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Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize

cnn.com

41–50 of 136 posts

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

#41
post #38

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.

In fact, it was Magnus himself (currently 29 years old, as of April 2020) who said his favorite chess player was himself, when he was around 23. That Magnus apparently saw things on the board that current (overwhelmingly dominant) Magnus can't any more. So even in chess there's a physical prime, just like in pretty much any other sport.

He said that (jokingly) before his fabulous 2019 year.

Right now he's spending a lot of time promoting chess24 with banter blitz, hanging around on lichess playing 100 games bullet matches, commenting on chess24 and other things that would profoundly ruin anyone else's concentration.

So, no big deal if he very occasionally loses (online!) games.

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

#43

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.

Formula 1 racing is similar. Drivers become aś good as they every can in pure pure driving skill in karting when they are still teenagers. All skills needed for driving fast are developed early. Rest of the career in F3/F2/GP2 feeder series to F1 is just maturing psychologically, getting experience and learning stuff you need outside the track. Ultimate skill level is already there or not. Drivers will eventually fad…

same with skiing and many other sports.

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Formula 1 racing is similar. Drivers become aś good as they every can in pure pure driving skill in karting when they are still teenagers. All skills needed for driving fast are developed early. Rest of the career in F3/F2/GP2 feeder series to F1 is just maturing psychologically, getting experience and learning stuff you need outside the track. Ultimate skill level is already there or not. Drivers will eventually fad…

same with skiing and many other sports.

With chess you do not stand a nontrivial chance of dying each time you take to the field. So not the same, it seems to me.

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was trivial to disprove https://i.imgur.com/tfL5u0i.png

This is not a proof that he was commonly referred to as "Norwegian teen". The internet is vast and a proof of existence has little weight. But any data is better than not data, so +1 to you.

You didn't say anything about "commonly referred", you said:

> I doubt that Carlsen was referred to as "Norwegian teen"

Which he was, apparently at least 292 times

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

#49
I had been following Alireza's rise over the past year on Chess.com. It's not entirely surprising. He often plays against Hikaru Nakamura, one of the best blitz players in world, who streams many of the games on Twitch. The gap between them had been closing and I think it's pretty much closed now.

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

#50
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Iranian teen” makes it a better headline, anonymizing him makes it more of an out-of-nowhere sports story. Stop looking for racism in everything, you’re looking to stir something up when there’s nothing there. (And I see you’ve edited your comment to remove the “this is racist” rant)

out-of-nowhere sports story I’m more annoyed by the headline’s implication that Carlsen would find this defeat shocking. He wouldn’t. Magnus and Alireza have been acquainted for a few years now. They’ve played many times. Carlsen is fully aware of how strong his opponent is.

He might have been fazed for sure. Carlsen is famously grumpy about losing. And there's a big difference between losing a single game, and losing a match consisting of several games. It's much more difficult to dismiss the latter as a fluke.

Now obviously this wasn't a fully serious match format, but then again Carlsen prides himself on his dominance under short time controls.

after all, it was in rapid playoffs that he defended his world champion crown against both Karjakin and Caruana. It was only once it came to that when he would simply blow them out of the water.

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