Kasparov says Anand’s reign over soon
Garry Kasparov had an interesting interview with Indian television where he talked about, among other things, Viswanathan Anand’s reign as World Champion. The topic is very interesting since much is being made of the youth movement in chess lead by a cadre of teens. Kasparov doubts that Anand can keep competing at such a high level against his youthful opponents.
Vishy is a brilliant player. But it is very difficult to compete at 40. He is up against people half his age. I will be surprised if he can go on any longer. He can fight against anyone but time.
I recall Anand saying himself that he would not play as long as Viktor Korchnoi (who still plays at a high level). Kasparov credits the use of computer databases with the ability of younger, more pliable minds to absorb massive amounts of information.
ChessBase: https://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5293
That is what Kasparov says, but there are a number of people who would disagree with him. What is a “pliable minds” any way?
Anand has even admitted this in several interviews. He always mentions the advent of technology and how the young players are cutting the gap due to preparation.
Pliable… it just means the mind has the flexibility to absorb lots of information quicker. This ability tends to lessen as we age.
Well Brother Shabazz i recall the 95′ match when Vishy had a team of brits to compete against Garry’s team and all the robots that they carry around and call “notebooks”, Do you realize Maurice actually came to Buffalo that year and told me that Vishy actually calculates and analyses better than Garry and he witnessed this himself!! Now that innocent statement actually got me ta tinkin, now we all know African people dont know nuttin bout no chessin,i mean,not like “the great brit” nige short who obviously knows it all, anyway, Theses brits actually convinced Vishy to slow down saying he moved too fast, theses co-conspiritors deceived him to take away part of a natural ability and play down to Garrys level(didnt Garry get beat in 20minutes, im over 40 so things are gettin vague,im black,cant spell, barely know the language so all kinds of stuff in going on, just crazy stuff. Now that the world is in a time where we are dealing with the genius of the Black Mind we begin to “seek a new way forward ” as opposed to the self restrictive ideas of the hypermoderns, we begin to understand that the old science is too slow for the thinking speed of a Vishy, Tate,Yeu, Naka, or any of our brothers, we then begin to move naturally toward the intellectual speed of our own science, which stimulates the growth and development of our young people all over the world, this is what they fear.so what we are faced with as chess elders is how to get our science to our young americans without other countries trying to adopt our creations and pretending its their own like this clown is currently on the uscf website with this polar bear nonsense, we’re way ahead of them anyway. Brother Shabazz that Qatar thing is really nice however if those brothers at the Hip-Hop Fed get with President Obama we gunna be over here rebuilding pyramids!! haha. My instructor Fischer said to keep your real ideas in your head and dont write them down , so we just threw them a little bait on the ICC to see if the fish were biting!Radjabov yall alright over there in Russia? I grew up in the HOOD “like him”(Jan.20). HAHA yall funny.
peace,and love to you,and yours.
Hi mama peace and love to you as well.Thanks to our females selves we have our own Black President and Chess Science, pretty cool huh? I remember she took me to the local tavern called the checkerboard back in mid 70’s to play chess for money at 8 years old! they now call it Birchfields,shortly after we won a few bucks you said “what do you wanna be when i grow up”? the usual things were mentioned a policeman, fireman etc, You then replied “I want you to do something using your brain”, so we honor our female selves by sending a message of love,thank you for being our Black Queen our Chess Voice.
Kasparov is stating a simple fact. Chess, at its highest levels, doesn’t lend itself to 40-somethings. The mind does retain more information at a younger age. Stamina does begin to erode in the 30s. Real life does have more of an impact at 40 than at 20.
There’s a huge wave of strong juniors coming. Scratch that – it’s already here (Carlsen, Radjabov, Karjakin).
Anand also has more going on than just his own playing career. He’s a bonafide superstar in India, and is directly involved in the explosion of chess talent that country has produced. (Been to the World Open recently? Check out their contingent in the Open section.) Family and business concerns are prominent as well.
This isn’t to say that Kasparov couldn’t be just completely wrong. But history demonstrates that he probably has a very good point about Anand remaining World Champion. Of course, Vishy will continue be a “super-GM” for a long time.
I agree Boyd.
As much as I like Mr. Viswanathan, he is in the sunset of his career. There is even a younger group than Carlsen, Radjabov and Karjakin. We will see the youth benefit from the mass of information and the speed at which they can process it. I still believe that the tried and true method of going over annotated games in a book or magazine has its application, but databases are here to stay.
Of course, if Kasparov makes this observation, I’m not sure many would disagree. He has staddled both the traditional and computer age, played at the highest levels, been World Champion, has analyzed these issues extensively and is still a fan of the game. I’m not sure who would disagree with Kasparov. Who are they and what is their view?
As an Ultramodern practioner I am obligated to disagree with garry and suggest the exact opposite, its seems that Vishy is just beginning to play in a more natural way as well as competing over 2900 at the moment ,but who are we?
Well… Viswanathan is still a strong player no doubt. However, that is not the only point being made. The other point is that younger players are now benefiting from the massive pools of information and they are absorbing at faster rates. He contends that this serves a leveling mechanism at the GM level.
For example, many young players have been able to reach GM strength by talent, sheer self-determination, selective study of database games and trial and error through a massive amount of games on the Internet. One can make the argument that this type of technique lacks depth and intimacy (and I agree to some extent), but what else explains the results? What GM studies chess the way it was studied 25 years ago?
I’m not willing to buy that the rise in strength is solely due to age, but it certainly helps that the youth have less “pollution” swimming in their heads and more time to focus on chess. Kasparov may have had a lack of desire to put out the type of energy that being on top required.
Garri Kimovich might be right,players like Adams have started tumbling down already,
Nigel Short has slipped as well. Vassily Ivanchuk has been sporadic and Boris Gelfand has all but disappeared from elite events. These men have not reached 40.
I thought it would be humorous to revisit this discussion in light of the participants in the recently completed Moscow match. 🙂
I still think the points I made are valid, of course, and of course the absence of Carlsen from this last cycle will always leave some questions. However, neither Anand nor Gelfand can be blamed for this.
The test will be Anand’s battle against the younger elite which is the central argument being made. Carlsen is not a shoo-in in any future cycle, but he is among a number of players who can compete at championship level.
You’re right; Carlsen isn’t guaranteed to win. I was just pointing out that any WC cycle where the world’s highest rated player does not participate will always have a perception problem. Unfair to the GMs who did participate? Sure. But perception is reality.
We can not blame Anand for playing by the rule. I wonder if the world highest rated player has the stamina and patience to handle the trials and tribulations to reach the world championship match?
Assuming that he makes it, Carlsen appears to lack a number of qualities for match play. He is a dissenter of the match system and would rather the world championship be determined in a tournament. Saying that, he has never played in a classical match and he would likely suffer from the immense tension of these conditions and the psychological discomfort of playing the same player over and over. The kind of blunders Carlsen sometimes make in games would be devastating in a match. He will not be able to get losing positions or drop pieces and expect to bounce back and win 3-4 games in a row. That will not happen. I believe someone like Levon Aronian will be more suited for match play against Anand. We shall see, but for right now, Anand is the best player for champion. I’m not sure what the world would have been like with Gelfand as World Champion.