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Whatever caused it, Anand's psychological state during the match was apparently sub-optimal to say the least. The few times he could have pressed like the super-GM he is supposed to be (and probably still is), he did not. I imagine he is far from washed up, and that this is just a setback in his long career, against a player who likely is (or will be) genuinely stronger on a good day than Anand ever was or will be.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
After any important event closure is desirable. If your country/team/athlete won or didn’t win, the prize giving is the official stamp and you must accept it.
Today was the closing ceremony of the Chennai 2013 World Chess Championship. The whole spectacle including commentary went about 20 minutes and is available on youtube at:
Susan Polgar and Ramesh commented at first. Susan made the points again that we were crowning the 16th WC Champion and that over a billion people watched the Match.
These two “facts” have been disputed. One viewer wrote: Carlsen is the 20th World Chess Champion (not the 16th) for we must include FIDE World Champions Alexander Khalifman, Ruslam Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Veselin Topalov. They won the title and deserve it. Don’t delete these names from chess history please!
Another rebutted that with: Kasparov was the WC at the time and sadly, none of the above beat him to take the title. That’s all really.
And the statement that a billion people watched the Match is disputed at:
and where the claim that 80 million viewers watched the highlights of the third round ends with this evaluation:
So, the claim that 80 million is a "minimum" is based on a news story which gives no basis for the figure that it cites. There's absolutely nothing to evaluate, because there's absolutely nothing there.
++++++++
Susan says that for the first time, the World Number One is also the World Champion. I would have thought that was true when Fischer won the title. Ramesh and Susan discuss the legacy of Anand.
The Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa, and Kirsan Illuzhinov, FIDE President, are on the dais. Much music is played including the FIDE Anthem. Large baskets of flowers are given both to the Honorable Minister and to Kirsan and then taken away. Anand goes up and receives his silver medal and a silver dish, which says "Runner-Up".
Now if you watch the youtube or official clip you will hear loud orchestral music all through this part, which was deafening. I could not hear the speakers. Could anyone?
The gold medal was given to Magnus Carlsen, then the laurel wreath. Will he put it around his neck? Yes! Then he was presented with the silver and gold trophy and photographed with the laurel wreath and trophy with the Honorable Minister and Kirsan and some chap who was holding up the very heavy cup. Finally the music stopped. It had been like a Leslie Nielsen farce for several minutes there.
Then, Anand was presented with a large outsize novelty cheque for 6.03 crores and the winner’s outsize novelty cheque for 9.9 crores to Magnus Carlsen. The first was worth US $964,028 and the second, US $1,582,732. More photographs.
There were no speeches. The national anthems of Norway and India were played and the Honorable Minister shook the hands of the two combatants and left.
Years of watching The Simpsons have left me with a less than serious attitude when watching award presentations. The silver plate with Runner-Up inscribed on it, the deafening music over which you couldn’t hear anything said, the laurel wreath, the giant novelty cheques, Illuzhinov’s wan smile, the somber look of the Honorable Minister were all deeply satisfying to me.
Anand’s calm and Carlsen’s joy were what I would expect. And I am happy with the attention that chess has received.
There is nothing else to say about the Match. It is all over.
- What a mess! Starting early to insure people miss watching it. Blaring music through the first half so you can't hear a word that's been spoken. People standing in front of the camera non-stop. The national anthem of FIDE under the watchful eye of a mercenary with an automatic rifle. Reminding Anand not to think about what to have for dinner while his clock is ticking by presenting him with an oversized plate. No speeches by the players.
It seemed Ilyumzhinov used his political connections to get Assad to do the English translations. That guy sure looked like him.
- Heard today that Tamil Nadu Chess Association made the most expensive gold medal ever for Anand-Carlsen, were convinced Anand would win.
- Today is exactly 18 years since Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as president of FIDE
- Yes, there is an official FIDE Anthem, with music by Count dal Verme (1908-1985) and words by Marcel Berman (1895-1960), as I found on
www.chesshistory.com (Edward Winter's Chess notes). There has been a president of the French chess association and FIDE vice president called Marcel Berman in the 1950's. I haven't found the text yet, but it seems to have been sung at least once, see According[/url] to the FIDE Handbook, the anthem must be played at the opening and closing of official FIDE competitions.. I haven't found the text yet, but it seems to have been sung at least once.
- Why was there a man with a machine gun on the stage? Nobody seemed to notice him, but he was not wearing a police uniform and he had his finger at the trigger.
- I guess he is part of the security detail of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa
- Two obviously omnipotent women in spooky robes in a menacing mourning state, the frozen president, the robot guy with machine gun, Anand as immaculately dressed failing officer who will soon be sentenced and the mildly amused schoolguy lost from planet earth decorated with authentic olive bushes looking for a way out and all this animated with the otherworldly fide music........ The closing ceremony was directed by George Lucas
++++++
[Two days after the Match, Robert K. von Weizsäcker, the Honorary President of the German Chess Federation, said on German radio that Carlsen is not the world's best chess player in his opinion, with regard to the pure understanding of chess . Carlsen plays and plays and forces the other, who is older by 20 years, into a fourth and fifth hour with the position drawn. But he plays on and on and outsits Anand. Carlsen had used this strategy throughout the tournament waiting for an error from Anand. "This is from a chess viewpoint is unconvincing. Because he has not won, but simply made no mistakes and then slammed the door shut." Carlsen games very similar to a computer’s - bloodless and soulless.]
- Weizsäcker is off base on at least four counts.
First, only a fool would doubt Magnus's "pure understanding of chess." He knows and can recall and draw upon every position in thousands of exemplar games from the past, has an uncanny positional sense of where pieces should be placed, can play every type of structure and position, and has brought endgame play in particular to new heights in revelatory fashion.
Second, even if Weizsäcker's dubious proposition about chess understanding were true, he should understand that, here on planet Earth, pure understanding of chess gets you nowhere if you cannot execute at the board. Vishy made this simple point expressly at the final press conference, but it apparently flew miles over Weizsäcker's head. Chess is not an academic exercise, particularly in the age of computer engines. Were it otherwise, we would all be GMs (e.g., with enough time we all could, for example, annotate games at the same level of a GM).
Third, harping on the point that Magnus merely pounces on mistakes means, at bottom, nothing different than that he plays chess. For practical purposes, chess is a mathematically equal game. Proper play by both sides results in a draw. If someone is defeated, it means that he made one or more mistakes – not only a blunder, but general weak play, deep tactical mistakes, selection of a plan unsuited to the position, etc. So we can agree with mastermind Weizsäcker: Magnus has yet to defeat someone who played a perfect game against him. (Of course, neither has anyone else.)
Finally, Weizsäcker makes the point that others have made about the lack of competition in the championship match, as if a one-sided route establishes something far less conclusive than a nail-bitingly close battle. No doubt that one could have had a more entertaining fight between two weaker but evenly matched players (eg, Anand-Gelfand). That, however, is hardly the point of a championship match.
- Let me make one thing clear: I do not praise Weizsäcker (another story is that I am equally critical of Kasparov's open support for Carlsen).
In the meantime I found the original.
It sounds a bit less harsh than the Spiegel Online excerpt - for example, he did call Carlsen's approach to chess "OK" or "legitimate". BTW he considered not just Kramnik but also Aronian superior to Carlsen in terms of pure chess understanding. He is entitled to his opinion - from my perspective, "I prefer if someone outplays rather than 'outsits' his opponent" would have been a bit more diplomatic, while of course still controversial.
+++++++
- Really interesting about Carlsen's seconds. A very unique approach, to have one second, a childhood friend, communicate on Skype from 1500 miles away! Carlsen is rewriting professional chess on almost every count.
- This approach (no seconds or only one or two trustworthy friends with limited seconds tasks) was introduced by Bobby Fisher, who thus faced the heavy armada of the Soviet collective behind their best grandmasters.
This is why I still consider Fischer as the greatest chessplayer (yes I know of his problems in other regards) of them all, because the degree to which he achieved his goals more or less on his own seems really breathtaking - from hindsight even more than then.
Nice to see Carlsen taking a similar road, and I can only agree with comments above on the absolutely disgusting way in which Mr. Weizsäcker commented on the match for the news. He can have his own taste of chess, no problem, but his way of ignoring a) the quality of chess played from both players for most of the games and b) uttering utterly clueless comments about Carlsen's achievement is a real shame
- I think seconds are more or less an invention of the Soviet School of chess and I severely doubt that the old time masters such as Lasker and Capablanca had seconds, so this is absolutely nothing new under the sun.
- Who needs seconds when you have Houdini? Seconds are a thing of the past or for incompetent "grandmasters".
- Superficial perhaps, but I do think Carlsen may regret not dressing up (or at least tucking his shirt in!) for the closing ceremony when he looks back on these pictures in a few years! I guess it displays his youth and a bit of a 'devil-may-care' attitude, but it starkly contrasts to how professional and how well Anand looks!
Anish Giri has a considered opinion for Anand’s loss on his website. It starts with this:
Before the match Vladimir Kramnik, who knows what he is talking about, said that Anand has to stop fearing Carlsen. I do agree, and I do think that Anand failed in that matter. Whenever I tuned it to watch the press-conference Anand was always underestimating his position. He seemed to be content with 'holding by getting enough counterplay' in game 3, when the whole world, Magnus included, were instead seriously worried about our World Number One.
At the end he promises:
P.S. Those who are not interested in 'blablabla' and want to see some real chess, I advise them to check out my analysis of four crucial games in the next issue of New In Chess magazine.
"Vishy" Anand notes that the pressure of playing at home was not a factor in his loss in the WC match. He "failed in making dry positions less enjoyable than Carlsen would have liked," and was not able to carry out his plan of drawing out the Norwegian GM.
Anand has no plans to retire from competitive chess. A tournament in London, England is forthcoming in December. He will, however, have more time for the chess Academy he is associated with. Interestingly, he specifically mentioned "getting chess a bigger place in society" and "laying the foundation for chess in India" through, at least in part, his efforts with the Academy.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Extract from an Interview of Vishy Anand by Rajdeep Sardesai
Would it be fair to say that in that sense you were outplayed?
Oh definitely. My strategy was a failure and I was not able to cope. He got everything he wanted, he totally deserved to win, there's no ambiguity here.
Would it be fair to say in hindsight that had you adopted a more attacking approach from the very beginning – were you too cautious against Carlsen, were you too defensive, did home pressure get to you?
Well, this is the one criticism that I feel really misses the mark, because I was of course delighted to get any aggressive position. But people have to understand that the one thing Magnus Carlsen specializes in is getting the position he likes, which is the driest dust, if you like slightly boring, technical positions. And he's very good at it. The last game I played a dynamic opening, he simply refused to let me have it. In every line he always steers the coast and that's what I meant: my game plan had to some how force him into an aggressive area. I thought I could do this by making dry positions less enjoyable for him than he would have liked. But I didn't succeed and I think that's where my strategy failed.
If there was one thing that you would have liked to do differently in this match, if you had to do it all over again, what would that one thing be?
If there was one game I could take back it would be the fifth. Psychologically I felt that if I could neutralize his strongest point, I mean this is what he's gotten everything that he's achieved, which is to go on playing long games without taking any real risk, I mean he makes the position first very dry, and then he goes on and on and on, waiting for mistakes, it's a very peculiar style to deal with. I felt that if I could develop the confidence to neutralize that, then I would force him out of his comfort zone, and I could take him on. The fifth game was a blow at many levels, not only at the chess board, also in terms of my strategy, in terms of psychology, everything
I presume it's taken a lot of time and energy even building up to this World Chess Championship on home turf, in Chennai. It's taken a lot of preparation. Are you more than anything else at this moment feeling a little bit exhausted?
Yes, I think the thing is for about three days after the match I could barely move a muscle. It felt that all that mental exertion almost took a physical manifestation. You never know how tired you are and what you're capable of right away. I think it's important to let the weeks pass and slowly recover. On top of that, clearly the accumulated efforts of the last six years – I played four matches and a tournament world championship in the last six years, that's five out of six. All this will take a toll. While I'm not inclined to go on about my age, definitely you have to see these things in a realistic perspective. So let me enjoy my rest and then I will see the direction forward. I think some time after the New Year I can start thinking of what comes next.
The former world champion Vishy Anand met journalists in Indian city Puna. Namely, he was asked if he's going to participate in the Candidates tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk.
"Most likely I won't play. Zurich is the only confirmed event for me right now. There are many interesting invitations for the second half of the year. And possibly I will be playing in Ukraine, where I will be playing rapid," worldchesschampionship2013.com quotes Anand.
If Anand eventually decides no to play, he will be replaced by Fabiano Caruana who was third at the Grand Prix 2012-2013.
Anand was also asked if he had post-match analyses, "To be honest I have actually preferred not to do any of it (post-match analysis). I think sometimes you just accept that things can go horribly wrong and then it's more important to recover and focus on the next tournament rather than be obsessive about what you did wrong. Clearly, there will be some broad lessons and they are accepted as well," was Anand's answer.
People will remember the large portrait of Chief Minister of Tamil, Nadu Jayalalithaa at the Chennai Match. There was also a guard with a machine gun in her security detail.
The Times of India reported yesterday the following:
BANGALORE/CHENNAI: A special court in Bangalore sentenced Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and her three associates — N Sasikalaa, J Elavarasi and VN Sudhakaran — to four years imprisonment in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
The court of John Michael D'Cunha imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore on Jayalalithaa and Rs 10 crore on each of the other convicts. If they fail to pay the fine, they will have to serve an additional one year in jail. Jayalalithaa can't contest elections for six years.
On pronouncement of the judgment, Jayalalithaa complained of giddiness. Her advocates pleaded for leniency in sentence on health grounds and sought permission to take her to a hospital. However, the judge called prison authorities and ordered that she be provided necessary medical assistance. She was shifted to the hospital on the jail premises around 5.00 p. m.
Later, Jayalalithaa and others were lodged in Parappana Agrahara jail.
- A former actress, she appeared in more than 100 films
- Critics accuse her of establishing a personality cult, but supporters praise her poverty relief efforts
- Known for her extravagant lifestyle, police once discovered more than 10,000 saris and 750 pairs of shoes in a raid on her premises
- Known by her followers as Amma or Mother, she inspires intense loyalty, even adoration.
- But she has been associated with a lavish lifestyle. Her foster son's wedding almost 20 years ago broke world records for its sheer scale - including 150,000 guests.
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