Parting company

World No1 Magnus Carlsen parts company with mentor Garry Kasparov
Saturday 13 March 2010

The most significant chess news this month is a negative item. A carefully scripted and bland press release announced that the world No1, Magnus Carlsen, would make his own career decisions for 2010 and that he and the all-time No1, Garry Kasparov, would cease their regular training sessions launched early last year. The statement claimed that, with 19-year‑old Carlsen established at the world top, his cooperation with Kasparov had achieved its objectives ahead of schedule and that the Norwegian no longer needed constant guidance.

Carlsen won his last two tournaments in London and Corus Wijk but displayed weaknesses and is as yet far from the finished article. Technically speaking he remains work in progress and to the outsider this is an unnatural moment for the pair to go their separate ways.

So it is easy to think back to Kasparov’s stormy disagreements with fellow grandmasters in the 1980s and the 1990s, when he had the reputation of a serial killer of chess organisations, or to his long feuds with Anatoly Karpov and Vlad Kramnik. Kasparov can be overbearing and it would not be a surprise if the laid-back Carlsen began to find his teacher’s personality oppressive.

The most likely primary explanation of the break is, however, financial. Last year’s agreement that the two legends were working together noted that Kasparov’s services were “expensive”, They have included training camps in Croatia and Morocco and unique access for Carlsen to Kasparov’s feared personal database, containing many potent opening novelties which their owner never got the chance to use in his own games.

Carlsen’s personal online blog, sponsored by the investment bank Arctic Securities, has not been updated since Corus Wjk ended a month ago, while last year Carlsen’s father said they needed more backers to underwrite the Kasparov sessions. In many small countries to be No1 in a truly global sport would guarantee sizeable official backing for the individual. This has not occurred in Norway, although the government is supporting Tromso’s bid to host the 2014 world team Olympiad.

The March Fide world rankings gave Carlsen the second highest rating figure in history, 2815, surpassed only by his erstwhile mentor. The separation will put extra pressure on Carlsen since, if he has a form dip and loses the No1 spot, critics will say he got there only because of Kasparov’s help.

Meanwhile England’s Michael Adams and David Howell are currently competing in the European championship at Rijeka, Croatia. Adams is seeded seventh but the 19-year-old British champion Howell is ranked only No 80, such is the fierce competition.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk