“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.
Plus they directly contradict themselves in the story
> Before the clash, the world no.1 player didn't underestimate Firouzja, calling him "by far my biggest challenge."
Why is Alireza Firouzja being referred to as "Iranian teen"? He's an international top player. I doubt that Carlsen was referred to as "Norwegian teen" when he was ranking in the top 25. p.s: As always: responses > downvotes.
Agreed 100%. If you're the editor thinking up this headline, you've got a choice between a) crediting established chess powerhouse Firouzja with a well-deserved victory over Magnus; or b) downplaying his accomplishments in order to make it seem like the reigning champion lost to a random high schooler.
It also seems relevant that he is Iranian as he has notably decided not to play under the Iranian flag. Reading the article, multiple paragraphs are spent discussing this aspect of the story.
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.
The dominant risk when I ski is traveling to and from the resort. So I suppose your point stands if you only play from home. Even so, it seems a bit irrelevant to the discussion.
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.
Of the many spectacular moments and reactions, the best was Magnus winning a lost position and believing it won him the match (and implying Alireza has much to learn before being able to beat him). Magnus was still a professional when defeated, but emotions were running high at the point in the match.
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.
There is no time format that is called “standard”, if anything, if somebody told me about “standard chess” I would assume they are talking about standard ruleset, in which case this article is definitely about standard chess.
I think you meant “classical chess”, which is a time format.
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.
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.
People are reading a bit too much into this loss. It is a big deal that someone was able to beat Magnus Carlsen at any time control, especially in this era where Magnus has seemingly reached a new level of chess skill, but bullet is by far the the easiest for a champion to make a mistake or series of them. Magnus is ridiculously strong at bullet but I’ve watched his live-streams and sometimes he blunders really badly, that’s just part of bullet. Although he is incredibly strong at bullet, probably 50-100 points higher than the world #2. Anyone not a high ranked GM wouldn’t stand a chance of beating him in a series of more than 5 games. But I’ve seen him lose to players he is obviously better than. He’s the #1 so they try their hardest. Nothing comes easily for Magnus.
For those interested, the POVs from each player are uploaded on youtube. Magnus POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtyQLkmRsU Alireza POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9RtOBuLm0 Best moment: https://youtu.be/rJtyQLkmRsU?t=3958 Of the many spectacular moments and reactions, the best was Magnus winning a lost position and believing it won him the match (and implying Alireza has much to learn before being able t…
Also, if you watch the game right after the Magnus victory, Magnus once again declares 'This is just game' before Alireza masterfully turns an amateur position into a victory over the world chess champion.
Why is Alireza Firouzja being referred to as "Iranian teen"? He's an international top player. I doubt that Carlsen was referred to as "Norwegian teen" when he was ranking in the top 25. p.s: As always: responses > downvotes.
“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)