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Has it not occurred to anyone that maybe Carlsen is just bored? It takes effort to tie 12 straight games between two world champions. Additionally, it is not

Has it not occurred to anyone that maybe Carlsen is just bored? It takes effort to tie 12 straight games between two world champions. Additionally, it is not in Carlsen's best interest to finish the tournament. During the tournament he is a super star. After the tournament he is just some guy who has a chess trophy (i.e. most people in real life don't care). Maybe he is just testing himself with some criteria that is harder than "just winning... again"? Maybe he just wants to prolong his time in the spotlight? Create some drama, have people talk about the year where every game, including Armageddon, ended in a draw!

mindgam3 8y ago
Honestly this seems closest to the truth. His attitude and body language at the press conference communicated utter boredom for the whole proceedings. As a chess fan I admit I’m eager to see a rapid tiebreaks. I just didn’t want to get here like this.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
williamscales 8y ago
I heard a story (not sure if it's true) when I was a fencer. At one time in fencing, there was a rule about inactivity. If you refused to fence, the period ended and the next period started. There are three periods. If all three periods ended this way, it went to a one point suddend death matchoff. Well, one individual felt he liked to win with a lot of panache. As I heard it, he would deliberately incur three inactivity penalties to send the match to a one point sudden death where he would try to pull off a daring victory. So I think there is precedent for the idea of really skilled competitors thirsting for something more thrilling.
- tedunangst 8y ago
  I thought it was a baseball player in the ninth inning who watched two strikes sail by before swinging at the last pitch.
- dbt00 8y ago
  This is actually somewhat common in epee competitions (i.e. I've seen it multiple times in national level tournaments), because they are high variance and defense is hugely advantaged. It's also a reasonable strategy because a tournament can run up to 9 rounds of single elimination, so committing to this strategy means you expend only 1 minute of effort per round, instead of 9.
EGreg 8y ago
Additionally, it is not in Carlsen's best interest to finish the tournament. During the tournament he is a super star. After the tournament he is just some guy who has a chess trophy (i.e. most people in real life don't care). This!
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  No, it doesn't make any sense at all. The only people that care about Carlsen during the tournament are the same people who care about Carlsen not during the tournament - chess fans.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    I don't agree. Having the focussed attention of those fans is different. Also there's a euphoria associated with being involved ina large event that means when it ends there's a sense of loss, normality is so humdrum it's depressing. I can see someone curtailing that return to normality by all means.
    - Kaveren 8y ago
      Magnus Carlsen is widely considered to be one of the very best chess players of all time, and it's more than respectable to consider him the Greatest of All Time. World Chess Championships are every two years. It's almost impossibly unlikely that someone like Carlsen (who is also very competitive) would deliberately prolong an event like this.
      - EGreg 8y ago
        Carlsen is also temperamental and unorthodox. I really like that about him. He is also a good looking guy who gets girls fawning over him. For him to answer the press in short Nos is funny. For him to want to do more games with Fabiano and crush him in rapid is a great and FUN decision. Obviously he could win that game but he wants to have more fun. And we all have more fun. Instead of winning and going home he wants to do something new. It’s been a long match w unprecedented draws. Why end it now? I would have done the same :) Think about this... comparing it to taking a draw to win the tournament when you could win the game but risk losing - IS SILLY. THAT is cowardly. Taking a draw when there would be nothing afterwards and you retain the title - that’s cowardly. This... IS FUN!!
marvin 8y ago
As a non-chess-fan but casual observer, I would say that this is what sports showmanship really looks like. This is Petter Northug jr. (a fellow Norwegian; controversial cross-country skier and Olympic champion) playing chess. The big fame and sponsor money is not in _merely_ being the best in the world, it's in winning while pushing the creative limits of the sport and causing a fair amount of drama and controversy. Carlsen gets more out of this than winning in the 12th game, both on a personal level and in terms of notoriety and sponsorship interest. This does not conflict with being bored, or with pushing the boundaries of the format! Like trying to re-play your favorite computer game, but placing artificial limitations on yourself to make it more interesting. If it gets all the fans and observers riled up, all the better! It's well within the rules! Besides, what if he screws up in the later matches, in spite of the odds? The pressure is still on, which makes the entertainment value even better!0
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  I love the idea that he's so next-level that he's playing the game of 'playing the game of chess' (sic). That he's playing with a view not only of winning by also of winning at being a chess champion. I used to wonder if the likes of McEnroe (80s tennis player) courted controversy with aggression that ran the boundary of acceptable behaviour in order to - win or lose - be the one everyone was talking about.
leesec 8y ago
I do not think this is the case at all. The games were all very close, with no side gaining more than a +2 ( a 2 pawn equivalent ) advantage. He actually seemed extremely nervous of losing during game 10. It's hard to say why he called off game 12 earlier than usual but in his words he was basically rattled, and proceeding any further may open him up to defeat so he just chose to take the safer route of heading to the blitz match where is the favorite.
- yazaddaruvala 8y ago
  What if his "mistakes" were intentional? And his thrill is the nervousness brought about by not wanting to lose after putting himself into a previously un-winnable situation?
rtkwe 8y ago
I don't know if we need to be that meta or cynical about his decision to draw here. He's also just much better than Caruana at rapid and blitz (Elo rating of 2880 and 2939 respectively) while Caruana gets noticeably worse (2789 and 2767 respectively) as the time pressure increases. Ending the game early to avoid surprises and moving to a type of game where you've got a significant advantage over your opponent makes a lot of sense.

mindgam3 8y ago

Honestly this seems closest to the truth. His attitude and body language at the press conference communicated utter boredom for the whole proceedings. As a chess fan I admit I’m eager to see a rapid tiebreaks. I just didn’t want to get here like this.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

williamscales 8y ago

I heard a story (not sure if it's true) when I was a fencer. At one time in fencing, there was a rule about inactivity. If you refused to fence, the period ended and the next period started. There are three periods. If all three periods ended this way, it went to a one point suddend death matchoff. Well, one individual felt he liked to win with a lot of panache. As I heard it, he would deliberately incur three inactivity penalties to send the match to a one point sudden death where he would try to pull off a daring victory. So I think there is precedent for the idea of really skilled competitors thirsting for something more thrilling.

tedunangst 8y ago
I thought it was a baseball player in the ninth inning who watched two strikes sail by before swinging at the last pitch.
dbt00 8y ago
This is actually somewhat common in epee competitions (i.e. I've seen it multiple times in national level tournaments), because they are high variance and defense is hugely advantaged. It's also a reasonable strategy because a tournament can run up to 9 rounds of single elimination, so committing to this strategy means you expend only 1 minute of effort per round, instead of 9.

EGreg 8y ago

Additionally, it is not in Carlsen's best interest to finish the tournament. During the tournament he is a super star. After the tournament he is just some guy who has a chess trophy (i.e. most people in real life don't care). This!

oh_sigh 8y ago
No, it doesn't make any sense at all. The only people that care about Carlsen during the tournament are the same people who care about Carlsen not during the tournament - chess fans.
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  I don't agree. Having the focussed attention of those fans is different. Also there's a euphoria associated with being involved ina large event that means when it ends there's a sense of loss, normality is so humdrum it's depressing. I can see someone curtailing that return to normality by all means.
  - Kaveren 8y ago
    Magnus Carlsen is widely considered to be one of the very best chess players of all time, and it's more than respectable to consider him the Greatest of All Time. World Chess Championships are every two years. It's almost impossibly unlikely that someone like Carlsen (who is also very competitive) would deliberately prolong an event like this.
    - EGreg 8y ago
      Carlsen is also temperamental and unorthodox. I really like that about him. He is also a good looking guy who gets girls fawning over him. For him to answer the press in short Nos is funny. For him to want to do more games with Fabiano and crush him in rapid is a great and FUN decision. Obviously he could win that game but he wants to have more fun. And we all have more fun. Instead of winning and going home he wants to do something new. It’s been a long match w unprecedented draws. Why end it now? I would have done the same :) Think about this... comparing it to taking a draw to win the tournament when you could win the game but risk losing - IS SILLY. THAT is cowardly. Taking a draw when there would be nothing afterwards and you retain the title - that’s cowardly. This... IS FUN!!

marvin 8y ago

As a non-chess-fan but casual observer, I would say that this is what sports showmanship really looks like. This is Petter Northug jr. (a fellow Norwegian; controversial cross-country skier and Olympic champion) playing chess. The big fame and sponsor money is not in _merely_ being the best in the world, it's in winning while pushing the creative limits of the sport and causing a fair amount of drama and controversy. Carlsen gets more out of this than winning in the 12th game, both on a personal level and in terms of notoriety and sponsorship interest. This does not conflict with being bored, or with pushing the boundaries of the format! Like trying to re-play your favorite computer game, but placing artificial limitations on yourself to make it more interesting. If it gets all the fans and observers riled up, all the better! It's well within the rules! Besides, what if he screws up in the later matches, in spite of the odds? The pressure is still on, which makes the entertainment value even better!0

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
I love the idea that he's so next-level that he's playing the game of 'playing the game of chess' (sic). That he's playing with a view not only of winning by also of winning at being a chess champion. I used to wonder if the likes of McEnroe (80s tennis player) courted controversy with aggression that ran the boundary of acceptable behaviour in order to - win or lose - be the one everyone was talking about.

leesec 8y ago

I do not think this is the case at all. The games were all very close, with no side gaining more than a +2 ( a 2 pawn equivalent ) advantage. He actually seemed extremely nervous of losing during game 10. It's hard to say why he called off game 12 earlier than usual but in his words he was basically rattled, and proceeding any further may open him up to defeat so he just chose to take the safer route of heading to the blitz match where is the favorite.

yazaddaruvala 8y ago
What if his "mistakes" were intentional? And his thrill is the nervousness brought about by not wanting to lose after putting himself into a previously un-winnable situation?

rtkwe 8y ago

I don't know if we need to be that meta or cynical about his decision to draw here. He's also just much better than Caruana at rapid and blitz (Elo rating of 2880 and 2939 respectively) while Caruana gets noticeably worse (2789 and 2767 respectively) as the time pressure increases. Ending the game early to avoid surprises and moving to a type of game where you've got a significant advantage over your opponent makes a lot of sense.