Or, the Carlsen Watch continues. The Bosna event has been scaled down year by year. This edition is a six-player double round-robin. Despite the lack of 2700 horseflesh, it's no wimpfest. Three 2690's plus Dortmund winner Naiditsch and the doubtlessly underrated Carlsen. The outsider is Borki Predojević, a local teen hope. He kept his head above water in the last two events, although scoring a win here will be a triumph.
Can someone please tell me why Carlsen is "doubtlessly underrated"?
Very young players usually outpace the list. Carlsen has outperformed his rating consistently lately, often by a wide margin. Of course it's no guarantee he'll do so again here, or every time out, but he seems to still be on the rise.
The Hindu had an article on how Sasikiran is planning to use this tournament to get past 2700. Apparently he needs to score 7/10 to do that.
In that case, he will surely have to be a little bit more careful about blowing it in time trouble.
In the game against Predojevic, he had 60 seconds left on his clock wondering whether he should play 40.Qc8 with a draw by perpetual. Then with 3 seconds left on the clock, he made the move, but instead he tipped over his queen causing him to lose on time...
0/2 so far.
horseflesh....lol. Dinner time!
Carlsen Watch, Other Voices Dept.:
I just finished the latest Dvoretsky article for ChessCafe. Posting was delayed, because Mark wanted to add a postscript to it. In the PS, he says he just got back from a visit to Norway.
Now, why would the World's Greatest Chess Coach pay a personal visit to Norway?! And in talking about it, specifically mention GM Simen "I-Wrote-A-Book-About-My-Student-Magnus-Titled-'Wonderboy" Agdestein?
My money says that Carlsen Sr. has, or will shortly, engage the priceless services of Mark Dvoretsky Inc. to kick Magnus' chess up to the World Championship Candidate level. Watch for the announcement....
Fluff, where do you think Mig was when he was doing that "project" a couple weeks ago that took him away from making any new posts here for an entire week?
My guess is, Dvoretsky is just following in the footsteps of the Chief Ninja, in joining Magnus' fast-growing stable of advisers/trainers.
Best time to get on the bandwagon/gravy train...
I'm afraid Dvoretsky's visit to Norway wasn't all that personal. He was in Norway from the 3rd to the 9th of May, by invitation from the Norwegian chess federation. He had training sessions with the Norwegian Olympiad teams as well as clubs in the Oslo area. Not saying it's impossible that he is going to work with Magnus Carlsen, but at least that was not his main reason for coming to Norway.
Also, there's an intereseting quote from the latest issue of Norwegian Chess Magazine:
"NCM: But you are still pleased with the second best Nordic chess player [Peter Heine Nielsen] as your coach. Do you have plans to supplement with coaching from Russian world stars, as has been rumoured?
Carlsen: No, and that's a conscious decision. The cultural differences to the Russian chess school are very large, and considering the playing style I also have some doubts about the usefulness of training there. I play a lot more intuition based than the Russian chess school requires."
Thanks for the quote, KB - not likely I was gonna see that, as I don't speak/read Norsk! :-)
The comment from Magnus is pretty straightforward and believable. Translated: I find good moves all by myself, thank you; who wants to spoil this god-given talent with all that Russian-style hard work?
I predict this problem with "cultural differences" will last until he hits The Wall (or the Glass Ceiling) and wants Really Bad to win the Candidates'.
Assuming, of course, that Illusionov ever does manage to stage a Candidates' series.
At the halfway mark, Carlsen shares the lead with Malakhov and Nisipeanu, all three at +1; Magnus is first by Berger, for what it's worth.
Krishnan "Needs 7/10 to make 2700" Sasikiran has 2/5, which I guess means he'll need 5/5 in the second leg. Something is telling me that Carlsen is going to join Club-2700 before Sasi does.