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Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

chess24.com

371–380 of 461 posts

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and Tinsley was able to see the win 64 moves into the future. It's more likely that Tinsley was able to see a winning position much closer to the present than that, without bothering about the details of how exactly the winning position 6 turns in the future converted into an actual win 64 moves in the future.

the point is that his winning position was a 64 move convert and he was correct. Lots of players believe they will end up in a winning position, but overlook something while "not bothering with the details". it's less about how much he calculated in that moment and more about the accuracy of his confidence and the work he had to have put in alongside his talent prior to that moment to achieve that confidence and back…

It also strongly depends on the branching factor.

Like, if you're in a chess midgame, there might still 6 major pieces and 4 or 6 minor pieces and tons of pawns on the board. It's tricky to calculate far into the future. At each node, there's easily dozens of possible moves, and 4-8 viable or not-horrible ones. That's becoming a lot of possibilities to consider very quickly.

In an endgame, there's like, 2 kings, 2 pieces and 4 pawns or a similar constellation. There's 6 possible moves, 3 of them immediately lose and 3 are worth thinking about. 2 of them probably only have one possible answer. Suddenly even an utter beginner like me can calculate 4-8 moves. A master-level player probably knows the endgame entirely, or can see 10 - 20 moves into it easily, because the branching factor is a lot lower now.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#372
It's his choice of course but I think some of the argumentation is in bad taste. Suggesting to only play against Firouzja is bad sportsmanship, a player should not attempt to handpick their opponent. It's also disrespectful to announce this after the candidates tournament finished, in particular towards Nepomniachtchi but also the other players who expected to face the world champion.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#373
post #74
post #9

Props to MC for going out literally at the top of his game. As Kipling noted: "Once in a while / We can finish in style".

He's not going out though - he'll keep playing chess and he stated that he wants to remain the best chess player. He's just not playing the World Championship match.

Yes, finishing his World Championship affiliation.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that seem impossible? One could argue that white has to open up his defenses first, allowing black to pick the best response to that. In general, there’s no guarantee of first mover’s advantage. For example, Hexapawn ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexapawn ) is a win for black on some boards ( https://web.archive.org/web/20050330222720/http://www.chessv... ). Versions that are more complex than chess and a…

White could start with a knight move. Unlike Hexapawn, in chess, white moving first provides an increase in optionality for white, and the board positions are not forcing white on some losing track, because white is free to "burn" a move with many pieces by taking 2 moves to get to the same place they could with 1 move. White can use two bishop moves, or a pawn push to the 3rd rank followed by the 4th rank, to turn a…

That would give black two moves in a row, which is a different scenario, and might still be optimal for black.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the rating inflation debate has concluded that there isn't that much inflation. Compared to the old 2600 generation, the 2700 people now are just that much better. An analysis here: https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-elo-ratings-inflation-or-d... It claims that a 2500 player now is better than a 2500 player in 2000. So in that sense it's actually been a deflation. Also https://www.playmagnus.com/en/news/p…

But that's my point: elo distribution has nothing to do with how good players are, it merely tracks your win/lose status against opponents with a different elo. If you take, e.g. two unranked players that are very bad at chess or two unranked masters they are still going to end up with a +16 and -16 elo change. And you can keep adding great or bad players to the pool, and elo is still going to only look at the outcom…

>elo distribution has nothing to do with how good players are

Nothing to do with it? That's a bit much.

It's not a perfect system, nor is it a trivial problem to solve, but elo definitely highly correlates to how good the player is.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#376
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds a lot like Go Seigan in the Go world. Dude was ahead of his time and developed a style of play that was remarkably similar to AlphaGo. His intuitions on the importance and usefulness of a position fueled his fighting ability.

Maybe his opponents were too confused by his name being Go.

Go is the Japanese reading of his Chinese name. He was born Chinese, and his surname is 五, the number “5”, pronounced Wu in Chinese and Go in Japanese. Not the same “Go” as in igo (… but the same “go” in “gomaku”, the game of five-in-a-row)

His opponents who played him were sometimes mystified, though the reason often becomes clear many moves down the road. He was not afraid of starting complex fights, even ko fights, and the games often have huge swings in territory. He played in a way with great freedom. Opponents would play thinking they played a forcing move, only for Go Seigan to tenuki (play elsewhere on a board, often at strategically vital points). People have tried to replicate his style, but it is difficult to put into practice without Go Seigan’s reading skills.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#377
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've found them entertaining to watch. But Norwegians are master of slow-TV, so I guess that's why. They have good experts that manage to explain it to normal people. Interesting guests in the studio between moves. Interact with audience through questions from chat etc. I usually don't follow chess, but I still end up watching the WC matches on Norwegian TV. They manage to make it interesting and exciting.

If find it suspicious calling a match interesting when people need to have "Interesting guests in the studio between moves. Interact with audience through questions from chat etc." - I always found that suspicious with the NFL too.

The overall match can be interesting, while still having some periods of lower intensity. The guests are typically celebrities which also has some relation to chess, for example a famous actress being an avid amateur chess player as well.

The guests will typically join in on the discussion of the positions, and as such often serves as a proxy for the viewers by asking questions like "but why doesn't he just do X now" and similar.

It doesn't always work but overall I think it's been a positive addition to their broadcasts.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#378

It's his choice of course but I think some of the argumentation is in bad taste. Suggesting to only play against Firouzja is bad sportsmanship, a player should not attempt to handpick their opponent. It's also disrespectful to announce this after the candidates tournament finished, in particular towards Nepomniachtchi but also the other players who expected to face the world champion.

He said the same thing way before the candidates.

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#379

It's his choice of course but I think some of the argumentation is in bad taste. Suggesting to only play against Firouzja is bad sportsmanship, a player should not attempt to handpick their opponent. It's also disrespectful to announce this after the candidates tournament finished, in particular towards Nepomniachtchi but also the other players who expected to face the world champion.

Why not handpick his opponent? The tournament hasn't been great at choosing opponents, and the format of the championship sucks

Re: Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the invention of artillery cause javelin throwing to be dead?

I do not know the name of a single javelin throwing champion. But I know the names of chess champions… up to Kasparov.

You have no knowledge of Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen?
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