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The reason Magnus is not defending his title has nothing to do with some decline in ability. Last game versus Nepomniachtchi he won quite convincingly 7.5 to 3.

by Tryk 4y ago

The reason Magnus is not defending his title has nothing to do with some decline in ability. Last game versus Nepomniachtchi he won quite convincingly 7.5 to 3.5. >“I feel I don’t have a lot to gain, I don’t particularly like [the championship matches], and although I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons and all of that, I don’t have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match,” he said on his sponsor’s podcast. [https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112479750/magnus-carlsen-world-chess-championship-fide https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112479750/magnus-carlsen-wor...]

somenameforme 4y ago
For a man that loves winning and competing as much as Magnus I find it difficult to imagine he wouldn't be playing if he felt himself a significant favorite. His last opponent is a character with a well deserved reputation for implosion. He was playing no less worse than Magnus for 6 games, in a 12 game match. He then lost a single hard fought game and did his thing, blowing up and losing 3 of the next 5 games with abysmal (by his standards) play. That could happen again, but I think it unlikely and I'd say Magnus does as well. Nepo seems to have improved his mental game, and has been in great form as well - having just dominated a very strong field in the candidates with the highest score in modern times. Carlsen is very strong, but his title defenses have never really reflected that - ironically with the most recent exception. In the two defenses prior, he only managed to draw the classical section and relied on tiebreaks. His defeat is all but inevitable, and I think he wanted to go out undefeated. I think the one opponent he was hoping to be able to play against was Alireza Firouzja. Alireza is young and will probably become a world champion contender at some point. But Magnus would have been able to count on Alireza collapsing under the unique pressures of a world championship match and let Magnus then go out on top having undefeated having defeated champions from 3 generations. Instead Alireza collapsed at the candidates, scoring less than 50% in spite of being the (at the time) 2nd highest rated player in the world.

by Tryk 4y ago

somenameforme 4y ago

For a man that loves winning and competing as much as Magnus I find it difficult to imagine he wouldn't be playing if he felt himself a significant favorite. His last opponent is a character with a well deserved reputation for implosion. He was playing no less worse than Magnus for 6 games, in a 12 game match. He then lost a single hard fought game and did his thing, blowing up and losing 3 of the next 5 games with abysmal (by his standards) play. That could happen again, but I think it unlikely and I'd say Magnus does as well. Nepo seems to have improved his mental game, and has been in great form as well - having just dominated a very strong field in the candidates with the highest score in modern times. Carlsen is very strong, but his title defenses have never really reflected that - ironically with the most recent exception. In the two defenses prior, he only managed to draw the classical section and relied on tiebreaks. His defeat is all but inevitable, and I think he wanted to go out undefeated. I think the one opponent he was hoping to be able to play against was Alireza Firouzja. Alireza is young and will probably become a world champion contender at some point. But Magnus would have been able to count on Alireza collapsing under the unique pressures of a world championship match and let Magnus then go out on top having undefeated having defeated champions from 3 generations. Instead Alireza collapsed at the candidates, scoring less than 50% in spite of being the (at the time) 2nd highest rated player in the world.