A great endgame from Carlsen. What strikes me though is this. In his first match against Anand, He appeared to be the worlds best in both sides of the Ruy Lopez Berlin. In his match against Caruana, he seemed to be the best on both sides of the Sveshnikov. Now since playing against Nepo he appears to be the worlds best in the Catalan. But he doesn’t like the challenge of this meticulous preparation of one or two lines anymore. Great analysis as ever Jerry, thanks and keep up the good work.
“You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.” - José Raúl Capablanca
Is Magnus getting better with Stockfish? I think he is. He might be the only human able to understand some of the lines SF chooses, to a level none of us can. After consulting and evaluating with it, Carlsen will start seeing chess concepts that only him and Stockfish understand
It’s a photographic memory, If he sees a position stockfish plays once, he can remember it for a long time. So he is able to “understand” these positions better than most.
besides stockfish, a huge difference between magnus and the rest is magnus isn’t afraid to play chess. the confidence to play temporarily compromised positions and challenging his opponent to understand and correctly play the position gives him more flexibility. he isn’t scared of delicate or losing positions. hikaru has started practicing the same mindset and has seen more success as a result. i’m low elo but i’ve improved faster and won more by playing the same way. creativity and confidence are often very decisive factors when competing with other similarly skilled opponents.
I get preferring the knight and bishop over two bishops when the pawns were on one side, that is very clear, but grinding out the opposite coloured bishop situation was excellent. However, it did depend on a mistake from white.
But the h pawn recapture! Proved to super important. Don't double pawns. Sure. Except when you should. Not a goddamn single general rule that doesn't have one or many exceptions. Fuck you chess and your insufferable rule exceptions. B recapture pretty automatic in such a game for me. Not sure at what ratings level I might have the insight to recapture with pawn. Whatever that level might be, for now attempts at high-level, creative play such as this always seems to routinely and spectacularly blow up in my face. Blow up real good.
Have been playing the Queen's Gambit every time I get white, and wondering if it's much a transition to pick up the Catalan? Thanks for the video showing some ideas and resulting positions. Looks like a fun thing to try out.
I like to play as many different openings I can, I feel I get less theory dependant and also don't get bored by playing the same opening over and over.
Sam Harris is the Jerry of philosophy. The way of talking is strickingly similar! And Harris is exepcionally smart. It's an huge complement! You welcome Sam... You welcome...
I think that's the main reason behind Cheparinov playing A4, to eliminate the threat you're talking about by protecting the knight with the A pawn ... Seems to me Carlsen could have still played Nb4 but Cheparinov's queen would have moved to safety and so Magnus wouldn't have gained anything
