M ANSARI wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 8:04 pm
Well I guess I spoke too soon. Hans Nieman played against Kramnik on Chess.com and of all openings ... he went for non other than the Berlin Defense! And of course the brilliant and world's best player in history managed to totally outplay Kramnik in an opening that Kasparov felt he was bashing his head against concrete. Kramnik then requested a rematch and played an opening that allows a mate in one after 2 moves played. I guess he was trying to say something ... maybe?
Most of the top players of the past Kasparov, Kramnik, and Kartpov except Anand are NOT as strong as their Rating shows, because they do not keep active https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHxq0Hf9LWk
I think you missed the part where Kramnik had lost the game as white in the Berlin Defense. Hans Nieman managed to outplay him in the Berlin ... maybe you are not aware of what the connotations are of the Berlin Defense and Kramnik. Of course it could be that Hans Nieman had an inspired game where he managed to outplay Kramnik and play with computer like accuracy ... but with his cheating history ... I really doubt it and it seems Kramnik feels the same. Kramnik is still an extremely strong player and recently crushed Hikaru on Chess.com when Hikaru decided to play a funky opening. I do agree that he is not as strong as he once was ... but here we are talking about him being outplayed in the Berlin Defense.
I quite believe that the accusation of cheating is far too unrealistic in the Part of Carslen, in the recent World Rapid Chess we witness once more players who where 150 rating lower than the top 6 players in the https://2700chess.com/ and almost reached the top two Spot, but in these cases nobody was accused