Magnus Carlsen will target his own all-time performance record when the world champion starts the Altibox Norway elite event on home soil at Stavanger on 4 June. The 28-year-old has just triumphed in three major tournaments in a row, triggering a debate on whether he, Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov is the greatest of all time.
Just as he did at Wijk in January and at Shamkir in early April, Carlsen swept the closing rounds of the Grenke Classic in Germany last week, winning his final four games. Leading scores were Carlsen 7.5/9, Fabiano Caruana (US) 6, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan) 5.
Carlsen’s defeated rivals were left wondering what had hit them, and the commentator called it “scary” when Levon Aronian’s apparently level position fell apart. Fischer and Kasparov in their pomp both radiated a hungry energy at the board, and Jonathan Speelman once described the experience of playing the Russian as like being “bombarded with thought waves”.
Carlsen has a calmer presence, and the pressure on the opponent comes more with his universal style. He can majestically sweep through hesitant defence with flowing attacks, he can keep control, probe and induce errors, or he can grind out a marathon endgame. The psychological pressure can still affect his opponent, such as Vachier-Lagrave offering a pawn unsoundly and the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler making “difficult to explain” mistakes.
After Grenke, Carlsen’s live rating is 2875, seven points short of his official 2014 peak and 14 shy of the unofficial daily calculation on chess2700.com. He could then try to reach a round 2900, which he used to think impossible but which he now, after his 2019 winning streak, refers to as “at least a half-attainable dream”.
Thus far his overall 2019 performance in classical chess is 16 wins, 15 draws, and no defeats. His tournament performance rating with the white pieces is over 3000. How does he explain this prolonged burst of creative form? “It helps me that I still have ideas and concepts from the world championship. I feel well in general. The conditions are there, but I never dreamed it would be this good.”
Carlsen will be in action again as early as Wednesday, when the 2019 Grand Chess Tour kicks off with rapid and blitz at Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He will be the first reigning world champion ever to compete in Africa, where his main rivals over 27 speed games are headed by the US champion and specialist in fast chess, Hikaru Nakamura, and by China’s world No 3, Ding Liren.
Who is now the all-time No 1, Fischer, Kasparov, or Carlsen? Direct comparison from different eras is hard, since Carlsen has the benefit of training with very strong computers and with the accumulated knowledge of his predecessors. Carlsen has the highest all-time rating, 32 points above Kasparov’s peak and 99 above Fischer’s, but the pool of players rated above 2700 who provide the required highly-rated opposition is now much bigger.
Fischer’s 20-game winning streak in 1970-71 included his 6-0 candidates matches against Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen, but the US legend’s period of total dominance was much shorter than Carlsen and Kasparov. Arguably Fischer was the No 1 from 1967 onwards, and spoilt his chance to prove it by withdrawing from that year’s interzonal when in the lead.
Kasparov had most consecutive tournament victories (15) and most consecutive elite victories (10). He was world champion for 16 years, which Carlsen would need another decade at the top to equal. His career percentage is higher than Carlsen’s, but the Russian was kept under wraps until he was 15 and already grandmaster strength, while Carlsen’s international career began at age 10.
Carlsen himself has said that Peak Kasparov vs Peak Carlsen would be very close, and that he thought every game would go down to the wire. The debate will continue.
3617 Yes, because if 1 Kg2! Rf2+ 2 Kh1! Rxe2 White has 3 Bd3+! Kxd3, draw by stalemate. After 1 Kg2 the endgame database takes around 40 moves to checkmate, so in practical play White might well have drawn by the 50-move rule.
Svidler chose a cautious plan against Carlsen’s Sicilian, but 12…Kh8! and 13…f5! took the initiative while Black’s central pawns muzzled White’s light-squared bishop. The key move was 20…Qf8! which opened the way for the black knight to reach e3, though White could have done better by 22 Qh5 Rxd3 23 Rce1. The advance of Black’s f and g pawns then overwhelmed the white king, and Svidler sportingly allowed a checkmate where the final position looks like something from the early 19th century. A mate on the board is very rare in elite classical games, and there are only two previous examples in 2018-19 where both players were rated above 2700.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 e5 4 Bc4 Be7 5 d3 d6 6 Nd2 Nf6 7 Nf1 Nd7 8 Nd5 Nb6 9 Nxb6 axb6 10 c3 O-O 11 Ne3 Bg5 12 O-O Kh8! 13 a3 f5! 14 Nxf5 Bxc1 15 Rxc1 Bxf5 16 exf5 d5 17 Ba2 Rxf5 18 Qg4 Rf6 19 f4 exf4 20 Qg5 Qf8! 21 Qxd5 Rd8 22 Qf3? Ne5 23 Qe4 Ng4 24 Rce1 Ne3 25 Rf2 Re8 26 Qxb7 g5 27 Rfe2 g4 28 Rf2 Qh6 29 Qc7 Ref8 30 h3 gxh3 31 g3 fxg3! 32 Rxf6 h2+ 33 Kh1 g2# 0-1