2018 CHESS: Carlsen Retains Title By Defeating Caruana In Playoff (After 12 Draws In Standard Play)

World champion Magnus Carlsen will retain his title for another two years after defeating Fabiano Caruana 3-0 in the 2018 World Chess Championship playoffs. After twelve consecutive draws in standard play of 40 moves in 150 minutes Carlsen and Caruana were scheduled to play four games of rapid (25 minutes for each side for the entire game) with the first to 2.5 points to win the title. Carlsen swept the first three games, illustrating his dominance in quicker speed games and cementing his status as the best chess player in the world (again).

Here are the three decisive matches:

Game 1

Game 2   
Game 3   
Congrats, Magnus!

2018 World Chess Championship: Carlsen versus Caruana (London, November 9-28)

The 2018 World Chess championship is being held in London starting today and should last until November 28th or so. It is between the defending world champion 27-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and 26-year-old Fabiano Caruana of the United States. Carlsen has been the World #1 ranked chess player since 2010, and first won the World Championship by defeating Viswanathan Anand in 2013 at the age of 22.

However, Caruana is the first American player to challenge for the World Chess champion title since Bobby Fischer in 1972. This is a *big* deal and he is the real deal. I didn't know much about him but this article informed me of his bona fides.

Carlsen-Caruana is the matchup that the chess world was hoping for. It’s world No. 1 versus world No. 2—the first World Championship match between the top two since Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov went at it for the fifth and final time in 1990. Caruana only sits three Elo rating points behind Carlsen at 2832 to 2835, both the highest combined rating and the smallest ratings difference in World Championship history. If Caruana wins the match within the 12 classical games, he’ll not only take the title but also the world No. 1 spot that Carlsen has held continuously since July 2011—about which Magnus has said, “I would like to give you some boring, politically correct answer, but the truth is, yeah, it does bother me!”

This should be awesome!

Carlsen Retains World Chess Champion Title By Winning Tiebreak

Wow! On his 26th birthday, Magnus Carlsen was able to defend his world chess championship title over a challenge from Russian Sergey Karjakin by winning the 4-game rapid chess (25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move) match 3-1 today. After two draws, Carlsen won the last two games, finishing the very last game with a flashy Queen sacrifice which forces mate in two moves! (Do you see it?)

2016 World Chess Championship Tied At 6-All; Tiebreaker Games To Be Played Wednesday

The 2016 World Chess Championship is going on right now in New York City. The current champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who turns 26 on Wednesday while the challenger is Sergey Karjakin is already 26 and was born in the Ukraine but is representing Russia.

After 12 games (with only 2 decisive games, Karjakin won game 8 with Black while Carlsen won game 10 with white) the two are tied with 6 points each. On Wednesday, they will play in several short tiebreaker games to decide who the new World Champion is. Carlsen is expected to have the slight edge, since he has won the World Rapid Championship twice.

FILM REVIEW: Pawn Sacrifice

I found out about the new movie Pawn Sacrifice last week and decided to go see it over the weekend at the Pasadena Arclight Cinemas with members of the Occidental College chess club (which I serve as faculty advisor).

The film Pawn Sacrifice is a screen dramatization of the real-life story of how Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) defeated Boris Spassky (Liev Schrieber) in one of the most high-profile chess matches ever in 1972. The Fischer-Spassky match was one of the key proxy battles in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, since chess had been a game dominated by Soviet Bloc (primarily Russians) for decades. Fischer's win is one of the most extraordinary events in all of sports. He is the only American in the modern era to have won the world chess championship.

The movie does a good job of depicting Fischer's meteoric rise to the top of world chess at shockingly young age (at the time he was the youngest International Grandmaster ever at the age of 16 in the mid 1960s) as well as not shying away from showing his troubled upbringing, bizarre (anti-semitic and racist) beliefs and rather frightening (and bewildering)  mood swings.

I know that you are thinking that a movie centered around games of chess must be like watching paint dry but director Ed Zwick (who is mostly well-known  for his television programs thirtysomething and Once and Again) does an outstanding job of directing the film and telling the story in a way that would engage even people uninterested in chess.

Overall I enjoyed Pawn Sacrifice quite a bit and I'm glad that I saw it!


Title: Pawn Sacrifice.
Director: Edward Zwick.
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexual content and historical smoking.
Release Date: September 16, 2015.
Viewing Date: September 19, 2015.

Writing: B+.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: C+.
Impact: B-.

Overall Grade: B (3.0/4.0).

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Tobey Maguire is Bobby Fischer in The New Movie Pawn Sacrifice

The new film Pawn Sacrifice based on the true life story of chess champion Bobby Fischer stars Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man, The Cider House Rules) as the American chess genius who faced Russian Boris Spassky (played by Liev Schrieber) in Reykjavik in 1972 in what was billed "the match of the century" to decide the world chess championship. The film opens in limited release this weekend.

Since I am an accomplished chess player myself I am always interested in popular depictions of chess and chess-playing in the media. Since Fischer is the best chess player America has ever produced, he is irresistible to Hollywood and his story has been told in multiple adaptations.

Mathematical Analysis of Women's Tennis Open-Era Challenges Serena's GOAT Status

On the eve of the start of her campaign to secure her 22nd major title, fourth of the year, Serena Williams's claim to the title of Greatest of all Time is being analyzed in an article at Five Thirty Eight titled "Serena Williams And The Difference Between All-Time Great And Greatest Of All Time." The article uses a particular mathematical technique called computing an ELO rating to assign a number (which varies over time) to the relative strength of players in head-to-head competition. The graph of all the major champions (Navratilova, Evert, Graf, Seles, Henin, Venus and Serena) are depicted.

From the graph it can be shown that Serena does not achieve the highest ELO rating of all time.

Elo definitely puts Williams in the top tier of female tennis players, but it tells a slightly more muted story than other measures. In particular: While Williams has been great, and has been doing unprecedented things for a player of her age, the relative weakness of the tier of players beneath her undermines her GOAT claim. 

The possibility that Serena has benefited from “weaker competition” is pretty conventional, and certainly debatable, but Elo gives us a useful way to examine exactly what that possibility means and what it implies.
For the unfamiliar, Elo is a rating method originally developed for chess, but eminently suitable for tennis. It’s very simple: Two players enter a match with Elo ratings based on their prior results. Elo uses their ratings to predict their head-to-head outcome, and then updates those ratings depending on the outcome.² It’s not without limitations: Elo makes every head-to-head prediction based solely on the two players’ ratings, which, in turn, are only affected by previous match results.

However, one aspect of Serena which makes her career unique is her 2nd peak in her ELO rating, which has happened at an unprecedented stage of her career, in her 30s. It also claims that Serena was at her best in 2003 (when she won her first Serena slam).

I understand that these results will disappoint some and encourage others but I appreciate the analysis in that bring at least a measure of quantitative rigor to a discussion which is essentially Qualitiative and subject in nature: Who is the Greatest of all Time? In my mind, the figures STILL indicate hat the answer is Serena Williams.

CHESS: Anand Wins Right To Rematch With World Champ Carlsen In 2014

Former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with by easily winning the 2014 FIDE Candidates tournament (with a  round to spare), earning him the right to a rematch for the World Chess Championship with the man who took his title last year, Magnus Carlsen.

Anand drew his 13th round game, and is currently at +3 (3 more wins than losses) for the tournament while his nearest competitors are at +0, which means there is no way they can exceed his point total regardless of the outcome of the 14th round.

44-year-old Anand will play 23-year-old Carlsen for the World Champion title in November 2014.

2013 CHENNAI WCC: Carlsen Wins Title By Defeating Anand 6.5-3.5!

The King is dead, long live the King! 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway has won the world chess championship match by defeating Viswanathan Anand 6.5 to 3.5. Carlsen won the 5th, 6th and 9th games in the 10-game match. The 9th game was the most exciting, with Anand apparently building up a huge attack and then suddenly blundering to lose the game.

Chess.com reports:

Magnus Carlsen won the 2013 World Chess Championship inChennai, India to become the 16th Undisputed World Champion of Chess. The 10th and last game of the match ended in a draw, and so the final score is 6.5-3.5 in favour of the Norwegian, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday in eight days from now.

Le roi est mort, vive le roi! Magnus Carlsen is the new World Champion of chess, and follows Viswanathan Anand's reign as undisputed world champion between 2007 and 2013. From the traditional lineage of chess players who won the crown in a match, Carlsen is the 16th champion after Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosjan, Boris Spassky, Robert Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. If we include FIDE World Champions Alexander Khalifman, Ruslam Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Veselin Topalov, Carlsen is the 20th Champion of the game.

Congratulations to Magnus on his victory!

2013 CHENNAI WCC: Carlsen Leads Anand 4-2 At Halfway Point

The Word Chess Championships is currently going on in Chennai, India between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. The 22-year-old Carlsen is challenging the defending champion who is almost twice his age. The match is at the halfway point, and after beginning with four draws disaster has struck for Anand with two consecutive losses, one with black, and more ominously, one with white. (Generally among elite chess players having white and the right to play first is considered a tangible advantage.)

Here are the two games Anand has lost, starting with Game 6:

and Game 5


It is hard to see how Anand comes back from a 0-2 deficit. There are only 6 games left. Basically he would have to do to Carlsen what what Carlsen did to him. Presumably Carlsen will be trying to draw the remaining games, while Anand will be desperately trying to win (which may lead to another loss.)

It should be noted that Garry Kasparov also won the World Championship when he was 22, and dominated chess for the next decade. We may be seeing history repeat itself....

2013 CHENNAI: Anand-Carlsen World Chess Championship Starts Soon!

The highly anticipated world championship chess match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen is starting soon. 22-year-old Carlsen is the #1 rated player in the world, with an astonishing rating of 2862 while 43-year-old Anand has been at the top of the chess world for well over a decade, considered the world champion since 2007. Anand's current rating is 2779 and he is ranked #9 on the latest world chess rankings.

The 12-game match is happening in Chennai, India (the capital city of the state ofTamil Nadu) where Anand was born and raised. Most people, including former World Champion Garry Kasparov, believe that Carlsen will win, but everyone expects a tough, exciting contest.

CNBC reports:

"We have youthful energy and exuberance from one of the greatest chess prodigies of all time pitted against age and experience. Since I am considerably older than the defending world champion, there is a part of me who wouldn't mind seeing age and experience do OK," said [Wall Street financier Chris] Flowers, who is 56. 

Besides being so far apart in age, the competitors are also far apart in style. [Harvard Economics Professor Kenneth] Rogoff used a tennis analogy to compare the two. 

"Anand has the bigger serve, and Carlsen is more of the baseline, persistent player," he said. "Carlsen in particular just has an indomitable will to win. He aims for quiet positions where nothing seems to be going on and says, 'Well, nothing's going on, but you're going to lose.' Whereas Anand sparkles at everything, but particularly in very complicated positions, and he'll try to steer Carlsen into these messier things, where Carlsen maybe has less of an edge than in simpler positions."

Since I personally know Anand and used to play in similar tournaments with him decades ago I am rooting for him, but I think it will be hard for him to withstand the challenge from his youthful opponent.

You can follow the matches online at chennai2013.fide.com.

Today is National Chess Day!

Today, October 13, 2012, is National Chess Day!

3 of 13 U.S. Chess Masters Under 14 Are Black!

Richard Perry/The New York Times

This is a great story! The NewYork Times covers the amazing occurrence of three African-American chess masters who also happen to be teenagers! As some readers may know, MadProfessah is a Senior Master and FIDE Master. I became a National Master at age 16. There are very few grandmasters of African descent, and only one African American grandmaster, Maurice Ashley, who is quoted in the article, entitled "Masters of the Game and Leaders by Example":

Fewer than 2 percent of the 77,000 members of the United States Chess Federation are masters — and just 13 of them are under the age of 14.  

 Among that select group of prodigies are three black players from the New York City area — Justus Williams, Joshua Colas and James Black Jr. — who each became masters before their 13th birthdays. 

 “Masters don’t happen every day, and African-American masters who are 12 never happen,” said Maurice Ashley, 45, the only African-American to earn the top title of grandmaster. “To have three young players do what they have done is something of an amazing curiosity. You normally wouldn’t get something like that in any city of any race.” 

[...] 

In September last year, Justus, who is now 13 and lives in the Bronx, was the first of the three boys to get to 2,200, becoming the youngest black player to obtain the master rank. Joshua, 13, of White Plains, was a few months younger than Justus when he became a master last December. James, 12, of Brooklyn, became a master in July.

Maurice Ashley is also quoted as saying "Chess just isn't that big in the African-American community." What do YOU think, Gentle Readers? Why isn't chess a bigger sport in the African-American community? Isn't that what people used to (and still) say about tennis?

It would be great if one or more of these players became  a grandmaster but it is really difficult to make a living at being a professional chess player. I know several grandmasters who stopped playing chess and went into other fields where their innate talent for problem-solving and spatial visualization and powers of concentration made them formidable forces in other fields.

Regardless, it is very cool to see the words "prodigy" and "African-American" in the same New York Times article!

Celebrity Friday: James Black, Jr., 12: Black Grandmaster?

James Black, Jr., 12, with his elementary school chess coach, Elizabeth Vicary

This is a cool, "good news" story. A 12-year-old Black kid from Brooklyn is one of the best junior chess players in the United States.

The New York Daily News reports:

Already a rising national star at age 12, Bed-Stuy chess champ James Black Jr. wants to become the youngest American grandmaster in the game's storied history.

Black led the chess team from Intermediate School 318 in Williamsburg to national championships in both the K-8 and K-9 divisions in April - and is only seven points away from the 2,200 needed to be named a master by the United States Chess Federation.

"It would mean a lot because I've worked so hard for it," said James. "I've practiced a lot to become a great player."

James wants to beat the record of Ray Robson, a Florida player who became the youngest American elected grandmaster at age 14 in 2009.

He needs to amass at least 2,600 points by continuing to win tournaments and score favorable results against existing grandmasters to receive that title.

This is not exactly correct; my current chess rating is slightly above 2400 points. There are two rating systems, a United States Chess Federation and a World Chess Federation rating. Titles are given by both (I have the National Master and Senior Master titles from the USCF and the FIDE Master title from the WCF). The U.S. titles are obtained by just achieving a particular rating level but the World titles involve specific perfomances (called norms) in tournaments against other higher rated players plus having a minimum WCF rating.

All that being said, a 12-year old with a rating just a handful of points  under the National Master level of 2200 is extraordinary. At that age, I didn't have a rating, although I did become a master by the time I was 16.

Best of luck to James Black, Jr.!

CHESS: Gelfand To Challenge Anand For World Title

I hadn't been paying much attention to this, but, in a pretty surprising result, 42-year-old Boris Gelfand has won the final FIDE Candidates match against Aleksandr Grischuk to become the official challenger to reigning World Champion (and MadProfessah associate) Vishy Anand next year. Gelfand won the 6-game match by winning the final game after 5 consecutive draws. If the game had been tied the match would have been decided by a series of four blitz (fast time control) matches. Both Grischuk and Gelfand had defeated their opponents, former World Champion Viktor Kramnik and American Gata Kamsky, respectively, in the time-control section of the match in the semifinal rounds, with the 27-year-old Grischuk believed by many to have an edge in fast play if the match had reached that stage.

Here's the final game:





There's some pretty great analysis of the match at chess.com.

Top 10 Chess Players in the World for March 2011

The Top 10 rating list for March 2011 has been released by the World Chess Federation and there are some surprises. Current World Champion Vishy Anand has returned to the top of the list, dethroning Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen by gaining 7 rating points to Carlsen's 1 since the last list. Rounding out the "super-duper grandmaster" level of 2800 is Levin Aronian of Armenia. Also, American Hikaru Nakamura vaults into the Top 10 for the first time, increasing a  remarkable 23 points, with his recent excellent tournament results.

Here's the list:

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	13	1969
2	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2815	13	1990
3	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2808	13	1982
4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2785	13	1975
5	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	19	1969
6	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2776	0	1990
7	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2775	0	1975
8	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2774	13	1987
9	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2772	0	1985
10	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2747	13	1983

American Chess Player Wins Tourney Ahead of World's Best

GM Hikaru Nakamura, 23, is the world's #10 chess player

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has won the prestigious super Grand Master tournament held in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands, ahead of the top 4 ranked players in the world:  Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik . Carlsen is the world's top-ranked player and Anand and Kramnik have both won the world chess championship.


Former world champion Garry Kasparov called it "maybe the best performance by an American in  100 years." The New York Times Gambit blogger disputed this remark, but did call it "one of the best results by an American in decades."

Nakamura won the Tata Steel Chess with 6 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss (to Carlsen), or 9 points, half a point ahead of Anand, with World #3 Aronian and World #4 back at 8 points.

Congrats to Hikaru!

Hat/tip to Susan Polgar.

Anand Regains World #1 Chess Rating

Despite finishing second in the latest super grandmaster tournament in Bilbao, Spain, world champion Viswanathan Anand has regained the World #1 ranking he had previously lost to Norweggian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen.


Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik finished first, with Anand second, Carlsen 3rd and Shirov fourth, at the 2010 Bilbao Masters Final; the chess tournament had the highest average participant rating of all time.

Carlsen has had a bit of a dip lately, losing rating points to fall to 2802, while Anand's rating is now at 2803. They are the only active players to be above 2800 rating. A Super grandmaster (unofficial title) rating is considered to be around 2650.

Carlsen Reaches 2nd Highest Chess Rating Ever At 2830

Magnus Carlsen, the World's #1 returned to tournament action after a three month lay-off during which Viswanathan Anand defended his World Chess Championship and crushed the competition at the King's Tournament in Romania by winning 5 and drawing 5 games for a ridonculous 2918 performance rating. The result will extend Carlsen's already top-ranked rating to 2830.

That is the second highest rating in history. Only former World Champion (and Carlsen mentor) Garry Kasparov has ever been ranked higher, at 2851 (back in 1999). Carlsen is only 19 and still improving. Some commentators believe his actual rating may end up exceeding 2900.

Anand Wins Final Game To Retain World Title!

World Chess Champion Vishy Anand has achieved one of the hardest feats in chess, winning the final game of a world championship match with the dark pieces, to retain his world title against Veselin Topalov, in Topalov's home town of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Anand had played better throughout the match, despite losing the very first game, he had won Game 2 and Game 4 to gain a lead which he kept until Game 8 where he blundered to lose a draw in an opposite-color bishops ending. Anand should probably have won Game 9 when he had two rooks versus a queen and Topalov's king trapped on the back rank in a mating net.

In Game 12, Topalov had the light pieces and the opening looked pretty even when all of a sudden he let Anand's bishop and queen control the main light-square diagonal and Topalov's king was forced to go on a walk. Anand quickly surrounded the King into a mating net but relaxed after obtaining a Queen versus Rook plus Knight, but with few remaining pawns it was conceivable that Topalov could have set up a fortress and force a draw. However, the challenger blundered and let Anand win a pawn which gave him a passed pawn on the Queen's wide which could lead to another Queen, allowing the Champion to win the game and the 12 game championship match 6.5 points to 5.5 points, along with $1.5 million.