Chess

[DarthFed]

He just threw away another win vs. So. Too bad. He's bulldozing these kids but losing the plot at the end. That's not too surprising.

 

[DarthFed]

4 way tie after 7 rounds, what are the chances of that??

 

[DarthFed]

A loss like that might take the wind out of the sails. Hopefully he doesn't lose the last two games of the day but he is black vs. Naka and white vs. Caruana

 

[DarthFed]

And he had another win vs. Naka but was in time trouble. Damn, it's tough to watch.

 

[DarthFed]

Last game of the day, got to stop the bleeding here.

 

[DarthFed]

Nice win in the last round vs. Caruana. He beat all three of them once and had a couple throwaways vs. So. Not surprised that the old man still has a lot of game.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I love the Kasparov facial gestures. They are incredible.

It's the only redeeming thing for me of watching my favorite player blunder. The eyes growing wide thing is glorious. God, what a great man.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I know it's Blitz and everyone blunders, but if Garry hadn't made this really rudimentary blunders, or at least avoided ONE out of the three, he'd be enjoying the first place, alone, which is pretty incredible.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nf6 was a beautiful move and led to a gorgeous combination. Too bad he ended up giving that game away because that was a one really impressive tour de force.

 

[DarthFed]

This is my all time favorite:

 

[DarthFed]

So just smoked Kasparov in round 10. Really impressive game.

 

[DarthFed]

Kasparov had Naka on the ropes. Ended up a draw after a big time scramble, good defense from Naka to make it tough before time became a huge factor.

 

[DarthFed]

Caruana going up against Kasparov in a Najdorf, opposite side castling. This could be good.

 

[britbox]

I don't follow Chess or play it outside messing around with family or friends... but I'm interested... is their a peak age for chess? You've all expressed surprise that Kasparov can still mix it at this level... why is that? Do Chess players have a sell by date on the top table? and what age is considered "prime" ?

 

[DarthFed]

I wasn't surprised that he could hold his own easily with these guys. Kasparov is still going to be awesome in the openings, he still will be dynamic with tactics and can still calculate the hell out of a position. Add it up and he will still be a handful especially in blitz where the disadvantage of age is less.

His score was about what I would've expected. 9.5/18, maybe a bit above expectations. But his level of play was way above my expectation. His two losses yesterday and just a couple other games out of 18 were ones where he was simply outplayed. Other than that he really outplayed them and could've easily finished something like 12 or 13 out of 18. He was the best player there but the inevitable time trouble of a 5 minute game was always going to cause the old and rusty player more trouble. And he had 3 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws with the #2 in the world and 2 wins, 1 loss and 3 draws vs the #6 who is probably the 2nd best active blitz player in the world. It was very impressive at 53 years old and having been retired for 11 years.

As to your questions usually peak age is early to mid 30's. The big disadvantage as players age is its a lot tougher to focus for up to 6 hours at a time. And it naturally gets tougher over the course of a two week tournament or match.

 

[britbox]

Thanks @Twisted - interesting stuff. Do you think Kasparov could reclaim his world crown if he dedicated himself to Chess again full time?

 

[DarthFed]

Not a chance in hell. Carlsen is a monster. Now if Magnus fell off the face of the Earth who knows, but even then it'd be a long shot. If Kasparov came back tomorrow he'd probably be a top 15 player. If he had never retired he could still be #2, at the very least he'd be top 10 IMO.

 

[britbox]

Would you class him as the Chess GOAT?

 

[DarthFed]

Would you class him as the Chess GOAT?

Kasparov? Definitely, it's hard to make an argument against it really.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Would you class him as the Chess GOAT?

It's not even close.

The chess players to typically be considered for the GOAT debate are Paul Morphy, Capablanca, Fischer, Kasparov, Karpov and Carlsen.

Some of them have easy cases to shoot down. Karpov and Kasparov were at their peaks in more or less the same era, and Kasparov dominated (their overall head to head in terms of games is actually very close, but Kasparov won their most important matches), reached a higher ranking, held the title for longer, etc... which automatically rules out Karpov since he wasn't even the best in his era.

Paul Morphy was insanely talented but he was ahead of his time, playing mostly against amateurs and players who weren't on his level in the 1800's. In fact he was playing before there was ever a chess world championship.

With Carlsen, it's simple: it's still way too soon, although he has the potential to be.

Capablanca is a fascinating case, as his talent is up there with anyone, but he withdrew from chess early and died young. Not to mention, after he lost his world championship to Alekhine which was a huge upset, a rematch could never be arranged (the general consensus even today is that Capablanca would have easily recaptured as his head to head with Alekhine was astounding) and Capablanca continued to be the best in the world even without the title.

And of course, you have Fischer. In terms of talent and contribution, he has a serious case. He's a true pioneer in that he really laid the blueprint as far as opening preparation, physical preparation (he was the first to really emphasize the importance in being in peak physical shape for high level chess, especially leading up to his world championship match with Spasky), and was a true innovator. Probably the most influential player of all time. It says a lot when you're kind of a garbage human being yet everyone is in awe of you. If he hung around, I think the GOAT debate would have been infinitely more interesting, and would have come down to him or Kasparov (for most that's the case now anyway), but I don't see how he can be considered the GOAT when he left the game early. We ultimately go by accomplishments.