Among world champions, Capablanca, Smyslov and Karpov had similar styles and thought processes. They were intuitive players, with nearly flawless judgment in simple positions. Except in completely irrational situations, they found the best moves quickly, without much calculation. All had very high-order technical skills.
Magnus Carlsen is not yet a world champion — he’s only 19. Predicting future world champions is usually a mug’s game. But in Carlsen’s case, it seems more a question of “when” rather than “if”.
The Norwegian belongs to the Capa-Karpov-Smyslov school in terms of being an intuitive thinker. He also has wonderful technique and a propensity for winning endgames without apparent effort.
The difference in his favour is that he’s also comfortable in irrational positions. This may be because he’s a “Fritz Kid”. Hence, he’s honed his skills with computers, as well as by playing online blitz against all-comers.
The importance of having high-quality analytical partners and strong opponents available 24x7 is difficult to overestimate. It clearly accelerates the learning curve. Capa said he played 1,000 rook endings before achieving mastery of heavy pieces (around 40 per cent of all endgames include rooks). Karpov dissected Capa’s games as well as studying many other things under the tutelage of Mikhail Botvinnik.
If you believe Malcolm Gladwell’s thesis, the Fritz Kids have gotten in their 10,000 hours of high quality practice, much more easily. Carlsen started analysing with world class human players recently but Chessbase, Fritz and Rybka have been his constant companions since he learnt the moves. Ditto for Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura,Vachier-Lagrave, Parimarjan Negi, etc.
Every world champion has a “breakthrough” tournament, where he outpaces a strong field for the first time. The Nanjing Pearl Classic appears to be Carlsen’s breakthrough.
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He leads by two points with two rounds to go and his unbeaten +5,=3 performance is 3000+ range. Veselin Topalov is on +1, with everybody else languishing below 50 per cent. If Carlsen stays unbeaten, he overtakes Anand to move to no:2 on the rating list.
The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Carlsen Vs Wang, Nanjing 2009) illustrates his endgame skills. The Chinese GM played 60...Rb3 trying to hold with practical drawing chances. Two Kts Vs Pawns can be a win or a draw by stalemate. The presence of rooks lets white force mate, or win massive material and then, force mate. The alternative 60...Ka5 61.Nd5 Re1+ 62.Kxe1 Nd3+ 63.Kd2 Nxc1 64.Kxc1 is much harder to win though table-bases say white can.
Now 61.Nd5+ Ka7 62.Ra1+ Kb8 63.Kc2 Rh3 shoulders the rook off b-file. Carlsen concluded 64.Rb1+ Ka7 65.Rb7+ Ka6 66.Rb6+ Ka5. Variations like 66...Ka7 67.Nc8+ Ka8 68.Nc7# are pretty. 67.Rb5+ Ka4. Or 67...Ka6 68.Nc7+ Ka7 69.Nc8#. 68.Nb6+ Ka3 69.Rxe5. (1-0). White will rinse and repeat, and eventually force mate.