Magnus Carlsen wins Game 6; leads Viswanathan Anand 4-2

http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report-magnus-carlsen-wins-game-6-leads-viswanathan-anand-4-2-1920322

by wslh • 13 years ago

52 53 13 years ago

pi-rat5• 13 years ago

The last two games have been really exciting, ending in two straight psychological blows to Anand in situations that should have been clear draws. Shows just how incredibly strong Magnus' end game is.

I wonder how Anand will come back after this, I recon if he does not get a good win in one of the following matches (he is white again on Monday) he won't be able to come back.

tbrake3• 13 years ago

Fortunately for Vishy, Magnus is a fighter who wants to play interesting chess, and this will at least give him a chance as in the 3rd round. Carlsen has unmatched playing strength and I feel if he truly wanted a draw in each of the last six games he could force one and there would be little Anand could do about it. Were he another grandmaster I could see this being the case and it's certainly a legitimate tactic after taking the lead in a game limited match.

Ultimately I think Carlsen will win regardless - he's simply too strong and has been for a long time; if anything the title is overdue to be his.

wslh3• 13 years ago

Ultimately I think Carlsen will win regardless - he's simply too strong and has been for a long time

Is it time for a new generation of competition between Carlsen and machines?

byambatsogt• 13 years ago

I would say Carlsen's stamina is what bringing him the victories. Anand is not being able to keep his concentration on high level after 5 hours of battle. Clearly shows the age difference.

pi-rat5• 13 years ago

Indeed, carlsen is also in incredible good shape in addition to his young age. Regularly works out, plays soccer on the side (and is actually quite good at soccer).

You can see Anand getting tired from sitting in the same position some of the matches, moving about in his chair.

petegrif12• 13 years ago

His stamina is undoubtedly a major strength. And this is allied with his uncanny ability to keep pressure on his opponents in even the most apparently even positions. This pressure mounts and the psychological impact is devastating because his opponent knows that the most tiny inaccuracy will be noted and he will immediately be under still more pressure. This pressure to play perfectly is gruelling over 6-7 hours. The thing that most people don't appreciate is that a player like Carlsen, even against the most phenomenal opponent like Anand, is like a python, the slightest pause for breath, the most minute inaccuracy, and the coils tighten. It's suffocating.

asdfologist3• 13 years ago

That can't explain everything though. Carlsen's playing at a much higher level than Anand ever did in his prime. Even accounting for inflation, Carlsen's ELO is much higher than Anand's ever been.

andrzejkrzywda• 13 years ago

This kind of chess battle doesn't happen very often. We can compare it to Fisher-Spasski or Kasparov-Karpov.

If Carslen wins, this will be a generation change in the chess world.

Given the popularity of chess in Asia, it is estimated that about a billion of people are following this match[1].

[1] http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2013-11/14/mag...

Aqueous2• 13 years ago

It is insane that chess is a worldwide sport/game and still Carlsen only made about $1.2 million USD last year(a lot for me and anyone else I know but for a professional competitor it is quite low). For a sport that a billion people watch you'd think there would be a lot more sponsorships, media attention, etc. It seems professional eating has more invested in it.

Provided the Wikipedia article is correct.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen

pi-rat5• 13 years ago

Probably has a bit to do with the fact that Carlsen doesn't care about money, he only cares about chess. There was a tournament recently where he was offered a draw during the match, taking the draw would be a sure way for him to win the tournament and win the 1. place price money. He didn't, he went into an all in fight to win instead (risking his 1. place) - and pulled it off. Also, his father takes cares of his finances so that he doesn't have to deal with it, AFAIK.

rfnslyr• 13 years ago

Chess is the one game I've tried dedicating time to yet I feel like I still make 0 progress.

antonius• 13 years ago

Same here. I'm guessing the amount of time you need to practice to see any sort of progress is far greater than what I've put in.

tbrake3• 13 years ago

You're right in that there's a mess of openings and endgame theory to know if you want to start competing seriously, but it's also possible to improve your tactical vision - which is the bulk of your practical playing strength - just with daily problem solving. http://chesstempo.com/ is a great site for it (not my site, just one I'm happy to recommend.)

demallien• 13 years ago

I don't know what you mean by progress (you may already be at a level that is considered quite strong by a non-chess player), and I'm not a brilliant chess player myself, but my personal experience was that I very quickly progressed at the beginning, just by learning a decent selection of game openings. If you know enough of them to a decent depth, you first 5-6 moves can be made very quickly without sacrificing position. If you're playing against someone that hasn't studied openings, you have a good chance of creating an insurmountable lead in those first 5-6 moves, as well as saving time for thinking later in the game.

If you're playing against a good player, at least you won't immediately cede the game in the opening.

The next step that I found helpful was to play against a computer, but to have a real board set up, where I could play through different options to see where they lead. Here you have no time limit, so you can really take your time. I found that if I forced myself to take a minimum of five minutes of doing this, I could regularly beat the computer (in this respect it seems a bit binary - at a given difficulty setting, the computer beats you every time, until one day you skill edges past the computer, and now you beat it every time - there doesn't seem to be a phase where the outcome is unsure).

These two tactics advanced my game to a point where I could win about 50% of the time on blitz-chess sites - the good players would still thrash me, and I would completely thrash novices. Getting better from that point seems more difficult though, and seems to revolve around sinking massive amounts of time into the habit. Increasing your opening library knowledge gets exponentially expensive. Improving your mid-game analysis speed also seems to be very slow (although this seems to be linear, not like the opening library). I stopped developing chess at this point because I realized that I wasn't prepared to spend the time needed to become a competitive chess player - I'm good enough that I can beat most non-regular chess players, and that's good enough for me...

petegrif12• 13 years ago

You must have been using a computer from 1960. There is no way that you would ever end up beating a modern chess program for the simple reason that they are now stronger than super GMs.

ritchiea2• 13 years ago

I actually found playing against a computer to be extremely frustrating from the perspective of trying to learn & better my game. Computers simply do not play chess in a style that's comparable to human chess players. Human chess players that are far better than I am and will win 90% of games against me still occasionally miss tactics or fail to evaluate a position properly. That's absolutely not true of a computer by default.

Playing long games was fantastic for improving my chess. Most chess teachers also advocate long games as the best way to improve your game. The two ways I found to play long games, were to go to my local chess club and sign up for tournaments and to play in leagues on ICC, the internet chess club.

deletes• 13 years ago

Oh wow, the games lasted 5-6 hours on average. I though the normal time is 0.5-1.5 hour for a game. The players level of concentration must be immense.

gk1• 13 years ago

A tournament game that lasts just 1.5 hours would be considered a very short game. My longest tournament game was 6 hours. Maintaining razor-sharp focus for that amount of time is incredibly difficult.

richardw2• 13 years ago

One of Carlsen's advantages is that he can keep focused after others have become tired and start making mistakes. At elite level where everyone is able to last many hours, this must be quite a feat. I've seen him referred to as a "grinder".

petegrif12• 13 years ago

That's why modern players train so hard physically. It is an enormous physical strain.

GM King makes this very point in his concluding remarks about the last game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9h1UqIcrUw He agrees that the purely physical advantage of Carlsen is starting to tell.

djb_hackernews• 13 years ago

Is there anywhere to see the moves they play? I know they publish the moves in text format, but I'd like to see the movement visually.

petegrif12• 13 years ago

there are many places www.chessbase.com has great reporting with in depth analysis and photos. and www.chessbomb.com has live coverage with GM analysis. All these kinds of chess sites offer js boards so you can step thru the moves and the analysis. And there is analysis on youtube. This tends to be of uneven quality tho. I recommend powerplay chess channel with Adrian King - a GM.

kbelbina• 13 years ago

All the games with commentary / analysis:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thechesswebsite

S4M• 13 years ago

Here's a live retransmission from the official website of the match: http://chennai2013.fide.com/anand-carsen-game-1-live-analysi...

skore• 13 years ago

If you want to check out the games so far: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=81142

Phew, game #2 is a real blood bath: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1736633

Joona• 13 years ago

If anyone is interested watching the games live, I can recommend ChessNetwork[1], or alternatively the official stream[2].

[1] http://www.twitch.tv/chessnetwork

[2] http://chennai2013.fide.com/anand-carlsen-video-with-comment...

known• 13 years ago

Anand should retire and pass on the baton to younger generation.

middleclick• 13 years ago

I have never understood what such statements mean. I mean, he is not holding people back by saying, "hey! you don't get to play till I am here!"

amogh10• 13 years ago

Exactly my point.

petegrif12• 13 years ago

Why? He is still a great player.

amix• 13 years ago

Here's some great commentary of game 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvToX22oG8s

Magnus Carlsen wins Game 6; leads Viswanathan Anand 4-2

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