (accepted), a piece (accepted), another piece (accepted), an exchange (declined) and then a rook (accepted) - and all while leaving the first rook from the declined exchanged sacrifice hanging through the end of the game. It all seems to be sound, and the only minor criticism is that Mamedyarov missed a mate in three starting with 24.Qxb6+.

Andreikin-Gelfand was the nadir of Andreikin's collapse. He had lost to Grischuk and Karjakin in recent rounds, but was still very much in the running for a medal going into round 27. Gelfand fell into an embarrassing, absolutely elementary trap with the blunder 6...Bg4?? - and won anyway. (Incidentally, 7.Ne5 may have been even better than 7.Bxf7+ - one must always consider both ideas in such positions.)

Final Standings:

1. Grischuk 20 (of 30)
2. Carlsen 19.5
3. Karjakin 18.5
4. Morozevich 17.5
5-6. Andreikin, Radjabov 17
7. Le Quang Liem 16.5
8-9. Svidler, Ivanchuk 15
10-11. Gelfand, Chadaev 13.5
12-13. Topalov, Mamedyarov 13
14. Jumabayev 12
15. Bologan 11
16. Kotsur 8

One final note: I haven't been able to find any video archives on the website - it just shows the last bit of whatever they filmed that day - in this case, the closing ceremony. ChessVibes filmed some of the games, though, and you can find them in their YouTube channel or on their site.

World Blitz Championship, Day 1: Grischuk Leads

As you'd expect from a blitz event, even and especially the World Blitz Championship, there was lots of excitement, with a fair share of both high-level play and blunders. We'll note some of the best and worst of the play below, but first, a few words about the competition.

Sergey Karjakin won the rapid event that finished yesterday, and led most of today too, but losses in the last two rounds to Magnus Carlsen (he played that game as if intimidated, something he'll have to overcome if he wants to best his contemporary in the long run) and his former countryman Vassily Ivanchuk.

Magnus Carlsen is the favorite by rating, but it took him a very long time to get going. After four games he was -2, and was still -1 as late as round 11! In round 1 he was clobbered by Dmitry Andreikin, while in round 8 he lost to Nikolay Chadaev (who??) and the ridiculous gambit 1. e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nf3. (It must be bad, but in a way I approve. The Norwegian Defense strikes me as an "I can beat you with anything; you're not even worthy of a real opening" approach, so if you have the nerve to one-up your opponent and the ability to succeed once you do, then so much the better.) Finally he got on a little winning streak at the end of the day, winding up at +2.

The leader is Alexander Grischuk, who lost a couple of games (to Andreikin and to Peter Svidler) but won against many of his closest rivals, including Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk (who is also tied for second with Karjakin and - as you might have wondered by this point - Andreikin), Morozevich and Radjabov.

Other notable performances thus far: Chadaev is +1, having defeated not only Carlsen but (just counting the big names) Le Quang Liem, Veselin Topalov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Notable, though not in an especially good way, is Boris Gelfand's -1 score. It's not that bad a performance, but it's not what one would expect of a "vice-champion", as FIDE often labels world championship runners-up. (Is the title-holder the "virtue champion"?)

Now to discuss some highlights, for those of you who might wish to look at the games, but not necessarily all 120 of them. First, some opening highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view). There was plenty of experimentation, as is to be expected in blitz. (This is both because it's easier to get away with nonsense there, and because it's prudent to hide one's best material for slower time controls.) Morozevich played the Albin Counter-Gambit a couple of times, and you've already read about Chadaev's goofy gambit. (He played some other minor oddities as well over the course of the event.) Carlsen played a King's Gambit in round 2, and after 2...exf4 he trotted out 3.Nc3. He drew, but it took a little work.

Carlsen's opening idea was pretty shaky there, but Karjakin trotted out a far worse opening with White against Gelfand. He showed too much respect for Gelfand's Najdorf and played a terrible anti-Sicilian line instead, was quickly worse, and lost the sort of clumsy game one would expect from a player of my level, not his. Carlsen played a better version of the same feeble line against Gelfand later on, and while it didn't cause any problems for Black at least White could (and did) draw without much worry. There's nothing wrong with the Dutch, of course - especially when your opponents play it - but it's rare to see this from Carlsen. Morozevich played a sideline and went on to win a really crazy game.

It's one thing for Carlsen to make questionable opening choices - he is #1, after all. But sometimes others made questionable choices against him. Teimour Radjabov, for instance, may not have deserved censure for taking the white side of a Hedgehog. But the way he played it, with 15.h3, 16.g4 and 17.f4 had the naive look of the 1970s to it. Back then those on the white side thought that with all that extra space they could expand and kill Black, and it was only after enough games where Black exploded the center and massacred White that players started taking the Hedgehog seriously. (Have a look at the fantastic game Polugaevsky-Ftacnik, Lucern Olympiad 1982 for an example.) Well, apparently some lessons must be learned anew, and when Carlsen played 18...e5! 19.Nde2 d5! the fertilizer hit the air circulation system.

In the technique department, there were plenty of good games. Andreikin's win over Carlsen in round 1 was a surprise entry, and he later won a nice rook ending against Gelfand and a great rook ending against Radjabov. Karjakin won a slew of fine endgames - against Chadaev, for instance, and then in a marathon queen ending vs. Mamedyarov as well.

Other interesting games: Gelfand vs. Viktor Bologan featured a slew of interesting exchange sacs, Svidler-Bologan was a nice positional massage, Karjakin won a terrific-looking game vs. Morozevich, while Morozevich-Bologan and Bologan-Chadaev are also both worth a look.

Finally, the blunders. There were lots of them! Here's what is surely just a partial list of games: Radjabov-Chadaev, Kotsur-Bologan (which had a nice finish), Gelfand-Ivanchuk, Bologan-Karjakin, Grischuk-Morozevich (49...Rg8 was the lemon; but maybe it shouldn't be called a blunder), Radjabov-Le Quang Liem, Kotsur-Topalov, Gelfand-Bologan, Andreikin-Svidler, Jumabayev-Bologan, Carlsen-Ivanchuk (and how!), Chadaev-Jumabayev, Topalov-Andreikin, Radjabov-Kotsur (27...Qg7??), Jumabayev-Grischuk, Mamedyarov-Le Quang Liem, Topalov-Ivanchuk (21.Rxd2??) and Grischuk-Mamedyarov (but this is so incredible I suspect a problem with the DGT board/relay system).

There are also some pseudo-errors caused as usual by the dumb DGT system in conjunction with poorly trained/forgetful/incompetent arbiters. All chess fans should know by now (even if arbiters don't - why can't the Turkish Chess Federation President ban them instead?) that if the last move given is Ke4/e5/d4/d5 by either side and it makes absolutely no sense at all, it's a DGT "move" and can be disregarded.

Let me conclude with a note about all the blunders. It's remarkable that these players do as well as they do in blitz - it's very difficult to play a blitz game against a strong opponent without making serious errors. As the players are surely a bit tired from the previous days' games and their travel to Kazakhstan, my suggestion would be to enjoy a little pleasure from their blunders - it reminds us that they're only human too - but to enjoy even more the very good chess they play the rest of the time.

World Rapid Championship: Carlsen Leads After Day 2 of 3

For a while it was a two-horse race, but in the later rounds today Magnus Carlsen got some breathing space relative to his 1990-contemporary Sergey Karjakin. The two were tied after day one with 4.5/5 apiece, and after eight rounds Karjakin had even nosed into the lead with 7 points to Carlsen's 6.5. Unfortunately for Karjakin, he lost in round 9 to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov while Carlsen beat Vladislav Tkachiev, and then in round 10 Carlsen won their head-to-head matchup.

In that game and quite a few others I've seen, Carlsen has been able to play to his strength, grinding everyone down with his fantastic technique. Almost no "drawn" position is safe against him - even if the opponent is in the absolute elite. Will his peers and up-and-coming admirers learn from his example and spend a little less time on the opening and more time on technique? They should!

Meanwhile, back to the event. Carlsen leads the World Rapid Championship with 8.5, Karjakin and - surprisingly! - Veselin Topalov are tied for second with 7 points each. Mamedyarov has 6, Alexey Dreev, Alexander Grischuk and Teimour Radjabov has 5.5. Among the other top players, Peter Svidler has 5, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk have 4.5 (Ivanchuk's loss to round 10 against Radjabov was hideous - or a delight, if you like train wrecks) and Alexander Morozevich has 4.

The last five rounds are tomorrow, and then the blitz championship starts Monday. Meanwhile, you can find some short videos here, while if you go here it looks like you can replay the day's action. (You should drag the slider in a bit, though, as it's just the logo for the first 10+ minutes. It's better than nothing, but the camera people could take a few tips from their counterparts in Moscow.)

A Magnus Carlsen Interview

Here (HT: Hylen). There's a surprising amount of content, including remarks on his own levels of motivation. Slightly pungent, though many would agree with it, was a remark en passant about Boris Gelfand: "Boris is of course a tremendous chess player, but… the current Gelfand isn’t a player of the class to have claims on the title!"

Seriously?

Gelfand had to win ten matches in a row to get his shot at the title, and against Anand - who Carlsen explicitly considers a "real" world champion - Gelfand lost by the narrowest of margins.

Starting with the 2009 World Cup, Gelfand won two-game mini-matches against the relatively unknown GMs Obdochuk and Amonatov before defeating Judit Polgar, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Jakovenko, Sergey Karjakin and Ruslan Ponomariov. Then, in the Candidates in 2011 he beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gata Kamsky and Alexander Grischuk to make it to a title match with Viswanathan Anand. Prior to Anand, he won eight straight matches vs. 2700s (okay, seven of eight - Polgar, who is often over 2700, had slipped to 2680 at that point) to get his shot.

Levon Aronian tried but didn't make it, and Vladimir Kramnik likewise tried but failed. Carlsen? He didn't even try. That's his prerogative, but until he earns a world championship match it might be more appropriate not to make remarks about the level of a player who gets there.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

This Week's ChessVideos Show: Learn from Capablanca and Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen only won two games in the just-completed 2012 Tal Memorial, but both, especially his early-round win over Teimour Radjabov, were of instructive value. About the win over Radjabov, I had a feeling of deja vu when I replayed it that the fundamental outline of his winning plan was very similar to an old victory of Jose Capablanca's. When I read Carlsen's comments in the post-game press conference to the same effect I had to find the game in question, and it wasn't too difficult: Ilya Kan-Capablanca from the same city (Moscow) in 1936.

So in this week's ChessVideos show I present both games, hopefully with enough clarity and depth to help you pressure and (generally) defeat your opponents from similar structures. If Kan and especially Radjabov failed to hold, our everyday opponents at the club level are really going to be in trouble!

The show is free, as always (one-time only free registration is required) and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

Tal Memorial, Round 9: Carlsen Wins the Game and the Tournament

What a crazy event the 2012 Tal Memorial was! It seemed that practically the whole field led at one moment or another, and by the end the only predictor of success was playing against one of the leaders. Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik both collapsed at the end of the tournament, and they were replaced by Fabiano Caruana going into the last round just in time for him to lose to Levon Aronian.

The event was so topsy-turvy that Luke McShane, the lowest-rated player and until the last couple of rounds mired in either last or next to last (where he finished), would have WON the tournament on tiebreaks had he beaten Magnus Carlsen! McShane's play was uncharacteristically solid in this last game, but having ceded the initiative to Carlsen when the latter played 21...a5 he went for a positionally unjustified attack in pending time trouble with 27.Rde1? Carlsen took the material, beat off the attack, and collected the point and tournament victory once the players passed the time control on move 40.

Caruana would have clinched first place on tiebreaks with a draw, no matter what happened in the other games, but with Black even against a somewhat out of form Aronian that was not a guaranteed result. Aronian chose the 3.f3 Anti-Gruenfeld line that gave Boris Gelfand some trouble in a couple of games with Viswanathan Anand in their world championship match, and it looks like there's plenty of scope here to keep causing Black some trouble. Caruana's preparation was insufficiently broad, and Aronian acquired a significant advantage by the opening's end.

The other three games were drawn: Hikaru Nakamura didn't manage to get anything from a Rossolimo Sicilian against Teimour Radjabov and was even a little worse, but Radjabov preferred to play solidly than take serious risks and the game finished peacefully. Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich were not discouraged by their failures the last few rounds and played a long, hard-fought game. Kramnik had some chances to win - as he did in many games in the event - but couldn't bring home the full point. Finally, Alexander Grischuk had good winning chances with Black in a Saemisch King's Indian against Evgeny Tomashevsky, but the former's extra pawn proved insufficient for more than the more pleasant side of a draw.

Final Standings:

• 1. Carlsen 5.5 (out of 9)
• 2-3. Caruana, Radjabov 5 (in that order, on tiebreaks; likewise for the next two score groups)
• 4-7. Kramnik, Morozevich, Aronian, Grischuk 4.5
• 8-9. McShane, Nakamura 4
• 10. Tomashevsky 3.5

This Week's ChessVideos Show: Grinding Out The Victory

Whatever we might want to say that's positive about the just-completed World Chess Championship, that it showed two players giving their all in every game, pushing until there was nothing left to do isn't among them. Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand are great players, but they aren't infallible, and on those occasions when they did press the fight there were mistakes aplenty. Pressing brings about dividends!

One player who knows this all too well is world #1 Magnus Carlsen. Like any top player, he can do everything well in chess, but one of the things that sets him apart is his technical skill. He has defeated even the very best players in the world from "drawn" positions, and on a regular basis.

So to help remind you what a full-bodied technical struggle and masterpice looks like, check out this week's ChessVideos show. Magnus Carlsen chooses a rather quiet line against Pavel Eljanov's Gruenfeld and manages to come out of the opening with a very small edge. Material is fairly limited (two rooks, a bishop, knight and five pawns apiece), and had the game finished in a quick draw no one would have thought anything of it, except perhaps to complain about White's opening choice. But for Carlsen, that endgame wasn't the end of a sketch; rather, it was the start of a full-fledged work of art. He accumulated small advantages, and because he didn't hurry to cash them in he was able to keep accumulating them. Little by little he made progress, sometimes very slowly and sometimes more quickly as Eljanov would make unfortunate concessions. Throughout the game, Carlsen maintained a boa constrictor like grip, and one of the world's best players seemed totally outclassed.

There's much more detail in the video, of course: I carefully survey the variation's theory, try to analyze the game as a whole and attempt to show on a conceptual level why Carlsen's endgame play was so successful. As always, the video is free (one-time free registration is required) and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

Carlsen Clips

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!