Chess

[DarthFed]

I honestly don't believe that Gukesh has or ever will be able to separate himself from his peers... Pragg, Nordibek, Erigaisi, Keymer, or Sindarov etc. I still think in match play he would probably fall short of certainly Fabi, probably Hikaru as well. He's a super strong player at his best of course, but will history consider him any different from a Topalov or even Ponomariov? I'm not so sure. This is why I think Kasparov has been quite dismissive.

PS, I actually think Firouzja is most likely in the same tier as Fabi and Hikaru in a match play situation. I think his problem is maintaining the concentration to actually get there, but once there I still think Magnus is right, the talent is strong in that one

Yes, this definitely seems to be the case with Gukesh in regards to the competition, especially since he has fallen off significantly since winning WC. I think he’d be an underdog against everyone you mentioned right now as well as the OG’s.

With that said Gukesh has played well at the Olympiad, but that’s on 4th board (!!) for India. I know India has many strong players but for the WC to be 4th board is crazy! But still, he will take any little momentum he can get against Sindarov who has kept having strong results after dominating the Candidates tournament.

Firouzja is an interesting one too. I will say that there is a decent chance that those that are still very bullish on him in classical (like Magnus and Hikaru) may be heavily influenced on his skills in speed chess. Alireza has stalled out in classical and has been especially bad in the Candidates. And part of that of course could be his interest in fashion. He is called Guccireza for a reason

that puts Kasparov's dominance into perspective. Feels like Magnus has been ruling the roost forever, but he still has another 6 years to catch up. That's mad! I will say this though... I think Magnus's length of dominance is actually more impressive that Garry's because Kasparov had an edge with his opening prep that was massive. Yes of course other players could have tried to build up their own opening prep work, but the barrier to entry for that at that time was much more difficult. Magnus has largely maintained his lead by simply being a better chess player than everyone else (that's not to say Garry wasn't). We live in an era where computers have given everyone an equal capability with regards to preparation, so now it truly is completely about ability. It's not clear to me that Garry was that much superior to Karpov, Vishy and Kramnik if you controlled for his opening advantage.

I definitely wouldn’t view Magnus’s run in classical as being more dominant than Garry, especially when we factor in that Carlsen has been a part-time player in classical chess for many years already. With that said, what you said is definitely correct that chess is more difficult to dominate now. But that has always been true over time and will continue to be the case in the future as generations build off each other and openings become more and more played out, leading to a higher % of draws. Also, just the spike in the popularity of chess figures to lead to a more competitive field compared to now, let alone 30 years ago,

I also don’t think we can just dismiss Kasparov’s ability in openings as being more or less something handed to him. There definitely is talent involved, and what it came down to is that Garry was a master in playing to his strengths and so often got what he wanted out of the opening; a dynamic position where once he grabbed the initiative it was basically game over.

Regarding the players you mentioned, Garry dog walks them in brute calculation and tactical skills and he also was very difficult to beat even when his attacks fizzled. For the couple players that Garry struggled against (Karpov and Kramnik) styles make fights. Karpov was so strong positionally and was dynamic, maybe too much for his own good when it came to playing Garry. Kramnik was more a pure positional player in his prime and wisely took all the air out of the positions against Kasparov. He also seems to have sold his soul to the devil; on top of being a piece of shit, the chess he played leading up to and during that match is something he never duplicated after. Anyways, if you take Garry’s opening play away, you could say the same about Carlsen with endgames and wonder how his results would be if he wasn’t so superior there.