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In Normal Chess Carlsen is back to his element with all his great memory of all his Opening lines and variations he will beat all his opponents and GM SO will probably get 3th place behind Nakamura or even 4th behind Nepomniachtchi https://grandchesstour.org/2019-grand-c ... apid-blitz

Chessqueen wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:28 am In Normal Chess Carlsen is back to his element with all his great memory of all his Opening lines and variations he will beat all his opponents and GM SO will probably get 3th place behind Nakamura or even 4th behind Nepomniachtchi https://grandchesstour.org/2019-grand-c ... apid-blitz

Carlsen is hardly the guy to fear for opening knowledge.

Guys like Caruana are much more dangerous in that area.

Carlsen simply outplays people the moment the position becomes technical and his vast POSITIONAL knowledge gets to work.

His failure in 960 has nothing to do with not having his vast library openings, but not having his vast library of "patterns" to recognize.

His failure in 960

-- for real?

CositasBuenas wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:11 am

His failure in 960

-- for real?

No idea.

I didn't even follow the event, but I saw people on several forums and social media networks talking about Carlsen being "exposed" in 960, or other such claims...from scores of unconnected people.

So I assume something happened.

My assertion is that if he did indeed play poorly in the 960 event, it has nothing to do with not being able to use his opening knowledge...that's absurd as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, he didn't play poorly. He got 2nd place.

BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 12:07 pm

CositasBuenas wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:11 am

His failure in 960

-- for real?

No idea.

Yeah, the idea here is that being second best at something in the world would hardly be considered a failure. Because what does that leave the rest of FRC players? Is everyone in the world a loser except for So?

Carlsen is hardly the guy to fear for opening knowledge.

He is pretty well prepared and keeps innovating. See the article on the 7. Nd5 Sveshnikov in NIC Yearbook for example.

But I still think Kasparov takes the prize for relentless, deep opening preparation.

--Jon

CositasBuenas wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:56 pm Of course, he didn't play poorly. He got 2nd place.

First time he got 2nd place for a long time!

CositasBuenas wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:56 pm Of course, he didn't play poorly. He got 2nd place.

Of course nothing wrong with 2nd place, even for Carlsen. But he lost to So by 5 to 1 (using normal scoring), which is why it looks so bad for him. (I didn't intend the pun, but noticed it after writing it!).

I think the score has nothing to do with how superior So was to Carlsen. Carlsen missed a winning position in the first game and then lost a drawn endgame ... this sort of made him over extend on the other games. My guess that this was just a bad day in the office and probably on a different day results would be different. Still he did get to 2nd place and considering his poor results in earlier attempts at Chess 960 this is progress. Most likely he sees this as his next challenge as he pretty much has controlled all other forms of chess (Classical, Rapid, Blitz, Bullet).