Ok, so Chess is a sport in the same way that motor racing is a sport which is to say that while it has some athletic subtleties (hey, this maximus gluteus didn’t happen by accident, it took years and years of joystick work to develop these sitz skills) it doesn’t depend on physical ability as much as mental acuity.
It may surprise you to know that we’re in the middle of a World Championship between the reigning King Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Fabiano Caruana of the United States.
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Outside my jingoist sentiment I like Caruana because he plays Sicilian which is my favorite Opening (English from the White side of the Board).
Currently we’re at Game 4 of 12 scheduled, all of which have been draws (as in the Beautiful Game they give you points for draws to create the illusion that something is happening when it’s really just a bunch of people running around kicking a ball). Caruana is kind of a long shot to even be in the match beating out Shak Mamedyarov and Levon Aronian in the Candidate’s Tournament.
Should they draw out (actually kind of likely at this level) they’ll play some more strictly time constrained games (though hardly blitz chess) to decide a victor. Carlsen is expected to have an advantage in such a match as he plays blitz exhibitions quite frequently.
Long battle expected as world’s top two chess players meet in London
by Sean Ingle, The Guardian
Thu 8 Nov 2018
The last time an American challenged for the world chess championship it was seen as an almighty clash of civilisations: west versus east, capitalism against communism, a cold war by proxy fought over 64 squares between Bobby Fischer and the Soviet Boris Spassky.
Chess has never been as cool or relevant since that epic contest in 1972. But at the launch of the 2018 world championship match between the Norwegian champion, Magnus Carlsen, and his US challenger, Fabiano Caruana – which begins in London on Friday – organisers promised that a global audience of millions would tune in for the most anticipated match in a generation.
“Chess stars are the boxing champions of the 21st century,” insisted the CEO of World Chess, Ilya Merenzon, which has a accrued a €1m prize fund for the event. “Smart is sexy, and for three weeks we’ll have an amazing experience watching the smartest people in the world battle it out for the title.”
Carlsen, the highest-rated chess player in history, has held the world title since 2013. Such is his popularity in Norway that all 12 matches in London will be shown live on prime-time TV. He has also modelled for the fashion company G-Star Raw and endorsed Omega watches and Porsche.
But the 27-year-old, who was such a childhood prodigy that he was described as the Mozart of chess, has been struggling to hit the highest notes recently. And among experts there is a sense that Caruana, one year his opponent’s junior, might just spring an upset.
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen is defending the world chess championship against Fabiano Caruana of the United States. The best-of-12-games match is taking place at the College in Holborn between 9 and 28 November, with the winner earning a 60% share of the €1m ($1.14m) prize fund if the match ends in regulation (or 55% if it’s decided by tie-break games).
Carlsen, 27, has been ranked No 1 for eight straight years and was considered the world’s best player even before he defeated Viswanathan Anand for the title in 2013. Caruana, 26, is ranked No 2, having earned his place the table by winning the candidates tournament in March. No American-born player has won or even competed for the world title since Bobby Fischer in 1972.
It marks the first title match between the world’s top two players since 1990, when Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov faced off for a fifth and final time.
The match will consist of 12 classical games with each player awarded one point for a win and a half-point for a draw. Whoever reaches six and a half points first will be declared the champion.
The time control for each game is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 1. Players cannot agree to a draw before Black’s 30th move.
If the match is tied after 12 games, tie-breaks will be played on the final day in the following order:
- Best of four rapid games with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
- If still tied, they will play up to five mini-matches of two blitz games (five minutes for each player with a three-second increment).
- If all five mini-matches are drawn, one sudden-death ‘Armegeddon’ match will be played where White receives five minutes and Black receives four minutes. Both players will receive a three-second increment after the 60th move. In the case of a draw, Black will be declared the winner.
…
“It is like a boxing bout,” admitted Caruana, who was wearing the fashionable US label Thom Browne at the press conference. “There’s unlikely to be a quick knockout, so the aim will be mainly to try and outlast my opponent.”Inevitably, the prospect of psychological warfare on the board came up – understandable given that both players will be sitting barely a metre from each other for up to eight hours a day. During the 1951 world championship match between Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein, for instance, one onlooker noted that at the end of each game both men were “wreathed in beads of sweat, such was their toil”. While during the Moscow Marathon between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov – which lasted five months and 48 games – Karpov lost 10kg in weight.
“Psychology will play a huge part,” Caruana told the Guardian. “Part of Carlsen’s success is that he has a very stable psychological demeanour. He rarely gets rattled, and when he loses a game he brushes it aside. Of course, the fact this is his fourth world championships is also in his favour. I will have to learn on the fly, but I feel I am more than ready for the challenge.”
To prepare for the biggest challenge of his career, Caruana has been running most days and doing yoga in between intense bouts of study. The American is known for his deep opening preparation and finding theoretical novelties that have never been played before – the chess equivalent of a thunderous serve in tennis – as well as deep calculating ability. When Carlsen was asked to describe him in one word he instantly replied, “computer”.
The Norwegian, however, is still widely regarded as the favourite. However, in recent years he seems to have been afflicted by a dangerous search for ultra-perfection. Recently his sister Illen even suggested that, if he loses, “the chance of him retiring, short-term, is a real possibility”.
However, when Carlsen was asked whether he saw himself as the favourite or underdog, the alpha dog in him finally came out. “It has been a while since I have considered myself an underdog, to be honest,” he said, smiling. “If you have been the No1 ranked player in the world for seven years and have won three world titles in a row, then there is something seriously wrong with your psyche, I think.”
It makes for an intriguing contest, especially given Carlsen’s official rating of 2,838 is just three points ahead of his challenger, according to the sport’s governing body, Fide. Most observers expect a long and attritional battle, which is right up the Norwegian’s street given he is famous for suffocating his opponents to a slow death over several hours.
“The ultimate test of mind and body.” Uhh… sure. I write things for fun sometimes.
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