If only Othello had a community of a similar size to Chess'. At least there are good video live feeds from the world championship now for a couple of years.
Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
191–200 of 225 posts
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#192I think theres an interesting and generally applicable point to this discussion concerning the choice between optimizing chances to win by choosing a "boring" option, as opposed to choosing a more "exciting" option with a smaller chance to win. Obviously there is some value in "excitement" and more of it would always be preferable, but when facing a choice between excitement and competitiveness, sports has to be about winning above all. For instance a showboating NBA-player sacrifizing effectiveness for flashy moves will and needs to be scolded by coach, fans and media. Otherwise, whats the point. Theres a reason nobody watches practice sessions and pre-season games aren't exciting even though you would probably see more flashy moves and wow-factor there than in competitive games. The players aren't playing as if their lives depended on it and it doesn't really matter what the result is. If you want exciting chess, I'm sure theres plenty of excentric flashy chess players in lower levels. It's just not as exciting to watch as the highest, most competitive level. And competitiveness must never be compromised. Even in a theoretical scenario where you may up your "excitement" factor by 10 by sacrifizing just 1% of your chances to win, the competitiveness must win. If Carlsen had played the final game down to the wire, commentators should question whether that was the optimal route to win and it would and should be considered a mistake if common census was that the choice reduced his chances. It's a very valid discussion whether the rules of the game should be redesigned to avoid this choice, but the players must focus solely on winning within the boundaries of the given rules.
I'm not neglecting that theres value in providing excitement, and the most celebrated players are the ones who manage to provide excitement, without sacrifizing competitiveness (or at least keeping the audiences' illusion that the competivivenss is not sacrifized alive). But sports has to be about winning, and competitiveness must never be compromised. Just the same as business has to be about creating value (however measured, monetary or humanitarian) and code has to be about effective solutions to worthwile endeavours. In business, the equivalent may be Elon Musk failing with Tesla while being "exciting" as opposed to Jeff Bezos churning away with Amazon and "winning" while being boring. In this case I would see it as pretty obvious that Elon Musk would be disgraced and Jeff Bezos celebrated. And of course, the player who both provides exctimenent and wins is the most celebrated of all (as Elon Musk appears to be right now with Tesla seeming succeeding).
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard similar proposals for soccer games, start with penalty kicks as a tiebreaker. Now, whomever lost the tiebreaker will have to play extra hard as they know a draw will be a loss.
Soccer just needs to remove players as time increases. It'll create odd exciting scrappy scenarios, but goal scoring will certainly be more likely.
I actually agree with this. Defensive soccer/football is incredibly boring to watch. 0-0. So fun. When the number of players in any sport is changed, it puts everyone on their heels because they don't know exactly how to react, and so you know what you get? Sport!
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#194In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics. He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid/blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves. Under these conditions it's more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an…
> He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz.
I would argue he played ALL the games safe knowing he's a huge favorite in rapid and blitz.
I would much rather they have to keep playing "classical" chess until somebody wins/loses.
That means that the players would be far more motivated to drive home an advantageous situation when it arises.
Carlsen's dominance in blitz is probably why he doesn't seem to be squeezing endgames into victories anymore.
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#195In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics. He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid/blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves. Under these conditions it's more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an…
Kasparov did not say Carlsen improves w shorter time formats. He said that the degredation of his play at faster times was smaller than everyone else. This is still impressive, but definitely not an improvement.
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#196I’d like to offer a few thoughts on this match as a former internationally competitive player/US Cadet U16 champion, current ~2400 bullet chess addict, and someone who has played bughouse with Fabiano as my partner at the Sinquefield Cup in 2017. First, hats off to both players for a hard fought match. To Magnus for successfully defending his title, and to Fabiano for pushing Magnus right to the brink. This was an ex…
I’d be interested in beta testing this. Sounds great
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#197In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics. He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid/blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves. Under these conditions it's more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an…
> He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. I would argue he played ALL the games safe knowing he's a huge favorite in rapid and blitz. I would much rather they have to keep playing "classical" chess until somebody wins/loses. That means that the players would be far more motivated to drive home an advantageous situation when it arises. Carlsen's dominance in blitz is probably why…
I agree he played all the games safe, I believe he said (or implied it) himself in one of the press conferences. I also agree that they should play the classical until somebody wins. As Carlsen said in the post final press conference Caruana has the same right to claim he's the best in the world in classical format.
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#198I'd wager 20% of Norway or more has been actively following these games. Everyone has been talking about it, the last few weeks the lunch at work has been mostly discussing the game the night before. All over the media. Biggest tv channel (NRK) showed the 15 games live, same for the biggest news page (VG) . And this is nothing new, ever since the first time Carlsen was in a WC match Norway has been obsessed with ches…
I expected it to be the same in America, unfortunately this was not the case. I don't know what it is but nobody in my social circles seemed to even know that this was going on.
I suspect it would have gotten more press coverage if caruana hadn't switched from playing for Italy just a couple years ago and if he'd been favored. Without an "all American boy" or "next Bobby Fischer" in the lede, I imagine it's harder to sell the story to general audiences.
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#199In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics. He played the 12th game safe knowing he's a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid/blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves. Under these conditions it's more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an…
It's very easy to be always right if you say a thing and the opposite. Kasparov said after the 12th game: "I reconsider my evaluation of him[Carlsen] being the favorite in rapids. Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his."
Re: Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
I expected it to be the same in America, unfortunately this was not the case. I don't know what it is but nobody in my social circles seemed to even know that this was going on.
Chess is just not that popular outside of a few niches here. I used to be really into it when I was a kid, but it's a struggle to find anyone to play against; I don't think I've played more than a couple games in the past five years.
It's making a real comeback as the online options and apps have gotten better. Check out LiChess or chess.com. You can find a live match in seconds for shorter time controls or play 1 day per move if you don't want blitz. It makes it easy to play a quick game while waiting for a bus, or similar.