<story><title>Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/sports/magnus-carlsen-fabiano-caruana-world-chess-championship.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mindgam3</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t argue with your first premise. Your following points, however, are less convincing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid&amp;#x2F;blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Even if Kasparov and Grischuk said this today (citation please?), it doesn&amp;#x27;t make it true. There are &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; players who get better playing rapid and blitz. Look at the trajectory of the Bay Area&amp;#x27;s own GM Daniel Naroditsky. Nakamura.&lt;p&gt;I suspect most of the blitz haters are people who simply haven&amp;#x27;t spent enough time to get good at it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Regardless of all critics.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;To your main point, the critics weren&amp;#x27;t saying that Carlsen isn&amp;#x27;t the best. They were complaining because he is not acting with respect to the purity and beauty of the game. There is simply an aesthetic ugliness to offering a draw with such a crushing time advantage in a better position.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not arguing that this may not have been good strategy, lose the battle, win the war, etc etc.&lt;p&gt;What I&amp;#x27;m saying is that there is a war to be won that is different than a 1 or 0 point. It&amp;#x27;s the battle for hearts and minds, which is won not just through victory but through integrity and courage. You win hearts by showing hearts.&lt;p&gt;Magnus didn&amp;#x27;t win hearts with his mercilessly pragmatic approach to winning the world championship title. I still respect him as the rightful owner of the title of best chess player in the world.&lt;p&gt;But if we&amp;#x27;re going to employ the &amp;quot;good by association&amp;quot; logical fallacy with whatever Kasparov and Grischuk may have said today, why not actually just quote the champion Magnus himself?&lt;p&gt;In the press conference, he came out and told everyone that Fabiano earned the right to share the crown of world&amp;#x27;s best player in classical chess with him.&lt;p&gt;Who am I, who are you, who are any of us to disagree with that?&lt;p&gt;I also enjoyed the final a lot. But the fact remains that the beauty and spectacle 2018 World Championships of the world&amp;#x27;s most beautiful mind game was marred by a decidedly un-beautiful game in round 12.</text></item><item><author>michalu</author><text>In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics.&lt;p&gt;He played the 12th game safe knowing he&amp;#x27;s a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid&amp;#x2F;blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves.&lt;p&gt;Under these conditions it&amp;#x27;s more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an advantage, if thinking strategically.&lt;p&gt;I would argue the problem is that most of the fans have become conditioned to expect entertainment, drama and bold moves in sports like we see in overly dramatic movies.&lt;p&gt;But historically, if you consider generals or even have a look into Sun Tzu&amp;#x27;s art of war, the strategists and generals that were most regarded were the ones who were able to win in a manner that it seemed easy, unimpressive, without drama or heavy losses or huge risks involved.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what a great strategy is about taking battle where the outcome is decided beforehand. And that&amp;#x27;s what Carlsen did.&lt;p&gt;The downside is it cost him €50k as the money distribution goes to 550&amp;#x2F;450 in tiebreak from 600&amp;#x2F;400 if decided in classical.&lt;p&gt;So he exchanged a potential loss of €200k at a favourable odds for a sure loss of €50k with potential loss of €150k at a much better odds. Now here&amp;#x27;s where we could question his decision speculating what the actual odds were, but who knows if he cares about the money.&lt;p&gt;I enjoyed this final a lot.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michalu</author><text>You make a good point, but I don&amp;#x27;t think he&amp;#x27;s playing for hearts. They play for money and recognition in the first place. Every sportsman who experienced a failure (and we all have) knows very well that while you&amp;#x27;re applauded at the top the moment you lose many, including your fans will suddenly rejoice ... sometimes you even get some &amp;quot;kicks while on the ground.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;About the Grischuk and Kasparov quote, it turns out I did misrepresent ... Grischuk said that Carlsen&amp;#x27;s URS score gap for rapid and blitz &amp;quot;should&amp;quot; be negative in a live stream on chess24 and Kasparov tweeted a similar thing ... where I misrepresented is that Kasparov didn&amp;#x27;t say a word &amp;quot;improve&amp;quot; but see &amp;quot;his ratio is smallest ever&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;Kasparov63&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1067826806823297029&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;Kasparov63&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1067826806823297029&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=HBvQ36SqgqM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=HBvQ36SqgqM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;To quote Carlsen himself &amp;quot;Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s just the way he is and I not only don&amp;#x27;t blame him for it I personally respect it.&lt;p&gt;A good example is boxing. You have someone like Mayweather who is 50:0 a historical record. Yet he&amp;#x27;s often hated by fans because his boxing isn&amp;#x27;t exciting. It&amp;#x27;s also true that most fans would rejoice if he lost ... so why take risks? Many purists enjoy his style including myself.&lt;p&gt;In the end prize-fighting is about winning. It&amp;#x27;s their living. If Carlsen loses but plays a beautiful game none of the fans will pay for his livelihood - I am confident in stating this.</text></comment>
<story><title>Magnus Carlsen Beats Fabiano Caruana to Win World Chess Championship</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/sports/magnus-carlsen-fabiano-caruana-world-chess-championship.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mindgam3</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t argue with your first premise. Your following points, however, are less convincing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid&amp;#x2F;blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Even if Kasparov and Grischuk said this today (citation please?), it doesn&amp;#x27;t make it true. There are &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; players who get better playing rapid and blitz. Look at the trajectory of the Bay Area&amp;#x27;s own GM Daniel Naroditsky. Nakamura.&lt;p&gt;I suspect most of the blitz haters are people who simply haven&amp;#x27;t spent enough time to get good at it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Regardless of all critics.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;To your main point, the critics weren&amp;#x27;t saying that Carlsen isn&amp;#x27;t the best. They were complaining because he is not acting with respect to the purity and beauty of the game. There is simply an aesthetic ugliness to offering a draw with such a crushing time advantage in a better position.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not arguing that this may not have been good strategy, lose the battle, win the war, etc etc.&lt;p&gt;What I&amp;#x27;m saying is that there is a war to be won that is different than a 1 or 0 point. It&amp;#x27;s the battle for hearts and minds, which is won not just through victory but through integrity and courage. You win hearts by showing hearts.&lt;p&gt;Magnus didn&amp;#x27;t win hearts with his mercilessly pragmatic approach to winning the world championship title. I still respect him as the rightful owner of the title of best chess player in the world.&lt;p&gt;But if we&amp;#x27;re going to employ the &amp;quot;good by association&amp;quot; logical fallacy with whatever Kasparov and Grischuk may have said today, why not actually just quote the champion Magnus himself?&lt;p&gt;In the press conference, he came out and told everyone that Fabiano earned the right to share the crown of world&amp;#x27;s best player in classical chess with him.&lt;p&gt;Who am I, who are you, who are any of us to disagree with that?&lt;p&gt;I also enjoyed the final a lot. But the fact remains that the beauty and spectacle 2018 World Championships of the world&amp;#x27;s most beautiful mind game was marred by a decidedly un-beautiful game in round 12.</text></item><item><author>michalu</author><text>In the end, Carlsen is the man who knows the best how to win in chess. Regardless of all critics.&lt;p&gt;He played the 12th game safe knowing he&amp;#x27;s a huge favourite in rapid and blitz. Like Kasparov and Grischuk pointed out today, every other chess player gets worse playing rapid&amp;#x2F;blitz but Carlsen is the only one who actually improves.&lt;p&gt;Under these conditions it&amp;#x27;s more than sensible to move into the terrain where you have an advantage, if thinking strategically.&lt;p&gt;I would argue the problem is that most of the fans have become conditioned to expect entertainment, drama and bold moves in sports like we see in overly dramatic movies.&lt;p&gt;But historically, if you consider generals or even have a look into Sun Tzu&amp;#x27;s art of war, the strategists and generals that were most regarded were the ones who were able to win in a manner that it seemed easy, unimpressive, without drama or heavy losses or huge risks involved.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what a great strategy is about taking battle where the outcome is decided beforehand. And that&amp;#x27;s what Carlsen did.&lt;p&gt;The downside is it cost him €50k as the money distribution goes to 550&amp;#x2F;450 in tiebreak from 600&amp;#x2F;400 if decided in classical.&lt;p&gt;So he exchanged a potential loss of €200k at a favourable odds for a sure loss of €50k with potential loss of €150k at a much better odds. Now here&amp;#x27;s where we could question his decision speculating what the actual odds were, but who knows if he cares about the money.&lt;p&gt;I enjoyed this final a lot.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>johnb</author><text>Kasparov had said that all players are worse in blitz, but that Carlsen gets least worst &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;Kasparov63&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1067826806823297029&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;Kasparov63&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1067826806823297029&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>