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Chess: Magnus Carlsen to meet top teens in pursuit of record unbeaten run:
Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, will face five opponents aged 21 or younger when he bids for a record eighth victory at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee in January. The traditional Dutch tournament at the small windswept North Sea town is by general consensus the best all-play-all annual event on the chess calendar and the invited entry for its 2020 version is bold and imaginative.
Fabiano Caruana, the world No 2, and Wesley So, who crushed Carlsen 13.5-2.5 at Fischer Random earlier this month, are in the field, but many dedicated fans will be watching Alireza Firouzja, who at 16 is receiving rave reviews comparing the Iranian teen to the legendary attacking genius Mikhail Tal. Jeffery Xiong, 19, the No 1 US junior, also has a breakthrough opportunity.
For Carlsen, the fifth round at Wijk, which will be played on tour at Eindhoven, could be the day when he sets a world record for the longest run of classical games without defeat. The Norwegian thought he had reached his target when he surpassed Ding Liren's 100 mark but then there was publicity for the Russian-Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov's 110 against weaker opposition. So Carlsen still needs to stay unbeaten in four games at the Grand Tour final at London Olympia on 2-8 December and his first five rounds at Wijk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @07:10PM (1 child)
Your thoughts are as well conceived as usual.
Carlsen was #1 in the world at 19, world champion at 23.
Alireza Firouzja is currently #29 in the world (and is likely to move up the rankings fast).
Jeffrey Xiong is currently #33 in the world.
And, of the 14 players in the event, those two are seeded well in the bottom half - 10th and 11th.
Wijk, as always, remains a really stacked event.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 20 2019, @05:17AM
What's that saying about winning in the Special Olympics?