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Payoffs, Points and 12-Year-Old Grandmasters
July 13, 2021
Recently, Abhimanyu Mishra broke Karjakin’s record of world’s youngest grandmaster by two months.
From a New York Times article:
Like Karjakin’s parents more than two decades ago, Mishra’s father, Hemant, had a lot at stake in seeing his son claim the title. He said he spent more than $270,000 on making his son the world’s youngest grandmaster, and he had been collecting donations online to make their chess dream come true. The small advantages that the money could buy — in scheduling, in opposition, in timing — began to add up as he closed in on his final norm.
Mishra, who described Karjakin as his idol, played in five so-called norm tournaments in Charlotte, N.C., in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 but did not achieve a single norm. With the deadline to beat Karjakin’s record bearing down, he and his father next traveled to Budapest, where Abhimanyu Mishra played eight tournaments in a row.
At these tournaments, norm-seekers paid the organizers, who in turn paid grandmasters to show up, a legal and common arrangement in professional chess. But the quality was not the same; the average rating of Mishra’s opponents in the Budapest events was nearly 50 points lower than it had been in Charlotte.
At the Budapest tournaments, Mishra had the added advantage of playing against the same group of grandmasters again and again, which allowed him to learn their tactics and styles.
Still, Mishra’s rise to grandmaster will mark the start of a new life for him. He was recently featured on the websites of ESPN and People magazine and was invited to the upcoming Chess World Cup, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the sport with a purse of nearly $1.9 million.
Hemant Mishra said his son achieved the title legitimately and that suggesting otherwise would be “utter nonsense.” But top players are publicly questioning Mishra’s title and criticizing the system that helped him get it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/s...gtype=Homepage
The article is entitled “The Dark Side of Chess: Payoffs, Points and 12-Year-Old Grandmasters by Ivan Nechepurenko and Misha Friedman.
It might be behind a paywall.
The first part details how Karjakin got his title. Not pretty.
___________
Yan Nepomniachtchi on Twitter: "I’m dazzled with the new record, so I’d like to suggest some changes to the order of conferring titles. For example, one of the norms must be fulfilled in an open tournament, and the participation of 2400 GM luminaries.
Yan’s point is taken up in this criticism:
https://gamelevate.com/the-youngest-...orm-factories/
See also:
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...ge3#post213970
July 13, 2021
Recently, Abhimanyu Mishra broke Karjakin’s record of world’s youngest grandmaster by two months.
From a New York Times article:
Like Karjakin’s parents more than two decades ago, Mishra’s father, Hemant, had a lot at stake in seeing his son claim the title. He said he spent more than $270,000 on making his son the world’s youngest grandmaster, and he had been collecting donations online to make their chess dream come true. The small advantages that the money could buy — in scheduling, in opposition, in timing — began to add up as he closed in on his final norm.
Mishra, who described Karjakin as his idol, played in five so-called norm tournaments in Charlotte, N.C., in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 but did not achieve a single norm. With the deadline to beat Karjakin’s record bearing down, he and his father next traveled to Budapest, where Abhimanyu Mishra played eight tournaments in a row.
At these tournaments, norm-seekers paid the organizers, who in turn paid grandmasters to show up, a legal and common arrangement in professional chess. But the quality was not the same; the average rating of Mishra’s opponents in the Budapest events was nearly 50 points lower than it had been in Charlotte.
At the Budapest tournaments, Mishra had the added advantage of playing against the same group of grandmasters again and again, which allowed him to learn their tactics and styles.
Still, Mishra’s rise to grandmaster will mark the start of a new life for him. He was recently featured on the websites of ESPN and People magazine and was invited to the upcoming Chess World Cup, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the sport with a purse of nearly $1.9 million.
Hemant Mishra said his son achieved the title legitimately and that suggesting otherwise would be “utter nonsense.” But top players are publicly questioning Mishra’s title and criticizing the system that helped him get it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/s...gtype=Homepage
The article is entitled “The Dark Side of Chess: Payoffs, Points and 12-Year-Old Grandmasters by Ivan Nechepurenko and Misha Friedman.
It might be behind a paywall.
The first part details how Karjakin got his title. Not pretty.
___________
Yan Nepomniachtchi on Twitter: "I’m dazzled with the new record, so I’d like to suggest some changes to the order of conferring titles. For example, one of the norms must be fulfilled in an open tournament, and the participation of 2400 GM luminaries.
Yan’s point is taken up in this criticism:
https://gamelevate.com/the-youngest-...orm-factories/
See also:
https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...ge3#post213970
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