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Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

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Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#11
post #5

This appears to be some kind of speed chess, not chess.

Huh? Variants of lightning/blitz/fast chess have been around since the late 19th Century. They are very much games of chess. I’m not sure what the quibble is? Is untimed chess, which is uncommon for competitive play, the only real form of chess? Or is timed chess, which almost all competitive matches are, an acceptable form of chess, so long as the duration allotted to each player is __________? https://www.chesshist…

I think the argument here is that it's a very different game when you have to make the majority of your moves by intuition as opposed to systematic thought, and then decide which moves deserve an extra bit of thought.

But, yeah, it's still chess.

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#12

Chess is one of the few fields where dominance can easily stretch into several decades - if you're a young prodigy you may breach into top level in your teenage years and last well until your 50s or 60s. Of course you won't be #1 this whole time (check out Lasker's longevity though) but you will always remain a top contender.

> Chess is one of the few fields where dominance can easily stretch into several decades Easily? No. The only player to have the top rating longer than 10 years is kasparov. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIDE_chess_world_numbe... > if you're a young prodigy you may breach into top level in your teenage years and last well until your 50s or 60s. Of course you won't be #1 this whole time (check out Lasker's lon…

Anand, Gelfand, Dreev and Ivanchuck are all 50 or older, unless you just mean blitz, in which case it's just Anand and Dreev.

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#13

Chess is one of the few fields where dominance can easily stretch into several decades - if you're a young prodigy you may breach into top level in your teenage years and last well until your 50s or 60s. Of course you won't be #1 this whole time (check out Lasker's longevity though) but you will always remain a top contender.

I would like to differ on this. It's getting harder and harder to maintain dominance. Kasparov was the one to hold the longest. Magnus, even though he is one of the best ever, is already losing out to Alireza in bullet, blitz and even almost in classical. Chess theory has a new Renaissance due to neutral networks and we will see newer GM's adapting to it.

I think if anyone has benefited from the coming of AlphaGo and Leela, it's Magnus himself. 2019 was such a renaissance for him partly because all these intuitive positional lines with pawn sacrifices opened up, and I felt in the years previous to that that his love for the game seemed slightly on the wane as he regularly became mired in others' Stockfish prep (while still being able to mostly pull it out due to endgame technique).

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not how I see it. Carlsen lost one insanely long online bullet match on lichess. He narrowly lost an online banter blitz match. This is not blitz, since also you have to talk while playing, which does not seem to suit Carlsen's personality. In classical, you can often "almost lose", except that Carlsen does not "actually lose", as exemplified by his ongoing record non-loss streak.

In the banter blitz I saw, they aren't really bantering, just making offhand comments during downtime.

I watch a variety of games on Twitch, and I am fairly sure that no player would claim they play optimally while commentating themselves and explaining their thought processes.

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to differ on this. It's getting harder and harder to maintain dominance. Kasparov was the one to hold the longest. Magnus, even though he is one of the best ever, is already losing out to Alireza in bullet, blitz and even almost in classical. Chess theory has a new Renaissance due to neutral networks and we will see newer GM's adapting to it.

And I thought short time controls were Magnus' forte. I guess it may be the one where age related decline sets in the quickest.

Isn't he ridiculously strong at all time controls?

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#16
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Variants of lightning/blitz/fast chess have been around since the late 19th Century. They are very much games of chess. I’m not sure what the quibble is? Is untimed chess, which is uncommon for competitive play, the only real form of chess? Or is timed chess, which almost all competitive matches are, an acceptable form of chess, so long as the duration allotted to each player is __________? https://www.chesshist…

Blitz chess is not ‘standard’ chess. This is not a controversial fact.

> This appears to be some kind of speed chess, not chess.

Where do you see the word standard?

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#17

Chess is one of the few fields where dominance can easily stretch into several decades - if you're a young prodigy you may breach into top level in your teenage years and last well until your 50s or 60s. Of course you won't be #1 this whole time (check out Lasker's longevity though) but you will always remain a top contender.

FWIW this is why I've adopted Curling after playing hockey for a decade. It is an incredibly skillful and physical game and yet you see 80 year olds at the rink playing it. You can get good at it and be good for a long long time. You don't get too old.

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#18
:) I wonder how good a random person from HN will be at chess. Let's figure it out - https://lichess.org/0wzDnVfy

update: better than me. lol

Created a hn tournament (finished): https://lichess.org/tournament/rWPYf1fK

Created a second tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/Wg6CHtmp

Re: Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

#19
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I thought short time controls were Magnus' forte. I guess it may be the one where age related decline sets in the quickest.

Isn't he ridiculously strong at all time controls?

He is. Carlsen is a unique player in many respects and he usually comes back even stronger from losses. To say that he is "losing out" to someone is a bit premature I would say.
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