IMJohnCox wrote on 11/11/14 at 19:26:50:
Good grief, that was absolutely appalling by Carlsen. fxe4 is already a well-known improvement over Aronian-Adams, Bilbao 2013, and why on earth is he playing this sort of line if he isn't properly prepared? Anand's only chance in this match was to catch Carlsen in some computer preparation, and in game-management terms to give him the chance at all was just dreadful, and then to - presumably - totally forget your prep as well.....
Let's not kid ourselves, this was worse than Saric-Carlsen. Any 2500 GM could have won this game with White given what Carlsen chose to do.
Whether it gives Vishy any chance remains to be seen - Carlsen's usually fearsome after a loss and tomorrow's going to be a very interesting game. But on the other hand Carlsen's lost rather too many terrible games recently, sometimes more than one per event. It's harder to stay there than to get there, as they always say. If Carlsen's really just winging it totally in terms of preparation, this match could yet be very interesting.
Still, credit for his line in the press conference when asked whether this loss could be put down to his seconds, 'if anything goes wrong, it's my fault'. Quite right, too, though I wonder what Svidler had to say on commentary after the Brissago episode.
On that last theme, by the way, how come Nielsen's helping Carlsen in this match? Doesn't seem obviously very ethical to me after helping Vishy in the past. I know he didn't help Carlsen last time - is there some agreement between the parties that he can do so now, or what?
I think you need to give Vishy more credit for what he has done today. It was some excellent preparation and if he and his team are willing to put the work in and Carlsen isn't, that's Carlsen's problem.
I agree with your point about the ethical question of whether it's correct for Nielsen to be helping Carlsen in this match. It doesn't seem right to me, furthermore it brings into question Carlsen's ethics as well for both asking and allowing Nielsen onto his team in the first place.
If I recall correctly something similar to this occured in the Anand-Gelfand WCh match. Kasparov offered to help Gelfand in the match but Gelfand refused this offer citing that he could not ethically accept this help because Kasparov had worked with Anand previoiusly in the Anand-Topalov WCh match and he thought it would give him an unfair advantage. I have always respected Gelfand and do so even more after he made that statement, he is the model example of a chess professional imo.
Regarding Game 4 tomorrow it will be interesting to see how both players react to today's game. Will Carlsen be out for blood? Or will he stick to his game plan of playing long games in the hopes of wearing Anand down in the endgame. I am also looking forward to seing whether Anand goes for something different as well, I wouldn't be surprised after Game 3's result to see him stick with the Berlin. However, I hope he will switch to the Sicilian and try catch Carlsen in more opening preparation. I think Carlsen is going to be shaken after today and it might be a good idea for Anand to take the fight to him if Carlsen allows it. One things for sure this match has become a lot more exciting, I'm still backing Anand to win overall.
Edit in:
Just came across this hilarious pic of Anand during Game 3 via twitter:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2KXjDeCUAIoOnv.png:large Credit to twitter account: @F3Knight for making it.
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Carlsen vs Anand Sochi 2014 World Championship (Read 101474 times)
