The Most Anticipated Chess Match In Decades Is Off To A Disastrous Start
REUTERS/Babu
Magnus Carlsen, 22, hits the clock after making a move against champion Viswanathan Anand.
The most anticipated chess match in decades is happening right now in Chennai, India.
The match pits current world champion Viswanathan Anand against the 22-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who is the highest-rated player in the world. One obvious reason the contest is so exciting is that Carlsen is a young prodigy, while Anand (43) is part of an older generation. The pair are playing a best-of-12 series. If neither side has won a majority of games by that point, a series of tiebreaker games will be played.
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Garry Kasparov, probably the most famous chess player of all-time, wrote here that a Carlsen victory would be a huge victory for all of chess:
Anand is a fantastic chessplayer who brings honor to the sport and to his nation with his skill and his boundless good nature. If he wins this match his high place on chess Olympus is assured. I am predicting a Carlsen victory because of his talent, his results, and the tides of chess history. I am rooting for a Carlsen victory because a new generation deserves a new champion. Most of all, I am hoping for big games, a hard fight, and a great boost for chess around the world as a legend and a legend in the making do battle in Chennai.
So how are things going so far? Basically, terrible. They've played two games already and both ended in draws. And they weren't just any draws! They were short games (16 moves for the first, 25 moves for the second) that produced no exciting play, and which exposed one of the biggest problems with chess that's played at the highest levels, which is that it can be incredibly boring and conservative.
To prepare for these games, top chess players spend a ridiculous amount of time working with computers, learning various openings many moves deep, and getting to know everything about what openings and lines their opponents like to play, so that they encounter no possible surprises. So much of the game is done in the preparation, that when the players finally get to the board, there's little chance for excitement.
Just listen to Anand, who explained his decision to pursue a draw in Game 2:
Anand, who spent most of his time on the moves 12-14, admitted that he was surprised by his opponent's opening play. "It was a mild surprise. The position after move 12 is a very sharp one and I hadn't really expected it, that was clear. I had to decide if I wanted to fly blind or... I chose a slightly solid line."