21–30 of 67 posts
Can't blame him. Getting older, the search space being so much clearer than before, razor thin margins, the concentration, the time spent before and during. I think he plays a bit of poker too, maybe he can shine in that space too.
Live Omaha was fun, but died off post-Covid where I live...
He's long said he's bored with it; the recent Gukesh slam-the-board viral moment has just resurfaced his frustration with it.
I think everyone here can probably sympathise when a job stops being about the bits you actually enjoy or are good at. I have no doubt Magnus is the best ever, but the vast majority of the effort in classical chess is spent away from the board. Slogging through an opponent and their team’s computer driven opening prep just isn’t super fun and probably isn’t why most people fall in love with chess. Anyone who has gone…
I believe that to people like Magnus it goes beyond "the job becoming boring" and his stance alludes directly to Fischer's disillusionment with the game – lacking in genuine and human creativity.
I read the above and it made me feel he was annoyed that Chess is a strategic zero sum game? "preparation and memorization than pure skill and innovation" - I think (at least in the zero sum strategy game I love) - prep + data IS the skill and innovation, how do you prep and where do you get your data, that's the joy of the game?
It's hard for some of the very best when they're no longer at their peak. Don't get me wrong, Magnus is still world #1 for a reason, but he used to be at a level where no-one could even scratch him. Now he has to fight much harder for victories, and he's not enjoying that. It's hard to determine how much is down to that factor, how much is how he feels over not being world champion anymore, and how much is a financia…
Did he get worse or did the others get better ?
It's hard for some of the very best when they're no longer at their peak. Don't get me wrong, Magnus is still world #1 for a reason, but he used to be at a level where no-one could even scratch him. Now he has to fight much harder for victories, and he's not enjoying that. It's hard to determine how much is down to that factor, how much is how he feels over not being world champion anymore, and how much is a financia…
As another factor could be that he is not doing the same quantity of prep anymore.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's not forget that Magnus didn't lose his world champion title, he gave it up willingly after holding the title from 2013 to 2021. All those years where everyone else is focusing specifically on how to defeat him and still coming short. He's talked about this at length in interviews, mostly it just became incredibly boring.
Only Magnus really knows if it was "incredibly boring" or he feared losing over the board, and even he might not really know himself. I think it's a shame for the sport that he wasn't willing to risk losing his WC title over the board, but make no mistake, he has lost his WC title regardless.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that to people like Magnus it goes beyond "the job becoming boring" and his stance alludes directly to Fischer's disillusionment with the game – lacking in genuine and human creativity.
I don't play or know anything about Chess so I went to look up your comment, I presume it's about this gent: https://www.chess.com/blog/Mx_Nat/why-bobby-fischer-hated-ch... I read the above and it made me feel he was annoyed that Chess is a strategic zero sum game? "preparation and memorization than pure skill and innovation" - I think (at least in the zero sum strategy game I love) - prep + data IS the skill and inn…
No, he's complaining about the depth of the decision tree at the start of the game.
As an amateur player (~2000 ish), classical is where it's at. I love the feeling of deep focus that is so hard to find in the rest of life these days but that I can still get into in a serious, slow over the board game. The problems of the top players are not those of amateurs.
Chess was far more fun 20+ years ago. Before everyone had a supercomputer-powered chess engine in their hands... While studying openings was a thing, it still felt like there was room for improvisation and tactics. Now playing feels like a chore and more about rote memorization than actually playing a game.
If even pros make mistakes at that level, it should get rid of much draws and overly long games. And perhaps even appeal to a wider audience in our sped up society.