Photo : Lennart Ootes, official website
After the just concluded 2021 World Chess Championships match between Magnus Carlsen & challenger Ian Nepomniach. Carlsen tipped it might be his last World championship match except Alireaza becomes challenger.
Carlsen has dominated the chess world for decade & is obviously bored as there is no one true competitor or match to his strength at the moment.
He went on to say attaining fide rating of 2900 is his next goal. A new goal to keep him away from the boredom.
Magnus Carlsen is the reigning 5-time Chess world champion & has been the in no.1 rated player in the world for 11 years now!
He attained 2882 elo. The highest rating in the history of the game. But now he wants more, he wants to attain 2900 elo.
Will he be able to though?
Attaining 2900 will be a really challenging task to accomplish.
Especially with the fact that at the moment, the only other player above 2800 is Alireza Firouzja who is currently not playing the Tata Steel Tournament. Meaning even draws will reduce Carlsen's rating.
Taking a step towards achieving his set goal, Carlsen is currently playing in The Tata Steel Tournament at Wijk aan Zee.
Carlsen has done well so far in the tournament. With his new weapon the Catalan Opening, He has been able to win 3 out of 4 games were he employed this opening as White with the last being GM Van Forest, Jorden only narrowly escaping.
One of the games I found most exciting is his round Round 9 win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Gif made on Chess.com
Amazing Play by Magnus!
But even after winning 4 games & being clear first in the standings with 7 points as at round 10 of the tournament. His live rating is 2866 as at today. Just 1 point more than he started the tournament with.
After 4 very interesting games in the past rounds Carlsen plays against the former world champion challenger Sergei Karjakin just before the rest day.
Gif made on Chess.com
The game ended in a quick draw after just 16 moves & Magnus got -7 subtracted from his live rating & his opponent had +2 added
It got me thinking how Carlsen would be able to achieve his 2900 dreams when even the former world championship challenger wouldn't even play for a win against him.
In order for the World Champion to accomplish this he would need to bag as many wins as possible. Because winning one games gives him just about 3 points but losing or drawing will take away up to 7 or more points.
Let me know in the comment below.
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