)
This year marks the start of the official Carlsen era and more sadly, the end of Anand's reign. The Norwegian genius has been rated world no: 1 for years. Winning the world championship sets the seal on his domination.
Magnus Carlsen's facile victory in the title match in Chennai was no surprise despite his playing a legend in Viswanathan Anand. The Norwegian GM is probably the strongest player to ever walk the planet. What we're seeing is the chess equivalent of a young Don Bradman - a player way ahead of the competition while still short of hitting his own peak.
Pushing the analogy further, Bradman's batting average was near triple figures, or above it, for most of his career. Other greats generally logged batting averages in the 50s. Carlsen's ratings are similarly stratospheric - Anand is at the next level with Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, et al.
Carlsen has a near-impeccable tournament record in that he wins almost everything he plays. He has established a massive rating difference between him and no: 2,3. The difference is more relevant than the record Elo rating in itself - it indicates how much of a lead he has on the competition.
Computer analysis suggests his play is almost error-free. He's equally good at rapid and blitz and there are few situations where he looks uncomfortable or out of his depth. The fantastic technique is allied to a terrific attitude: Carlsen always plays to win.
Despite his gifts, Carlsen is unlikely to have an easy ride in the future. He belongs to a very strong generation that includes some other very talented players. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, are all his age or younger and very strong. They all have different stylistic approaches as well. There is also a second rung of seriously talented youngsters with the potential to jump levels.
In current tournament news, the world youth championships (a bunch of age group events) are entering the latter stages in South Africa. In the Indian national championship at Jalgaon, Krishnan Sasikiran leads with 7.5 points from 9 games.
Carlsen is often castigated for over-reliance on technique but he's also a spectacularly efficient tactician. The DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (Karjakin Vs Carlsen, Norway 2013) continued 33. --- Nxf4!
The mainline is easy enough - 34. gxf4 Bxf4+ 35. Kg2 f5! (or 35. Nxf4 Qxf4+ 36. Kh1 Qg3) and black has a winning attack.
Karjakin simplified with 34.Rxd6 Nxg6 35.Rxe6 Rxe6 36.Bd4 f5! This rips open the long white diagonal. 37.e5 Nxe5 38.Bxe5 Qc6 39.Rg1 Qd5 40.Bxf5 Rxe5 41.Bg4 h5 42.Bd1 c3 43.Qf2 Rf5 44.Qe3 Qf7 45.g4 Re5! 46.Qd4 Qc7 (0-1). The threats combine rook discoveries with a c2 push.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
