Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

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Geoff Chandler
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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by Geoff Chandler » Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:17 pm

Still going through the book. Up to game 7 and enjoying it.

I like Solti's books on Lasker and Marshall and although I knew this would be deeper
I can get to grips, sometimes, with what Lasker and Marshall were up to, especially the latter,
but some of Carlsen's efforts look a game of chess with a new set of rules.

Soltis is breaking them down into lower rated chunks but I know some of the games to come will catch me out.

My only gripe (apart from the cover picture) is Soltis using a term to evaluate a position as +0.05
I know that is meant to mean half a pawn but what is half pawn in terms of evaluating a position.
What happens when you promote your half pawn. You have to take Queen that cannot give a check,
A knight that is not allowed to jump...(or maybe he thinks computers read chess books)

I'll let him off but I wonder what happened to:

"You can't visit my website. I don't have one.

You can't e-mail me. I don't have an address.

In fact I don't have a personal computer or a chess program.

I don't even have a toaster."

That is how Andrew Soltis began one of his entertaining columns in ‘Chess Life’, April 1999.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by JustinHorton » Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:40 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:17 pm
My only gripe (apart from the cover picture) is Soltis using a term to evaluate a position as +0.05
I know that is meant to mean half a pawn
No
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Roger de Coverly
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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:52 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:17 pm
My only gripe (apart from the cover picture) is Soltis using a term to evaluate a position as +0.05
I know that is meant to mean half a pawn but what is half pawn in terms of evaluating a position.
That's one tenth of half a pawn, so about equal or equal chances. These evaluations in pawns can be more meaningful if there's a material imbalance. So you are a pawn up, but the engine says +0.2. That can be interpreted to mean that your opponent has almost enough counterplay or positional compensation. Equally if it says +2.0, it's an extra pawn and a better position.

In the "stockfish" design, as distinct from the "alpha zero" design, the evaluations are partly driven by what the programmers think are the most relevant factors.

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John Upham
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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by John Upham » Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:59 pm

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:17 pm

I know that is meant to mean half a pawn but what is half pawn in terms of evaluating a position.
Half a pawn (not sure which half) difference would be either +0.5 or -0.5 Geoff.

+0.01 or -0.01 is termed (by some) as a centipawn.
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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:26 pm

"+0.01 or -0.01 is termed (by some) as a centipawn."

I wish they wouldn't bother - as the error in measurement can easily render the comment meaningless. However, I offer the following and wait for someone to say the move loses 1 yoctopawn. Someone at Wijk Aan Zee played the only legal move yesterday and improved their position by 0.2 pawns.

https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

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Re: Magnus Carlsen : 60 Memorable Games

Post by Geoff Chandler » Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:43 pm

OOPS!

Soltis wrote 0.50 (page31) which is apparently half a pawn. I did a typo thing.

Thanks all. (sorry.)

Another bit of the book.

Game five in the Soltis book is titled 'Moscow'. (I think; 'Russian Rave Reviews' would have been better. )

M. Carlsen - H. Stefansson, Aeroflot Open (2004)

The game notes mention that Razuvaev and Nikitin showed the 13 year old Magnus different chess positions for a few hours.

They discovered that his tactical skill was 'ordinary.' (no better or worse than other players.)
But his ability to evaluate quiet positions put him a level with Petrosian and Karpov.

Other Russian observers were calling Carlsen 'a young Smyslov.' Smyslov called him a 'young Tal.'
(all this one month after Kavalek called him 'The Mozart of Chess.')

To clear up the who was Carlsen the younger copy of seems have been settled by Yevgeny Bebchuk
who said he had seen a young Spassky, a young Tal, a young Karpov, a young Kasparov:

"I can assert that there has never been anyone in history who played like this at 13."

---

In the Aeroflot Open (2004) Carlsen scored 5½ points coming 31-50= and picked up a G.M. norm.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-aerof ... -revisited

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