Magnus Carlsen makes one of his first moves in the fourth game of the World Championship
Magnus Carlsen makes one of his first moves in the fourth game of the L.G.
LEONTXO GARCÍA
London 14 NOV 2018 - 00:36 CET
An innocent-looking video posted on the Internet can turn into a lethal poison for Fabiano Caruana in the world title match in London against the champion, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, because it contains key information about the secret preparation of the American. After knowing the leak, Carlsen played on Tuesday without claw the fourth game of the twelve scheduled, although he had the initiative of the white pieces. There is no clear explanation of that attitude. The score is equalized (2-2).
The champion tried to sneak away when asked about the video, published in the morning and retired after a few hours: "I'll see him tonight," was his first response. At the insistence of journalists, he acknowledged: "I am aware of its existence, but not of the details." Caruana refused to answer on this matter.
The video shows images of Caruana and his team of analysts - the Uzbek Rustam Kasimyánov, the Cuban Leinier Domínguez, the Romanian Cristian Chirila and the American Alejandro Ramírez - during their concentration in the luxurious country house of the patron Rex Sinquefield in the state of Missouri (USA). Everything seems very innocent until, suddenly, images of Caruana are seen in a training session, analyzing several positions, and, above all, a screenshot of computer with the list of a good part of the repertoire of openings and defenses (forms to start a game) that has prepared for this World Cup in London. That is precisely the greatest secret a chess player can have before a duel for the world title. Most likely, those responsible for the video and its publication have no idea of chess.
An image of the filtered video: at the top there is a list of openings and defenses included in the preparation of Caruana
An image of the filtered video: at the top there is a list of openings and defenses included in the preparation of Caruana L.G.
Very few hours after the leak, Carlsen maintained a very strange attitude in the fourth game. He agreed to get into a variant of the English Open knowing that Caruana had played it three times; the normal thing in a situation like this is that the Norwegian would have prepared an incisive idea that would surprise his rival. But instead he played passively, without taking any risks. For that it would have been more logical to play a very unusual opening, as Carlsen has done so many times, in order to take his rival out of the most known ways and force him to think for himself from the beginning and not do the ten or fifteen first movements.
In the room there were two opposing interpretations. The Norwegian journalists did not rule out that, in accordance with the moral principles that prevail in Scandinavia, Carlsen did not want to make blood in a situation clearly unfair to his rival, even though, in normal conditions, the champion is a wild competition beast and admits that he enjoys when his opponents suffer. The other interpretation is much less philosophical, and it is summed up in these words by the veteran Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers: "Carlsen has decided to buy time, not take any risks today, so that his team of analysts can work hard during tomorrow's break [ by Wednesday] to take advantage of that valuable information. "
The consequences of what happened can be very serious, because they practically force Caruana to forget much of what he has prepared for months and to improvise a new repertoire of openings and defenses for the remaining eight games. And in addition there can be important psychological sequels, for him and his team.
The leak of secret information in the Chess World Cups had its heyday during the third duel Kasparov-Karpov, in 1986 (London and Leningrad). Kasparov expelled three of his analysts (Timoschenko, Vladimírov and Dorfman) from his team at different times after accusing them of passing very confidential written material to people close to Karpov. But in this case there seems to be no betrayal, but ignorance about the technical aspects of chess and lack of rigor in the control of information.
Magnus Carlsen makes one of his first moves in the fourth game of the L.G.
LEONTXO GARCÍA
London 14 NOV 2018 - 00:36 CET
An innocent-looking video posted on the Internet can turn into a lethal poison for Fabiano Caruana in the world title match in London against the champion, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, because it contains key information about the secret preparation of the American. After knowing the leak, Carlsen played on Tuesday without claw the fourth game of the twelve scheduled, although he had the initiative of the white pieces. There is no clear explanation of that attitude. The score is equalized (2-2).
The champion tried to sneak away when asked about the video, published in the morning and retired after a few hours: "I'll see him tonight," was his first response. At the insistence of journalists, he acknowledged: "I am aware of its existence, but not of the details." Caruana refused to answer on this matter.
The video shows images of Caruana and his team of analysts - the Uzbek Rustam Kasimyánov, the Cuban Leinier Domínguez, the Romanian Cristian Chirila and the American Alejandro Ramírez - during their concentration in the luxurious country house of the patron Rex Sinquefield in the state of Missouri (USA). Everything seems very innocent until, suddenly, images of Caruana are seen in a training session, analyzing several positions, and, above all, a screenshot of computer with the list of a good part of the repertoire of openings and defenses (forms to start a game) that has prepared for this World Cup in London. That is precisely the greatest secret a chess player can have before a duel for the world title. Most likely, those responsible for the video and its publication have no idea of chess.
An image of the filtered video: at the top there is a list of openings and defenses included in the preparation of Caruana
An image of the filtered video: at the top there is a list of openings and defenses included in the preparation of Caruana L.G.
Very few hours after the leak, Carlsen maintained a very strange attitude in the fourth game. He agreed to get into a variant of the English Open knowing that Caruana had played it three times; the normal thing in a situation like this is that the Norwegian would have prepared an incisive idea that would surprise his rival. But instead he played passively, without taking any risks. For that it would have been more logical to play a very unusual opening, as Carlsen has done so many times, in order to take his rival out of the most known ways and force him to think for himself from the beginning and not do the ten or fifteen first movements.
In the room there were two opposing interpretations. The Norwegian journalists did not rule out that, in accordance with the moral principles that prevail in Scandinavia, Carlsen did not want to make blood in a situation clearly unfair to his rival, even though, in normal conditions, the champion is a wild competition beast and admits that he enjoys when his opponents suffer. The other interpretation is much less philosophical, and it is summed up in these words by the veteran Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers: "Carlsen has decided to buy time, not take any risks today, so that his team of analysts can work hard during tomorrow's break [ by Wednesday] to take advantage of that valuable information. "
The consequences of what happened can be very serious, because they practically force Caruana to forget much of what he has prepared for months and to improvise a new repertoire of openings and defenses for the remaining eight games. And in addition there can be important psychological sequels, for him and his team.
The leak of secret information in the Chess World Cups had its heyday during the third duel Kasparov-Karpov, in 1986 (London and Leningrad). Kasparov expelled three of his analysts (Timoschenko, Vladimírov and Dorfman) from his team at different times after accusing them of passing very confidential written material to people close to Karpov. But in this case there seems to be no betrayal, but ignorance about the technical aspects of chess and lack of rigor in the control of information.
