Aronian is having a tournament of his life. His lead continues to widen. He is basically back to the form which made him the #3 player in the world.
In the battle of the young phenoms, Carlsen is 2 full points ahead of Karjakin.
Standings after 9 rounds:
1. Aronian 12½
2-4. Carlsen 10
Kramnik 10
Leko 10
5-6. Ivanchuk 9½
Topalov 9½
7. Anand 9
8. Morozevich 8½
9. Karjakin 8
10. Van Wely 7½
11. Gelfand 7
12. Mamedyarov 6½
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Can it really be the “tournament of his life” if it isn’t a “real” (ie, rated) tournament? Don’t get me wrong – I think this format of tourney is great and I hope we see more like it. But, do any of us think the players prepared as hard or as deeply for this as for the rated ones?
The real effort is made in the moment. He’s doing it right there! Rating has nothing to do with that. Yes, one of his best performances.
this is not real chess….I think everyone should be taking it with a grain of salt. Its an exibition…not real chess…though the positioning at the moment seems to accurately reflect the logical placement of these players.
Interesting
What do you consider real chess? – with classical time control? But then there is even more real chess – correspondence chess where you have days to think for one move…Classical, rapid, blitz, blindfold are all real chess (rules of the game are same) requiring different sets of qualities. In rapids calculation skills, unorthodox openings, menthal strength take over the preparation which is the most important quality in longer time control games. I would argue that the talent is better seen in rapid chess. As far as Aronian goes, his success is no brainer. Moro once called him a genius. Anand, Svidler, Leko and others talked very highly about him. In his third year in the elite he won twice Corus, twice Fisherrandom world championship, once Linares, Tal Memorial, rapid match against Kramnik… Superstrong classical players are supposed to and in fact have been playing strong in rapids. Past two years Anand and Kramnik won, Moro won a number of times…
Morozevich losing the blindfold against aronian was a real surprise
This is a great tournament and I consider it real chess. Whatever the format is – they’re playing chess, and it’s a lot of fun to follow because blindfold and rapid games turn out more interesting than classical games, mostly because there are more blunders!
Carlsen vs. Leko today! Magnus is going to win 1.5 – 0.5. 🙂
Carlsen had a rather nice postion against Kramnik in the blindfold, but lost on time.