Magnus Carlsen

I do hope that Magnus will overcome Aronian with the white pieces today, coming back to 50% before the Linares part. I expect an interesting last game in Morelia! My suggestion, when Magnus is playing black however, is to stop playing the Ruy Lopez (unless he starts playing Marshall). I think that his tactical style and calculation abilities are better spent in the Sicilian, Aljechin's, or maybe even the Scandinavian or French. He will probably loose more games by playing these openings, but he will certainly win more as well. The win against Topalov was really something! In my opinion it's the best game of the tournament so far!

Hei!
Hvem teller vel de tapte slag på seirens dag? Vi krysser derfor fingrene for Magnus mot Aronian og så er det til Spania! Go Magnus!
Kommer Peter eller noen andre for å coache Magnus i siste halvdel som i fjor?

I think the positives to take from this is that Magnus is improving his opening reportoire, which will always make life difficult for his opponents (and is also fun to watch from a fans' point of view:-))

Also, at this stage of his career a loss should just blow over his head because at 17 he has plenty of time to learn from his mistakes and improve.

Good luck for tomorrows game against Aronian!

Magnus handled well the opening with Radjabov and in a slightly better (or equal) position played for win and blundered? One might say that most other competitors would have been contented with the draw and Magnus was too ambitious. But, is it not has uncompromising fighting spirit one of the reasons we find Magnus? games so exciting?
Each defeat is a good teacher. Don?t let Magnus be upset, he plays a great chess!

Heinrik,

You now that I greatly admire your son.
And I certainly believe , as many others, that he is the futur World Champion.
Magnus is only 17 years old and has a rank of 2750 in april!(amazing...)

But Magnus looks also tired from all these top level competitions.
I really think he should take
a year off, and probably continue training at home. I am sure he can progress that way just as Fischer
or Kamsky has done when they were out of competition.

He should also discover some other aspects of life, such as girl friends for instance. Indeed, this will probably reduce his potential but I think those aspects can not be denied in one's life. Do you think Magnus is happy playing all the time Anand, Kramnik and Topalov?
I think that's a boring thing to do at 17...
I'm sure that
family affection greatly contributes to his results, but even then there are limits.

Futhermore, If Magnus disappears, everybody will wonder where the wonder kid has gone and thus, this will create even more fear in his opponents eyes when he comes back.

It would be nice to have Magnus sometimes answer to some of these questions. It would give a bigger impact to this blog.

I wish all the best to your family,

Nicholas from Switzerland

Good luck to Magnus in Round 7!
Not only is he a great chess player but I think he is a very nice person as well. It is a pleasure to follow his games.
Best wishes,
Quinn

I think this blog, exactly the way as it is now, is already by far more than we could ever wish for. It's so fantastic, I sometimes can't believe it really exists.
We don't know what the effects of his tight tournament schedule were, are, or will be - but two things seem to be certain to me:
It didn't harm him or his chess up to now (or should his loss against Radjabov honestly serve as the occasion to say so?!) - and as for girl friends: The harder you try the smaller the chances anyway. It happens when it happens, but until then it's most important to stay who you are, not to lose yourself - and you won't by doing exactly the things you feel like doing (and even if he should fall in love - who, by the way, says he isn't already?, but that's not our business - he'll just find out about the uncalculable stimulus it gives to him and his chess, and that's it, there will always be enough time for both, love and chess). If Magnus feels like playing chess, he should just go on doing so. I'm actually not sure whether Kamsky is an appropriate example, considering that he spent his best chess playing years with other things - who knows what he might have achieved if he hadn't stopped playing chess? Who knows which other things besides the chess board he might have missed by actually devoting it to something else than chess! (take alone the aspect that I know what I'm talking about, having spent an unrecoverable amount of my life time studying law...;)).
Hope you're not too disappointed, Magnus! Be honest, you just didn't want to leave Radjabov to be the only player without a win in this tournament...! Oh, you're just too polite...;)
All the best for your match against Aronian and warm regards from Freiburg/Germany

*you know

Hei Magnus og Henrik!
Som jeg skrev tidlligere: "Hvem teller vel de tapte slag på
seirens dag". Et fantastisk parti mot Aronian. Er det riktig at Anand sa at dette "was a heck of a game". Nå gleder vi ogg til torsdag og fortsettelsen!