Saturday 8 December 2012

Some thoughts on Carlsen

Given his current outstanding run in the 2012 London Chess Classic, here are some of my thoughts and questions concerning Magnus Carlsen.

  • How high can he go? Obviously the bigger the gap between himself and his rivals, the harder it is to gain rating points, but I wonder how big that gap will be. (And in a sense this is a more significant number than his rating)
  • Will his performance lift his rivals?
  • If he qualifies for the World Championship, I believe it will be the biggest chess event since Fischer - Spassky 1972
  • Who is likely to challenge him in the next decade? Caruana seems to be an obvious choice but is there anyone else?

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