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Monday, November 28, 2011

Tal chess memorial interview: Carlsen says more draws because of very high level of defense

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

Maria Fominykh interviewed Sixth Tal Chess Memorial winner Magnus Carlsen for the official site - Russian Chess Federation website. Here are some excerpts and great photos. 




Magnus, did this Tal Memorial be any different from previous tournaments?
There were lot of draws but the level of defence has risen significantly. That’s a really notable difference between the current Memorial and the previous ones – the resistance has reached a totally new level.

The abundance of draws doesn’t spoil the impression made by the tournament?
I don’t think so. All of the players were trying to fight. Many times someone could not win despite winning chances because the opponent defended very strongly.



Ian Nepomniachtchi at third place.


Levon Aronian at second place on tiebreak

Which games were you most satisfied with?
Overall I played well in the first half of the tournament. I made some mistakes, but the games were very hard-fought. In the second half I played worse: tiredness had its say and I lacked energy. I got lucky in the last round and I won.

Can you compare this tournament to a World Championship?
Of course this tournament is the strongest this year,and one of the strongest for many years. For me the Tal Memorial is one of the main tournaments and I take it very seriously.

Your contemporaries Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi played very well, but you finished the tournament ahead of them?
I’ve known Nepomniachtchi and Karjakin for long. Sergey was well-known chess player even before I got the international master title. Ian’s also a great talent and he was beating me back in junior tournaments. So the history of our rivalry started a long time ago and it promises to continue for a long time!


You can read our previous post about the tournament here:

Carlsen wins sixth Tal Chess Memorial on tiebreak ahead of Aronian!








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posted by Chess Blog Admin @ 11:45 AM  

13 Comments:

  • At November 28, 2011 at 3:15 PM , Anonymous j.l. vienna said...

    Couldnt agree with carlsen more

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 12:02 AM , Anonymous saira fernandes, madrid said...

    Both aronian and carlsen playing the london classic beginning this weekend? should be quite an exciting event am looking forward to it. carlsen is right that there are more draws cause of better defence but then he is one person who pushes hard so i admire him

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 5:29 AM , Anonymous tarotcard said...

    have carlsen and hou yifan started dating yet? anyone in the know?

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 5:55 AM , Anonymous jane bentley, London, UK said...

    i think it's not fair to speculate about anyone's personal life. anyway everyone welcome to london for the london chess week coming up. it's an awesome tournament and i love my city for all the chess traditions we have.

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 7:35 AM , Anonymous alexis cochran, nz said...

    Nothing wrong with being a fan and hoping something nice for your hero. Guess it's fun speculating as long as you don't go say bad things and get too persnal. It would be very interesting if Hou Yifan and Carlsen actually start dating. Quite a match. And quite a possibility considering now Yifan is learning English! She has the Zhu Chen precedent. I wonder what anyone thinks. As long as Carlsen retains his chess rating any person would be nice for him. Well at least if that happens we would know it started here on Chess Queen's blog.

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 7:40 AM , Anonymous Jiu Lin, Beijing said...

    爱不是一切

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 7:54 AM , Anonymous sainath, colombo said...

    Please don't try to disturb Carlsen's focus. I hope Chess Blog removes all comments that might take Carlsen off the chess track. It's not fair to put ideas into the young kid's mind.

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 9:08 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Does it matter whether someone dates or not for chess?

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 10:11 AM , Anonymous volkswagon said...

    It's always better to date a non-chess player if you're a chess player. Ask Miguel Illescas he lost a tournament title cause his wife drew with him in last round. If I am correct.

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 10:57 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    If you're a good chess player then you should go for someone non-chess that ways they can handle your life and keep you sane if you are a weak chess player then go for a partner who can help you with your chess - simple logic. so carlsen and yifan should not date.

     

  • At November 29, 2011 at 11:13 AM , Anonymous volkswagon said...

    Is anonymous a chess player/grandmaster/chess player's partner?

     

  • At November 30, 2011 at 2:43 AM , Anonymous BabbleFish said...

    when carlsen is world champion it would be very interesting to see who is opponent is going to be

     

  • At November 30, 2011 at 6:34 AM , Anonymous sebastian wolff, ny said...

    i would like to see with football scoring at london chess classic how many draws are there - there still would be i think but maybe the defending would be even stronger - looking forward to the london event

     

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