Weissenhaus/Chess 960 Tournament: Carlsen and a patron guess on a revolutionary type of chess | Chess | EUROtoday

“You have to think from the first play.” It is the principle key that Magnus Carlsen factors out to justify his dedication to chess 960 (additionally referred to as Fischer Random, or now Freestyle). The place of the items within the first row (pawns don’t change) is drawn minutes earlier than every sport; There are 960 other ways to begin. The Norwegian competes in a luxurious lodge in Weissenhaus (Germany, close to Hamburg) in a event with seven different stars, financed by the German patron Jan Henric Buettner.

The nice debate that provides plenty of that means to this initiative is that coaching with the assistance of very highly effective computer systems, which calculate thousands and thousands of strikes per second, drastically strengthens the scientific a part of chess (residence preparation): it’s already quite common for the highest twenty actions (or extra) are accomplished by coronary heart, to the detriment of artwork (the creation of improvised magnificence) and sport (tiredness, time pressures, emotion…). In actuality, in Weissenhaus there usually are not 960 positions drawn, however 958: they’ve eradicated the traditional one and the one that’s the identical however with the king and queen exchanged. So the tons of books, articles, movies, DVDs and databases on openings and defenses are ineffective on this event.

Carlsen, primary undisputed in classical gradual chess, he has had a foul outcome within the first section, in accordance along with his degree of demand. He completed Fifth out of eight after a league of fast video games (25 minutes per aspect, plus ten seconds of automated enhance after every transfer) with defeats in opposition to two of essentially the most sensible younger stars: the Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattórov, 19 years previous, winner of the league and solely undefeated; and the Indian Dommaraju Gukesh, certified at 17 for the Classic World Cup Candidates Tournament, scheduled in Toronto (Canada) from April 5 to 23. But this group solely served to ascertain the pairings within the quarterfinals: 1st-Eighth, 2nd-Seventh, Third-Sixth and 4th-Fifth.

Although Carlsen additionally leads the rating of quick traditional video games – however with little or no benefit over the world champion, the Chinese Liren Ding -, he’s assured of performing a lot better from this Sunday and Monday within the quarterfinals, the place the tempo of play is already It shall be a lot slower: 90 minutes for the primary 40 casts; half an hour extra for the remainder of the sport from 41; and 30 extra seconds of increment after every play, from the primary. In any case, he might want to carry out at his finest as a result of his rival would be the 20-year-old Frenchman of Iranian origin Alireza Firouzja, whom he himself described in 2021 with out ambiguity: “he is the only one who can be at my level.”

In precept, and as unusual as it might appear, essentially the most unequal confrontation is that of Abdusattórov with Ding as a result of the Chinese continues in free fall (six defeats and a fast draw within the final spherical, in opposition to Firouzja) after failing within the prestigious Tata event (the Roland Garros of chess) after eight months of just about complete inactivity. Ding's stress and exhaustion to win the world title match in opposition to the Russian Ian Niepómniashi final April in Astana (Kazakhstan) had been so nice that he later suffered critical psychological issues and nice problem sleeping.

The different two quarterfinal duels will pit Gukesh in opposition to the American Fabiano Caruana, world runner-up in 2018, and the German Vicent Keymer, 19, with the American veteran of Armenian origin Levón Aronián. The predominant focus shall be on Carlsen. Asked concerning the obvious contradiction between his desire for quick modalities and his request that the decisive section of this event be gradual, he was additionally very clear: “If you have to think from the first play, you need time to produce high-quality games.” .

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