Three and a Half Cycles

While preparing for the previous post (see the last link below, 'Berlin Candidates - Wrapup'), I assembled a collection of links to similar posts for past events. This was primarily with an eye on maintaining consistency, but the list has other uses, too.

C25: Candidates

• 2013-03-27: London Candidates - Second Week • Includes links to Chessbase & Chessvibes reports for all rounds.
• 2013-04-10: London Candidates - Wrapup

C25: Title Match

• 2013-12-03: Carlsen - Anand, Chess Press Overview • Chessbase & Chessvibes
• 2013-12-04: Carlsen - Anand, Wrapup

C26: Candidates

• 2014-04-09: Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Wrapup • also 'Chess Press Overview': Chessbase & Chessvibes

C26: Title Match

• 2014-12-09: Carlsen - Anand II, Chess Press Overview • Chessbase & Chess.com
• 2014-12-10: Carlsen - Anand II, Wrapup

C27: Candidates

• 2016-04-13: Moscow Candidates - Wrapup • also 'Chess Press Overview': Chessbase & Chess24

C27: Title Match

• 2016-12-13: Carlsen - Karjakin, Chess Press Overview • Chessbase & Chess.com
• 2016-12-14: Carlsen - Karjakin, Wrapup

C28: Candidates

• 2018-04-19: Berlin Candidates - Chess Press Overview • Chessbase & Chess.com
• 2018-04-25: Berlin Candidates - Wrapup

C28: Title Match

• 2018-11-xx: Carlsen - Caruana, London

Only six months to wait before I can start filling in that last list...

Berlin Candidates - First Week

As I write this, three rounds of the 2018 Candidates Tournament, Berlin have been played. At this point in past Candidate tournaments, I displayed a crosstable and added a bit of commentary. Let's do it differently this time. Given the results of the last three Candidate tournaments, what do the current standings say about each player's chance of ultimately winning the event?

The following chart shows the cumulative score by round for each of the last three tournaments. If the details are too small to read, you can find the same tables on three pages:-

• 2013 London
• 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk
• 2016 Moscow

The winners of each event are circled in red (in 2013 Carlsen beat Kramnik on tiebreak), as are the players with a plus score after round 3. I've also indicated the leaders after round 7, the halfway point of the tournament, when the participants have played each other once.

In all three tournaments, the eventual winner was from the group of players who had a plus score after round 3. The winner was also one of the leaders after the first half of the tournament. The following table shows the leaders after round 3 in the 2018 Berlin Candidates.

2.5 Kramnik
2.0 Caruana, Mamedyarov
1.5 Ding Liren, Grischuk
1.0 Aronian, Karjakin
0.5 Wesley So

If past is prologue (it's usually not!), then the eventual winner will be one of Kramnik, Caruana, or Mamedyarov. It's curious to note that in each of the last three events, GM Aronian was one of the leaders at mid-point, then faltered in the second half. It's also curious that the ultimate winning score was always 8.5-5.5, or plus-three as they say in the lingo.

'The Best Mind Wins'

Last month brought the unexpected news that Andrew Paulson had passed away: Andrew Paulson, 1958-2017 (chess.com; Mike Klein):-

Andrew Paulson, the founder of Agon Limited and the man with a vision for the growth of top-level chess, died Tuesday from cancer. He was 59.

For more than a year, Paulson played an important role in the development of the World Chess Championship. His first mention on this blog was almost five years ago, when I critiqued the first announcement from Agon.

• 2012-08-29: Evolution of a Press Release • 'The chess world has cut Paulson a lot of slack, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Ilyumzhinov has finally discovered a worthy commercial partner.'

I received a response a few weeks later.

Sent: September 15, 2012
Subject: Recent Blog
From: Andrew Paulson

I read (with interest and pain) your comparison blog from August 29th. It's an uphill battle trying to bring up to speed our PR agency in chess terminology and establishing for them the tone I feel appropriate for communicating with a wide range of media outlets. Where they got 'fixture' instead of 'tournament' is a mystery to me!

However, we are working to try to find more interesting formats for staging chess than a proscenium stage with a couple of cafeteria tables and a plastic backdrop cluttered with logos of never-before-heard-of sponsors. You may have seen on various sites a rendering of a purpose-built arena Pentagram has been working on. And we are (for the moment) calling it the cockpit as this alludes both to 'cockfight' and to the knobs and dials and gauges that one finds in the cockpit of an airplane (with which we will be adorning the status screen in the playing hall from March).

We didn't 'buy' the commercial rights, per se, as our relationship with FIDE is a revenue sharing agreement; I felt that this should be corrected. And, although the deal is exclusive, I thought that it was a bit 'in your face' to boast about it so I toned it down.

I do recognise and appreciate the slack being cut!

Agon had been in the public eye since the beginning of 2012. I backfilled the gap in the next post.

• 2012-09-05: C25 Candidates & C26 Grand Prix • 'Following is a series of relevant articles from Chessvibes.com.'

There was a flurry of activity around Agon and Paulson in the following months, during which I documented Agon's first event in 2012-2013 Grand Prix, London (October 2012).

• 2012-09-26: Agon's Paulson at the FIDE General Assembly
• 2012-10-24: The Agon Schedule
• 2012-11-21: 2012 FIDE General Assembly : Whither the World Championship?
• 2013-01-03: What Is Going on Here?
• 2013-01-30: Agon Chief-of-Staff Robert Fontaine
• 2013-03-06: A House Divided
• 2013-03-20: London Candidates - First Week

I summarized posts about the Candidates tournament in London Candidates - Wrapup (April 2013). The next mention of Agon was negative.

• 2013-07-17: Catching up with FIDE • 'To approve the proposal of Mr. Makropoulos to authorize the FIDE President to take the personal decision as to whether to terminate the contract with Agon.'

Agon went into eclipse and there was little news.

• 2013-12-18: 2013 FIDE Executive Board : Whither the World Championship? • 'We can only assume that both projects [CNC and Agon] are going the way of all previous FIDE commercial endeavors.'
• 2014-12-24: 2014 FIDE General Assembly : Whither the World Championship? • '4.5. Agon. Annex 13 is a letter from Agon with a change in the Agon/FIDE interface team.'

It took me nearly a year to come back to that letter in 2016 Candidates, Moscow (November 2015), where I quoted it:-

It was the company's responsibility [Agon] to appoint two individuals to represent the Company on the Interface Team referred to in the Agreement and that following the change of ownership of the Company, and the resignation of Mr Andrew Paulson as a director of the Company, it was suggested that Mr Paulson should be removed as a representative of the Company on the Interface Team and that Mr Ilya Merenzon and Mr Maryey Shekhovtsov be appointed as the Company's representatives with immediate effect.

The story had already assumed the qualities of a soap opera, which I followed on my main blog.

• 2014-02-06: Chess Leaks Like a Sieve • 'A few days later, Tim Rayment (TheSundayTimes.co.uk) brought news of a 2012 deal between Ilyumzhinov and Andrew Paulson of Agon'
• 2014-11-20: Carlsen - Anand II : Rumblings • Livemint.com: 'Andrew Paulson, the founder of Agon, who until about a year ago was the principal promoter of the sport and described himself as the chief executive of world chess, has sold the firm to an associate, Ilya Merenzon, for £1.'

Another obituary, Andrew Paulson, Chess Impresario and Serial Entrepreneur, Dies at 58 (nytimes.com; July 2017), reported,

[Agon's] first major event, the 2013 London Candidates’ Tournament, was widely considered a success on the basis of the sponsors who underwrote the costs and the audience it drew. After that tournament, though, Mr. Paulson, reportedly already ailing, was unable to generate the sort of buzz that might have transformed the game into a profitable venture with pizazz, technical wizardry and marketing slogans like "The Best Mind Wins."

If Ilyumzhinov had indeed 'finally discovered a worthy commercial partner', the time was too short to make much of a difference. RIP, Andrew Paulson.

Zonal Qualifiers C25-C26

Continuing with Small Projects for 2015, the next project isn't so small. In Zonal Index Update 2014-10-15, I mentioned, 'List players qualifying to the next stage', i.e. players qualifying from the zonals to the next stage of a World Championship cycle. Since 1997, the next stage has been a knockout tournament.

I have many documents collected on my hard disk, but how to organize them? I started with the two most recent cycles:-

• C25: Zonal Qualifiers 2010-2011
• C26: Zonal Qualifiers 2012-2013

Each page has two parts. The first part gives some info about the source of the list. The second part gives the list of qualified players as published by FIDE. I'll continue backwards in time to see how this works for previous cycles. The new pages aren't yet linked from any other page. That will happen when I'm happy with the structure.

Books on the Carlsen - Anand Matches

Anyone interested in a book on one or both of the Carlsen - Anand title matches? I imagine many people are, so let's take a look at what's available. Amazon.com currently lists five titles. I've grouped them here by author, with links to the corresponding Amazon pages.

Karsten Müller

• Carlsen - Anand 2013: Match for the World Chess Championship; Aug 15, 2014

Jon Edwards

• Magnus Carlsen v Viswanathan Anand: The 2013 World Chess Championship (Chess is Fun Book 37); Nov 25, 2013
• The Carlsen - Anand Rematch: The 2014 World Chess Championship (Chess is Fun Book 35); Dec 9, 2014

Raymond Keene and Anastasiya Karlovich

• Carlsen - Anand Match for the World Chess Championship; Dec 19, 2013
• Magnus Carlsen - Viswanathan Anand 2014 Re-Match for the World Chess Championship; Dec 19, 2014

Bookfinder.com lists only the Keene / Karlovich titles: Title is anand carlsen; Book is written in English. Why is that? The Müller and Edwards titles are listed on Amazon as 'Kindle Edition', implying that they are only available in digital format.

The two Keene / Karlovich works are both listed on Amazon as 'Publisher: Ishi Press'. I am extremely reluctant to buy anything published by that outfit, not just because the book on the 2013 match has two stars (out of five) based on three customer reviews, while the book on the 2014 match has one-and-a half stars on two reviews.

I already have one book by Ishi Press: ELISTA DIARIES: Karpov-Kamsky, Karpov-Anand, Anand Mexico City 2007 World Chess Championship Matches by Anatoly Karpov and Ron Henley; December 5, 2007. The Karpov / Henley writings, which make up the bulk of the book, are first rate, but the rest is not.

For example, the last page of the book discusses the following photo. The discussion is signed 'Sam Sloan'.

'Hot Tomalis [sic] on the Mexican Professional Chess Player circuit?'

'Nondescript women'? Before reading Sloan's petty, sexist writeup, many players would recognize Arianne Caoili and Aruna Anand. They might also wonder what they have to do with the Karpov / Henley material. In a word, they have *nothing* to do with it.

Back to the Keene / Karlovich works, the name Raymond Keene also raises a red flag. I have a number of his books on title matches, which I listed in World Championship Bibliography. While I wouldn't mind buying another work in his series, other knowledgeable chess fans wouldn't go near them.

The names Ishi and Keene taken together convince me to keep my money in my wallet. Buyer beware.

Label Maintenance

The LABELS listed to the right -- C00:1946-48, C01:1949-51, etc. -- are a useful technique to group posts dealing with a specific World Championship cycle. For many years the numbering was straightforward: one cycle ended and the following year another started. This worked until the infamous C15:1991-93 cycle, when the World Championship split into two because of the Kasparov - Short title match. The scheduling of title events became increasingly erratic.

After the title reunification in C22:2005-07, the scheduling started to improve slowly, but for a number of cycles the chess world was faced with overlapping cycles where a new cycle started before the previous cycle had finished. For example, the 2009 World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk (C24) was played before the 2010 Anand - Topalov title match of the previous cycle (C23).

When I started this blog in 2007, I was never sure how long a cycle was going to last. When a new cycle started I used a question mark ('?') to indicate the end of a cycle, e.g. C25:2011-?. When a cycle finished, I could eliminate the '?', but after Blogger.com changed its interface a few years ago, I wasn't sure how to do this without changing each post separately. Fortunately, a technique for a global change exists and I used it to close the most recent cycles, e.g. C25:2011-13.

Now that FIDE has brought the World Championship into a steady two year cycle, we can predict when a cycle will end, making the question mark unnecessary. I eliminated it for the current cycle C27:2015-16, and hope that FIDE will be able to maintain a two-year rhythm. World class chess needs the stability.

[Reference: A post on Google.com, I have a question about my labels..., explains the technique for making a global change to labels.]

Looking Forward to Carlsen - Anand II

In my previous post, Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Wrapup, I wondered,

Is this really the last post for the Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates? I wouldn't bet on it.

Good thing I didn't bet on it. First I updated my pages on World Chess Championship : Index of Players, to add the Candidates tournament. Then, with Carlsen - Anand II in mind, I went back to my Carlsen - Anand Wrapup post from December 2013 to review Match Resources.

The Google News search on 'Anand Carlsen' brought up over 1500 recent results, including an article from TheHindu.com, It will be a different match this time: Anand. It started,

For Viswanathan Anand, the wounds of the world championship defeat have healed, and the emotional turmoil has settled. Now, with uncluttered mind and renewed vigour, the five-time world champion is keen to return the favour to Magnus Carlsen when they meet again later this year in another summit clash.

"I have a fairly good idea what I want to change (about my game), and what went wrong (in Chennai). I will choose my team accordingly. I am waiting for the bid (for the world championship match venue) and I will have a clearer idea after that," said Anand at a promotional event here on Wednesday.

That sounds like the Anand that ruled the roost before the disastrous match with Carlsen. Their next encounter should be even more spell binding.

Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - First Week

The eight candidates vying for the chance to play Carlsen for the World Championship are off and running. After five rounds the standings are shown in the following table, taken from the official site, Candidates Tournament 2014.

In a comment to last week's post, Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Kickoff, I noted,

If we substitute Anand for Carlsen, the top four finishers at the 2013 London Candidates are also playing in the 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates. The bottom four finishers have been replaced by four different players.

The top four finishers at 2013 London are currently occupying the first four places at 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk. Coincidence? Definitely. With nine rounds still to be played, anything can happen.

Last year Carlsen edged Kramnik on tiebreak, earning the right to challenge Anand. This year's tiebreaks, identical to the system used last year, are shown in the table under the 'Res', 'Vict', and 'SB' column headers. Their meaning is found in the 'Rules & Regulations' for the tournament.

3.7 Tie-breaks

If the top two or more players score the same points, the tie will be decided by the following criteria, in order of priority:
a) The results of the games between the players involved in the tie.

If they are still tied:
b) The total number of wins in the tournament of every player involved in the tie.

If they are still tied:
c) Sonneborn-Berger System.

If there is no clear winner with the above 3 criteria, there will be a special competition between the players who still remain tied after using the 3rd criteria (Sonneborn-Berger) [...]

Although the players in Khanty-Mansiysk are giving their best efforts, the competition lacks some of the heat felt in London. This is due to several factors.

First, Carlsen isn't playing. In 2013 the number one question was 'will he qualify for a match with Anand?', followed by 'if he qualifies, will he win?'. Carlsen was the favorite and everyone knew it. In 2014 the number one question is 'who will qualify?'. There are at least four players who have a chance of winning, and before the tournament started, their chances were considered roughly equal. Ditto for their chances against Carlsen. Against any one of them, the Norwegian GM will be the heavy favorite.

Second, London is one of the world's major cities, while Khanty-Mansiysk is somewhere in Siberia. Media attention is sadly lacking and we won't see any interviews on BBC or CNN while the tournament is taking place.

***

Later: The sixth round has finished. Two of the top-four players were beaten by two of the bottom-four. Anand is at plus-two, Aronian at plus-one, Karjakin at minus-one, and Andreikin at minus-two. The other four players have even scores. Tomorrow is a free day and then we have three games on the weekend: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You can be sure I'll be watching.

Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Kickoff

The Candidates Tournament starts this week, so let's have some links:-

• Candidates Tournament 2014; Official site
• Current local time in Russia – Khanty-Mansiysk
• 2014 Candidates Event; My site

Here's a table with links to Chessgames.com showing how the eight participants have scored in play against each other and against World Champion Carlsen:-

	Ana	And	Aro	Kar	Kra	Mam	Svi	Top	:	Car
Anand	xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Andreikin		xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Aronian			xx	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Karjakin				xx	*	*	*	*	:	*
Kramnik					xx	*	*	*	:	*
Mamedyarov						xx	*	*	:	*
Svidler							xx	*	:	*
Topalov								xx	:	*
Carlsen									:	xx

If you are wondering why this tournament is taking place only one year after last year's Candidates Tournament (see London Candidates - Wrapup for the coverage on my blogs), you aren't alone. Here's a snippet from the index page of my site showing all World Championship events since the unification match in 2006.

The World Cups have been held every two years since 2005. The title matches for those cycles have been held *after* the World Cup for the following cycle. This cycle will be the first in the unified series where the title match takes place *before* the World Cup of the following cycle. This makes the cycles easier to follow and to understand and is a good move on FIDE's part. The chess world now has a *non-overlapping* two-year championship cycle.

2013 FIDE Executive Board : Whither the World Championship?

In past years, my annual look at documents published by FIDE about the World Championship -- last year's post was 2012 FIDE General Assembly : Whither the World Championship? -- has given me a good choice of material for this blog. This year, the documents from the 84th FIDE Congress Executive Board (EB), Tallinn, Estonia, in October, were less interesting, especially in comparison with, for example, the material on Ethics and Cheating.

I ended the '2012 Whither' post with a comparison of FIDE's two most recent attempts to commercialize its activities: Chess News Corporation (CNC) in 2009, and Agon in 2012.

I expect that any future 'Whither' posts will have little to say about CNC and much to say about Agon. Their London Grand Prix was a definite success and the Tashkent event starts today. The London Candidate matches in March will mark a clean break between the pre-Agon and Agon eras of chess history.

Let's look at the CNC and Agon in the 2013 EB. The first mention of either was during Ilyumzhinov's review of the past year.

1. Report of the President. President K. Ilyumzhinov presented his annual report. [...] As for our cooperation with Agon, both events in London took place with their active participation and its President A. Paulson, managed to succeed in several aspects, i.e. Chess Casting held during the London Candidates. He cooperated with Pentagram company, a leader in chess design, on a new design of chess pieces, you can find these on sale at the Harrods in London.

Mr. Paulson also had negotiations with Microsoft, Google etc. We are working towards bringing corporate sponsorship into chess and we think that during the match in Chennai, several important agreements will be signed. Large companies need much more time to prepare such detailed contracts.

That's not much, given that Agon was to be responsible for World Championship events over the next dozen years. No 'important agreements' were announced in Chennai, and for the next big event, Agon's presence is minimal.

5.20.3. FIDE Candidates’ Matches 2014. The dates should be 12-30 March 2014. [...] Mr. N. Freeman briefed the Board and said that there has been declaration of interests from Khanty-Mansiysk and Bulgaria, because the right to award the events belongs to Agon. [Long discussion of the circumstances around the two bids.] Mr. G. Makropoulos said this moment, with the situation we have in Agon, we could make a decision, negotiating on behalf of them at this moment.

What does Makropoulos mean by the 'the situation we have in Agon'? That had been discussed earlier along with the single reference to the CNC.

4. Administrative matters. [...]

4.4. CNC. Mr. G. Makropoulos presented his report.

4.5. Agon. Mr. G. Makropoulos informed the Executive Board about its activities

That's the entire content of the minutes on those two subjects. In contrast to the lengthy discussions on other important matters, usually further documented in an annex or two, the minutes offer two brief sentences. We can only assume that both projects are going the way of all previous FIDE commercial endeavors. Remember FIDE Commerce at the start of the year 2000? Neither does anyone else.

The person most closely associated with Agon was recently interviewed by Chessdom.com: Interview with Andrew Paulson, President of English Chess Federation

Q: What have you been doing in India to support the [Carlsen - Anand] Match?

A: I spent three months in India meeting with over 100 of India’s top companies, trying to evince interest in sponsoring the Anand-Carlsen World Championship Match. I thought that this would be really easy: Anand, the Tiger from Madras; Chaturanga, invented in India; Carlsen, the ‘hottie’; supposedly 58% of Indian adults play chess regularly; and I’m a pretty good salesman. I was wrong: it wasn’t easy. It was impossible. Zero. But now I know all the reasons these Indian companies had for NOT sponsoring that event, and I will build on this and the friendships I made in India to design the right package of Indian events to get these same companies to say yes. Which they will.

Although there have been half-hearted attempts over the years by FIDE and national federations to find commercial sponsorship for chess, the greatest success has always been with passionate, wealthy patrons. I believe my efforts have been the most wide-ranging and persistent attempt to find sustainable, professional commercial partnerships. Many gears have to mesh in any sponsorship package in order for it to pass muster with a rational Marketing Director of any admirable company we would want to work with. We’re getting there.

The name 'Agon' isn't mentioned during the interview. Other reports on Paulson published since the end of the Chennai match paint a similar picture. I could give links, but why bother -- 'zero' means exactly that.

2013 Carlsen - Anand & 2014 Carlsen - ???

I added the crosstable and PGN game scores to my page on the 2013 Carlsen - Anand title match, then added the event against both names on the Index of Players. I also created a new page for the 2014 Candidates Event to be held March 2014 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The next World Championship title match is scheduled for November 2014.

Carlsen - Anand, Wrapup

The big match in Chennai has given me ample material for blog posts, of which I count two dozen to date. Here they are in chronological order. Most of the posts are from my main blog; posts from this World Championship blog are marked '(*)'. The first batch of posts was made before the match.

• 2013-10-01: Opening Wisdom from Anand
• 2013-10-03: Anand on World Championship Opening Preparation
• 2013-10-23: Anand - Carlsen Interviews (*)
• 2013-10-25: GM King on Anand vs. Carlsen
• 2013-10-30: Anand - Carlsen Resources (*)
• 2013-11-04: Anand - Carlsen Openings
• 2013-11-06: Anand - Carlsen, One Day to Go (*)
• 2013-11-07: Anand - Carlsen, Predicting the Result

The second batch of posts was made while the match was being played. I spent so much time watching the games, that I sometimes was able to post only a photo.

• 2013-11-08: Anand - Carlsen Opening Ceremony
• 2013-11-10: Anand - Carlsen Autographs
• 2013-11-12: Anand - Carlsen, Pregame Photos
• 2013-11-13: Anand - Carlsen, the First Week (*)
• 2013-11-14: Anand - Carlsen, Missed Opportunity?
• 2013-11-15: Anand - Carlsen, the Venue
• 2013-11-17: Anand - Carlsen, and Kasparov
• 2013-11-18: Anand - Carlsen, the Edge
• 2013-11-19: Anand - Carlsen, Mainstream Press
• 2013-11-20: Anand - Carlsen, the Second Week (*)
• 2013-11-21: Anand - Carlsen, A Critical Blunder
• 2013-11-22: Anand - Carlsen Last Game Press Conference

Since the match ended, there has been plenty of opportunity for further posts.

• 2013-11-24: Carlsen - Anand, Signed Board
• 2013-11-26: Carlsen - Anand, More Mainstream Press
• 2013-11-27: Anand - Carlsen, the Third Week (*)
• 2013-12-03: Carlsen - Anand, Chess Press Overview

I am certain that there are more posts to come. The match will continue to furnish material for years.

Anand - Carlsen, the Third Week

The big match is over -- all over but the shouting, as they say, and I expect the shouting will continue for some time as the chess world adjusts to a generational shift. Magnus Carlsen's victory over Vishy Anand is the most important title match result since Kramnik beat Kasparov in 2000, which was the most important result since Kasparov beat Karpov in 1985, which was the most important result since Fischer beat Spassky in 1972, and so it goes in the history of the World Chess Championship, one generation supplanting and building on the previous.

My previous report, Anand - Carlsen, the Second Week, left off with the score +2-0=6 in Carlsen's favor, the Norwegian needing 1.5 points to win the match. Since that report, the benchmark Google News search on 'anand carlsen' has shrunk from 'about 82,800 results' to 'about 56,900 results', the first decline since I started tracking it the day before the opening ceremony. As the entire chess world knows by now, Carlsen gained the required 1.5 points in the next two games after that report.

• 2013-11-21: Viswanathan Anand loses, Magnus Carlsen a draw away from title [indianexpress.com; game 9]
• 2013-11-22: Magnus Carlsen dethrones Viswanathan Anand to become new Chess World Champion [dnaindia.com; game 10]

The post-match analysis began immediately. Much of it involved soul-searching from Indian sources. How could one of their favorite sons have been beaten so badly?

• 2013-11-23: World Chess Championship 2013: Defeat in Game 5 Sealed Fate, Says Anand [ibtimes.co.uk]
• 2013-11-24: Garry too early, Carlsen too late [deccanchronicle.com]
• 2013-11-24: Viswanathan Anand's dream is to see chess played in every school in India [ndtv.com]
• 2013-11-24: Gen Y has arrived [mumbaimirror.com]; lists other young GMs
• 2013-11-24: The day Carlsen won World Chess Championship [truthdive.com]
• 2013-11-26: Anand taught me a lot, but now it’s my turn to teach him: Magnus Carlsen [firstpost.com]
• 2013-11-26: The New King of Chess [newyorker.com]
• 2013-11-27: The men who helped Magnus Carlsen beat Anand [firstpost.com]

The closing ceremony, despite the rich rewards not often seen in chess, was almost anti-climactic.

• 2013-11-25: Jayalalithaa honours Magnus Carlsen [morungexpress.com]
• 2013-11-26: In a first, Carlsen gets 22-carat medal [deccanchronicle.com]
• 2013-11-26: Jaya honours world champion Carlsen with Rs 9.9 crore cash award, gold medal [newindianexpress.com]

What happens now? The next championship cycle continues with a Candidates tournament and a World Championship match in 2014. There is some speculation whether Anand will participate in the cycle, but I expect that he will play. His play will be different, because he no longer carries the weight of the title on his shoulders, but he has always been a fighter and the next fight is waiting to be fought.

Carlsen will continue to dazzle for many years. He is young and his personality will continue to evolve. How will he adjust to the even bigger spotlight? This is, after all, a generational shift, and no one can say for sure what it will bring.

Anand - Carlsen, the Second Week

We left off last week's post, Anand - Carlsen, the First Week, with game four just having finished in a thrilling draw. Since then, a Google News search on 'anand carlsen' has swelled from 'about 73,300 results' to 'about 82,800 results'. Let's first look at reports from Indian news sources for the five games played during the past week.

• 2013-11-14: World Chess C’ship: Anand admits he was 'lost' in Game Four [firstpost.com]
• 2013-11-16: Carlsen beats Anand in Game 5 of World Chess Championship [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-17: Magnus Carlsen wins Game 6; leads Viswanathan Anand 4-2 [dnaindia.com]
• 2013-11-18: World Chess: Game 7 between Anand and Carlsen ends in a draw [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-19: Another tame draw as Carlsen retains two points lead against Anand [indiatimes.com; game 8]

With wins for Carlsen in games five and six, it was a great week for the Norwegian grandmaster and a terrible week for Anand. Here are a few background stories that appeared during the week.

• 2013-11-15: Karjakin, Nepomniachtchi may be working with secretive Carlsen [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-16: Anand loses game 6: 'Most rook endings lead to a draw, except when Carlsen plays' [hindustantimes.com]
• 2013-11-18: It's Carlsen's throne for the taking [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-19: From respect to fear [thehindu.com; Ian Rogers]
• 2013-11-19: Is Friedel rooting for Anand or Carlsen? [indiatimes.com]

One of my personal discoveries during the week was the work of Jaideep Unudurti, writing for the Economic Times. I somehow overlooked his work until now and intend to review his previous articles when I find the time. In the meantime, here are two of his articles from this past week.

• 2013-11-17: Despite trying a hand in Russian politics, Garry Kasparov seems to miss chess [indiatimes.com]; also featured in my post Anand - Carlsen, and Kasparov
• 2013-11-18: Viswanathan Anand draws seventh game; Magnus Carlsen remains two points ahead [indiatimes.com]

With four games to go, Carlsen leads 2-0. Will Anand manage to pull off a miracle? With the odds heavily stacked against that, will he manage to win at least one game? As long as I'm covering Indian sources, let's go back a few months to an interview with Anand that was published just after Carlsen won the London Candidates tournament.

• 2013-04-02: 'Carlsen will be ridiculously difficult to play against' [indianexpress.com]

Q: How different will [the Carlsen match] be from your previous WCC matches? • A: Firstly, he is not from my generation. There is a difference in age and outlook. When I played Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand, I read them in a certain way. And even then, I thought that if I end up playing Vlady this time, it would be a different Vlady from the one I played before. He (Carlsen) is from a different generation and Carlsen is also one of the most talented players from any generation. He will be ridiculously difficult to play against, yeah.

Next week's post might well be the last for this match. I hope you're enjoying the show as much as I am.

Anand - Carlsen, the First Week

My previous post, Anand - Carlsen, One Day to Go, was a summary of news stories on *the match*, mainly from Indian news sources. A week later, the 'about 12,700 results' given by a Google News search on 'anand carlsen' has mushroomed to 'about 73,300 results'. Let's make another summary of news from the past week. Here are some pre-match reports.

• 2013-11-06: Rousing reception for Carlsen [thehindu.com]
• 2013-11-06: World No 1 chess star was in Muscat to prepare for face-off with Anand [muscatdaily.com]
• 2013-11-07: Anand to open with black pieces in World Chess Championship [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-08: Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen share cold vibes [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-08: Anand reveals his seconds but Carlsen plays coy [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-08: Vishy Anand faces tough battle with Magnus Carlsen to keep world title [theguardian.com; Leonard Barden]
• 2013-11-08: It’s Anand’s experience vs Carlsen’s form [thehindu.com]
• 2013-11-09: Anand-Carlsen as seen by cartoonist Jose Diaz [chess.com; some commenters found this offensive]

As I write this, our two heroes have just drawn the fourth game, making four draws in four games, or +0-0=4 in W-L-D parlance. The first two games were short draws that ended in repetition, while the next two had considerable content. Somewhat surprisingly, all four games tipped in Black's favor.

• 2013-11-10: Anand forces short draw against Carlsen in opener [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-10: Viswanathan Anand says ‘midly surprised’ by Magnus Carlsen’s opening moves in Game 2 [livemint.com]
• 2013-11-11: Anand, Carlsen not playing cat and mouse game, say experts [business-standard.com]
• 2013-11-11: Anand vs Carlsen match will revive chess: Kasparov [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-11: Viswanathan Anand vs Magnus Carlsen: Chess stages biggest game since Fischer vs Spassky [independent.co.uk]
• 2013-11-12: Vishwanathan Anand - Magnus Carlsen duel fires up chess fervour in India [zeenews.india.com]
• 2013-11-12: Anand vs Carlsen: Gauging over, it's time for real battle [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-13: World Chess C’ship Game Three: Anand, with black, gives Carlsen a scare [firstpost.com]

The week's prize for bonehead chess reporting goes to a source I can't remember seeing before. The first story ignores the impact of an Anand victory on a nation of 1.000.000.000+ Indians. The second story needs to review the definition of 'disastrous'. What can you say about a news source whose current top featured article is 'Here's What It Takes To Work At Hooters'?

• 2013-11-05: Garry Kasparov: A Win For Carlsen In The Upcoming World Championship Match Will Be A Huge Win For The Chess World [businessinsider.com]
• 2013-11-10: The Most Anticipated Chess Match In Decades Is Off To A Disastrous Start [businessinsider.com]

Considerably better, and another source I hadn't seen before, was the source I used for game two above.

• 2013-11-07: What Anand match means for brand Carlsen [livemint.com]
• 2013-11-08: Few takers for paid tickets to Anand vs Carlsen match [livemint.com]

Also worth noting is the source for game three above.

• 2013-11-12: Anand vs Carlsen Game 3 Preview: Time to take things up a notch [firstpost.com]
• 2013-11-12: Anand vs Carlsen reminds me of the Spassky-Fischer game: Kasparov [firstpost.com]

Where's game four? It should be in next week's news.

Anand - Carlsen, One Day to Go

The opening ceremony of the long awaited World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen takes place tomorrow and media interest in chess is at a level not seen since Bobby Fischer died almost six years ago. On my main blog, a post on Anand - Carlsen Openings received more views after a few hours than most posts get over their entire lives.

The previous post on this blog, Anand - Carlsen Resources, offers a good metric in a Google News search on 'anand carlsen', currently showing 'About 12,700 results'. Many of those results are from Indian news sources, what you might expect from a country with a population of over a billion people celebrating a national hero.

It's impossible to keep up with that volume of reporting, but here are a few articles that caught my attention in the week running up to the start of the match.

• 2013-10-29: Who's first among 'seconds'? [dnaindia.com]
• 2013-10-31: It will take more than just home advantage for Vishwanathan Anand to win World championship title clash in India [dnaindia.com]
• 2013-11-02: Anand will need ‘fire in his game’ to beat Carlsen: Polgar [firstpost.com]
• 2013-11-03: Anand, Carlsen opt for no-nonsense zone [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-04: Kasparov to visit Chennai during World Championship tie [thehindu.com]
• 2013-11-04: Hard to rate Anand, Carlsen, says Polgar [newindianexpress.com]
• 2013-11-04: Magnus Carlsen wary of Viswanathan Anand ahead of World Chess Championship [ndtv.com]
• 2013-11-04: Carlsen arrives well prepared for world championship [indiatimes.com]
• 2013-11-05: Garry Kasparov: A Win For Carlsen In The Upcoming World Championship Match Will Be A Huge Win For The Chess World [businessinsider.com]
• 2013-11-06: It all boils down to style [dnaindia.com]
• 2013-11-06: Anand, Carlsen on different planets before Battle Royale [indiatimes.com]

Another article,

• 2013-11-05: Anand is as much a national treasure as Tendulkar [thehindu.com]

caught my eye not only for its many comments, but also for its 'Infographic', embedded below. (Note to myself: find out how to make one of these.)

Will Anand's opening gambit checkmate Carlsen?

In every parade there's someone standing on the side complaining about it, and chess makes a particularly easy target.

• 2013-11-04: The World Chess Championship is an embarrassing anachronism. It’s time to end it forever [slate.com], subtitled, 'No More Kings - Magnus Carlsen is the world’s best chess player, but he shouldn’t be the world champion.'

Why shouldn’t he be the World Champion?

The problem with the title of world champion is that it’s too crude a measurement of chess skill in an era of instantly updated ratings, and you get embarrassing, confusing situations where the player who is clearly the best isn’t labeled as such. Having a world champion makes sense in boxing, where infrequent matches make comparing fighters a tricky proposition. But in chess, as in tennis, the world’s two best players will meet head-to-head as many as four or five times in a year.

Tennis doesn’t have a world champion, and rightly so. That sport measures greatness by elevating four tournaments (the grand slams) above all others and assessing a player’s results there. Peaks and valleys are measured by a ratings algorithm that’s updated from week to week.

The author, who 'blogs about crossword puzzles', can go back to his word games. The rest of us will enjoy the ultimate test of chess skill that transcends 'instantly updated ratings' and the one-off 'head-to-head' meetings that prove nothing beyond who was in better form that day.

Anand - Carlsen Resources

The much anticipated Anand - Carlsen title match starts in a little more than a week, so I'll use this week's World Chess Championship blog post to assemble a list of resources that I'll be following.

The formal title of the match is FIDE World Chess Championship 2013, Chennai, India, sometimes abbreviated to FWCM2013, and the official site is

• chennai2013.fide.com

The most important page on the site is the schedule, where I see that the first 12 games start at 03.00 PM (Indian Time). That's four and a half (!?) hours ahead of my local time, which means they will be starting at 10:30 AM for me.

• FWCM Chennai 2013 : Schedule
• Current local time in India – Tamil Nadu – Chennai

I well remember the 2000 FIDE Knockout Matches, held in New Delhi (last round in Tehran), where Anand won his first World Championship title. At the time I compiled links to a list of news reports from India -- 2000 FIDE Knockout Matches, Reports from The Hindu -- which still lead to the original pages, nearly 13 years after the event. Here are links to two respected Indian news organizations, which should be excellent sources of on-site reporting in English.

• Chess - The Hindu
• Chess - The Times of India

As for a Norwegian source, there is a language barrier, but there are good translation tools to overcome this. I couldn't find a chess category, so here's a Google news search.

• site:aftenposten.no magnus carlsen [past month]

Since most chess fans know the main chess news sites, I won't list them here. If I discover a tag or category specific to the match, I'll add it to the end of this post. As for mainstream news sources, here's a link and an RSS feed to the same.

• Results : anand carlsen [Google News]
• Google Alert - anand carlsen

The Twittersphere (or Twitterverse, as some folks prefer) will be red hot. I won't try to anticipate its center of gravity, so I'll just list the account associated with the official site. It's been relatively sleepy until now.

• Anand - Carlsen 2013 (FWCM2013) on Twitter

Whenever I get the chance, I'll be watching the games live on the ChessBomb / Chessdom Live Arena. It always offers decent analysis from a world class player along with the usual mixed bag of comments from chess fans. A good post-game source is Chessgames.com, which also has an accurate record of past encounters between the two players.

• Anand-Carlsen World Championship (2013)
• Classical games: Viswanathan Anand beat Magnus Carlsen 6 to 3, with 20 draws

Finally I'll list my own page, which I won't update until the match is over.

• World Chess Championship : 2013 Anand - Carlsen

That's a good start. I'm sure I'll be consulting this post frequently throughout the match.

***

Later: Here are a few links for match reporting on the main chess news sites:-

• FIDE World Chess Championship Anand-Carlsen 2013; TheWeekInChess.com, TWIC
• Tag=World Championship 2013; Chessbase.com
• News from 'World Chess Championship 2013'; Chessdom.com
• site:chessvibes.com anand carlsen; (past month, sorted by date)
• site:chess.com anand carlsen; (past month, sorted by date)

Plus a few blogs maintained by match insiders:-

• susanpolgar.blogspot.com: Chennai; Susan Polgar
• Mate in Chennai; MateInChennai.com, Eric van Reem

I'll add new links as I discover them.

Anand - Carlsen Interviews

With the big Anand - Carlsen match only two weeks away, here are a pair of similar interviews with the players.

Interview with Anand prior to his match with Carlsen, 2013 (23:16) • 'World Champion Viswanathan Anand interviewed after 8th "Tal Memorial" in Moscow. Most of the questions regard his upcoming (November 2013) match with title challenger Magnus Carlsen.'

The 8th Tal Memorial took place in June.

Interview with Carlsen prior to his match with Anand, 2013 (11:03) • 'Interview with the highest rated chess player in the world, challenger for the world championship Magnus Carlsen from Norway. Taken after 8th "Tal Memorial" in Moscow. Most of the questions regard his upcoming (November 2013) match with World champion Vishy Anand.'

See Youtube channel ChessTVOfficial for more, although most of the videos on the channel are in Russian.

2012-13 GP / 2013 WCC

My previous post, 2012-2013 Grand Prix, Paris, added the sixth and last event of the current cycle's GP series to my page on the 2012-2013 Grand Prix.

The next task was to add the GP series to each player on the Index of Players, which cross-indexes all World Championship events to the players who competed in the many events. The table on the left lists the 23 players who competed in the just completed GP. The middle column shows a player's overall score and the right column shows the number of games played.

It's worth noting that the most successful player, GM Caruana, did not qualify for one of the two places in the forthcoming Candidates tournament. Those qualification spots went to the next two players on the list, GMs Topalov and Mamedyarov, although GM Grischuk had the same score as Mamedyarov. These anomalies occurred because each player's worst GP tournament is dropped from the calculation of the overall score.

One action remains: to document the overall score for all players. Although I looked in all of the usual places, I couldn't find the FIDE calculations. This is still open for the 2011-2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, an event which finished two years ago. I could calculate the scores myself, but I'll probably end up copying them from Wikipedia.

***

While I was preparing updates, I also added a link for the official site to may page on the forthcoming 2013 Anand - Carlsen match. I found two official looking logos on that site and, not sure which one to use, I used both. The artier logo is shown on the left.

The opening ceremony takes place on 7 November, followed by the first game on 9 November. The games will be played at a rhythm of two games on consecutive days, followed by a rest day. If the match goes the distance, there will be an additional rest day between games 11 and 12, then between game 12 and the tiebreaks, which are scheduled for 28 November. Like most observers, I hope the match goes the distance. World class chess deserves a great show.

Catching up with FIDE

It's been a while since I last reviewed FIDE announcements, so I spent a few hours catching up with the last few months. I added links for relevant announcements to my pages on the 2013 World Cup and the 2013 Anand - Carlsen title match. Most of the other announcements relative to the World Championship were for future years. Here's a list of those I found most important.

• 2012-11-28: Working visit of FIDE delegation to Baku • 'A delegation from FIDE led by President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov successfully concluded negotiations for the 2015 World Cup and 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan.'
• 2013-02-15: Organizing Committee for 2015 World Chess Cup and 2016 World Chess Olympiad
• 2013-02-21: List of Decisions of the 2013 1st quarter FIDE PB • 'To decline the proposal of Mr. Danailov to cancel the contract with Agon.' • 'To organize two Women’s FIDE Grand-Prix tournaments in Tashkent and Khanty-Mansiysk (2013 and 2014).'
• 2013-02-25: WCOC recommendations approved by the Presidential Board
• 2013-05-13: List of Decisions of the 2013 2nd quarter FIDE PB • 'To approve the proposal of Mr. Makropoulos to authorize the FIDE President to take the personal decision as to whether to terminate the contract with Agon.' • 'To award the organization of the 2013 World Championship match Anand - Carlsen to Chennai, India (one abstention).' • 'To award the organization of the 2013 Women’s World Championship match Ushenina - Hou Yifan to Tai Zhou, China.' • 'To open a bidding procedure for the 2017 World Cup.' • 'To approve the 2014 Candidates Tournament regulations.'
• 2013-07-08: Bidding Procedure for the FIDE World Women's Championship 2014

I also found many announcements relevant to the current Grand Prix series -- both men's and women's -- but I ran out of time to consider them properly. I'll tackle those another time.