Some creative googling hooked this video of Magnus Karlsen, sorry, Carlsen, and Garry Kasparov taking on Norway's Minister of Education today. While Tromso's chances at the 2018 Winter Games now look slim, it sounds like a bid for the 2014 Chess Olympiad might be in the works. Kasparov suggests it would be a nice complement to Norway's having the man who might be the world #1 by then. Only by then?!* Should have more tomorrow.
*Was it over a year ago when I asked hereabouts when Carlsen would become #1? There were answers ranging from "before the end of the year" to "never." Carlsen pulled it off, at least for a few days, last year in Bilbao before losing his two last games, but Topalov put it into another gear in Nanjing to pull away from the pack. Of course hitting #1 is all well and good, and few doubt Carlsen will take his turn on an official list eventually (especially as they're coming out every two months now). But becoming world champion is another matter because winning when it matters most requires at least a little good fortune. That's more true today with FIDE changing its system around every other weekend. Carlsen should qualify for the candidates by rating (he dropped out of the Grand Prix along with Adams after FIDE changed yet another venue) but even then the matches are only four games long. And while it's not practical to have rigorous long matches at every stage, four isn't long enough to favor the stronger player by much.
I made a small utility for calculating the chance of the "deserving" player winning in a match:
http://utilitymill.com/utility/ChessMatch
For example, a four game match between players with a playing strength difference of 50 points will have the better player win it 53% of the time and lose it 20% of the time.
If you decrease the difference to, say, 20 points, it becomes almost impossible to separate them with good confidence. A 16 game match will then be won 57% of the time and lost 30%.
If you find it useful, I can add stuff like tiebreaks.
The video is cool. If anybody has trouble playing it like I did, click on the options icon on the right hand side and change video quality to low. I can't believe that Kasparov has the patience to sit and watch this meaningless game with a smile on his face! He's mellowed!
Mig, if you can post any details of his online blitz escapades, I'm sure many on this blog would appreciate it! Has he ever lost a mini series??
Well, Kasparov knows a thing or two (or more) about public relations ,:). Chessbase has a (little) bit more on this:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5766
The Norwegian minister "played competitive chess until he was twelve years old" - at least he seems to be somewhat familiar with Najdorf theory (or he was 'briefed' before the game?). Of course we don't get to see a novelty from Kasparov's database in the video ,:).
Nice atmosphere there , i believe they enjoy each other, the age gap and the mutual respect should help me thinks.
Mishamp or Thomas please let us know if there is something interesting in the dialogue.
My Norwegian is even worse than my Spanish ,:) - this request should probably go to frogbert or acirce. But from what I do understand (after listening carefully several times), Chessbase seems to provide an accurate and rather complete summary of the dialogue. Maybe they have someone understanding Norwegian in their Hamburg office, or they were provided with a translation.
In any case, I would say the smiles (from the three persons involved) are more important than either words or moves on the board.
Off topic.
Hats off to FF for his extensive coverage of the women's team championship in Ningbo.
David, what distribution did you use for probability of win, draw, and lose? Wouldn't players with propensity to draw (Kramnik vs. Leko) have lower probability of drawing than in a four game match than would fighters (Topalov vs. Morozevich)?
ACK! I mistyped a sentence in the previous post. It should read:
David, what distribution did you use for probability of win, draw, and lose? Wouldn't players with higher propensity to draw (Kramnik vs. Leko) have lower probability of a decisive result in a four game match than would fighters (Topalov vs. Morozevich)?
I looked up the average drawing probability for GMs. According to Wikipedia it is 0.55, so that is what I used in the results I gave. In the small app that I linked to, the user can play with this number to see what difference it makes. Set it to what you feel is normal for the players.
For example, raising it from .55 to .7 with a rating advantage of 50 makes only a small difference. It seems reasonable to set it lower for players who differ much in strength. I have a guard against setting the drawing probability higher than theoretically possible, given the rating difference.
Am I right in hearing that the reporter claims that the chess olympics has a turnover of 100 million NOK? That can't be right!
"While Tromso's chances at the 2018 Winter Games now look slim, it sounds like a bid for the 2014 Chess Olympiad might be in the works. Kasparov suggests it would be a nice complement to Norway's having the man who might be the world #1 by then. Only by then?!* Should have more tomorrow."
Although Magnus is my favorite top 7 player, it will take him that long, because there are 3 GMs better than him and a former World Champ who is just as good. :)
Norway has enormous oil wealth, so I propose we get Norway to replace Kalmykia and some Norwegian politician to replace Ilumzhinov :) Then we can have a well-run, non-corrupt FIDE and everyone will be happy...
p.s. I see Danailov's been getting involved with the Bulgarian lottery this week :) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8259801.stm
I had missed the video of Tal's blind simul at Chessbase, it's very nice.
The United States has enormous oil reserves, so I propose that we get the U.S. to replace Obama and elect a government that will allow the country to turn the enormous reserves into enormous wealth. :) Then we could have a well-run economy, jobs, resources, chess-players, etc.
Has there ever been serious discussion of replacing FIDE with a breakaway organization? It's so inept that it's hard to imagine that this would be difficult. I know there have been attempts at the professional level, i.e., GMA, PCA, ACP, etc. but I'm thinking of the entire World Chess Federation (FIDE).
Norway's trick is to combine vast reserves with a tiny population.
By the way, mishanp is short for Misha-non-penguin... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_the_Penguin
You can be Misha-non-quail, if you like :)
Unfortunately, people hate change. We/They would rather stew in a bad system they are familiar with rather than shake things up and get a better system that they don't yet know. The silent majority is a damning factor in almost every organization I can think of. You would think that chess players would be more strategically aware...
Sounds like Hannity and Palin would be your dream team?! The idea sounds good now, but it doesn't consider the endgame, IMHO.
mishanp, I'm hoping that one day mishan-q will be mishan-akomplesht and not turn out to be mishan-impossible.
And stendec, I LOVE the ad hominem approach of the American left! "Win at all costs and ANYTHING to avoid discussing issues directly."
Of course, I can't answer for the "American Left" (being neither), and I wouldn't on this site anyway. Both side of the American political system avoid discussing issues directly. The Lefts say that if you disagree with them, you are anti-human. The Rights say that if you disagree with them you are anti-national. It is all about power and winning the argument, not about finding justice. FIDE is no different.
"Has there ever been serious discussion of replacing FIDE with a breakaway organization?"
Indeed, there has been. In the spring of 1996 (only a few months after Ilyumzhinov had taken office it was already apparent how disastrous he was), there was a meeting in Utrecht to discuss forming a new federation. A number of VIPs attended including Fan Adams of the US, Phil Haley of Canada, Egon Ditt of Germany and I don't recall who else. Nothing came of it and that seems to have been the most serious effort. It's strange that in the 13 1/2 years since no more serious effort has been undertaken.
Replacing FIDE means also taking up all the non-glamorous stuff - maintaining rating lists, accreditation to arbiters, keeping track of norms, working with the respective country federations, all that.
I don't think any "reformer" wants to do this - they prefer the glamour of the WCC cycle.
You would have to engage the services of an extraordinary politician to bring that off, and there are none of those on the chess horizon.
Once a breakaway organization got underway, Kirsan would buy off a good share of the breakaways and would (temporarily) reform FIDE just enough to take the steam out of the new organization.
How come Carlsen's name doesn't appear in the Tag Cloud?
Ah sheesh, never mind. No matter how many times and how hard you look, it's always the last time that you find it... lol
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/550982
There's a quite a long interview in English at approximately 2/3 of the video. Don't miss Liv Ullman either!
Thanks! It's really a bit unfair how easily the Scandinavians (and Dutch) speak English. Where else could a chat show just switch languages for fifteen minutes!?
Canada?
I watched it on Swedish television and some parts seem to have been cut off. For instance the part when Kasparov talks about different styles and contrasts his own to Carlsen's. Also vice versa I believe. On SVT - http://svtplay.se/t/102974/skavlan starting at 41:45 - you hear Kasparov talk a bit more about Putin. So watch both.
Also, not that it matters for most of us, but the Norwegian translation seems better. When Kasparov mentions Putin boasting about being a good judo fighter, according to the Swedish subtitles he says Putin plays Call of Duty :)
As an aside, annoying that the host keeps referring to Rybak as partly Russian instead of Belarussian. "They're all Russians to me"?
Or Belarusian I suppose.
I wouldn't make too much of the language issue: The talkshow host has to speak fluent English, that's all (there are subtitles for the audience). There may also be at least some American or British talkshow hosts knowing other languages - but maybe it's more common that the invited foreign guests speak English ... .
On the interview itself: I would at least partly disagree with Kasparov linking "Russian discipline" with dictatorship. At the very least, in other countries people are also extra motivated to maximize their sports talent to escape from poverty, slums, maybe a criminal career: American basketball and football players, South American soccer players [before Manu gets at me, most if not all 'case studies' I have in mind are from Brazil], Kenian and Ethiopian runners.
But of course Kasparov grabbed the opportunity to make a political statement ... .
"I wouldn't make too much of the language issue: The talkshow host has to speak fluent English, that's all (there are subtitles for the audience)."
Umm, what about the guests? And the subtitles are just for the TV audience.
"At the very least, in other countries people are also extra motivated to maximize their sports talent to escape from poverty, slums, maybe a criminal career"
You are right, of course. And I'll be perfectly honest - most of Kasparov's political statements are just rubbish. But he is a very skilled demagogue. (And in spite of that, very few Russians still buy his message. That should say something.)
Another thing I reacted to in connection with this was how he said that everybody wanted to be successful, and since you couldn't make it in politics or business... Oh ok, politics is just a career choice, thanks for being open with that, Garry.
Yes, I forgot about the live audience in the studio; those who do not know sufficient English can only follow ~80% of the show (but in any case, not everyone is equally interested in all of the guests). As far as the guests themselves are concerned, only non-Norwegian speakers had to talk English - and Carlsen so that Kasparov would understand what he said. And if Carlsen didn't know English (or Russian), it wouldn't make much sense to get Kasparov as a personal coach. Or would Kasparov then learn Norwegian? ,:)
But don't get me wrong: I fully agree with mishanp's comment-compliment. I am living in the Netherlands and worked with Scandinavians, so I can confirm that their average level of English is higher than for most other European countries (including my home country Germany, not even talking about France ...). Partly this may be because TV programs are not dubbed, so already kids are exposed to hearing English [conversely, understanding the English or German original and reading the subtitles helped me to learn Dutch in the beginning].
Back to Kasparov and politics: He had a nice quip "In other countries politicians fight to win elections, we fight to have elections." But I guess this was home preparation, and whether he would have a chance in open and fair elections is another story ... .
"I wouldn't make too much of the language issue: The talkshow host has to speak fluent English, that's all"
Hmm.. I watched the show on Norwegian TV, and if I remember correctly, there was no subtitles there. For some reason, the Swedes have much bigger problems understanding Danish and Norwegian, than the other way around.
As for the skill level in English, one should remember that English, German, Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, are all Germanic languages and thus closely related.
However, it was not so easy during the allied campaign at Narvik back in 1940. The French didn't speak English, the Brits didn't speak French, and the Norwegians spoke neither, just some German. The allied interpreter, did only English-Finnish, and no one among the allied understood Finnish. :)
So, one of the first messages wired to London, was to send over some English-German dictionaries ASAP, to sort out the communication problems on the allied side. :)
"He had a nice quip "In other countries politicians fight to win elections, we fight to have elections." But I guess this was home preparation"
Yes, although he has used that one a good number of times already (you can do that, unlike in top-level chess, when once you have used up a strong novelty it's not as effective the next time, if your opponents don't avoid it altogether), and to see it as valid you'd also have to subscribe to his rather exaggerated view about the democratic problems in today's Russia :)
"For some reason, the Swedes have much bigger problems understanding Danish and Norwegian, than the other way around."
Could be. I know I understand spoken Norwegian without trouble, while spoken Danish sounds more or less like gobbledygook. But then it's not that easy even for Danes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk
Maybe subtitles were optional on TV, all I know is they are given on the Internet ... . Anyway, while part of the explanation is that "Germanic languages ... [are] closely related", this can't be all - else more native English speakers would also be fluent in other languages.
About Danish, there are many jokes around like "Denmark is such a rich country because they eat half of their words". Or, as a Dane once told me: "Danish has over the years evolved into a very sophisticated language which can now be spoken almost without opening the mouth at all" [speak this out with your mouth almost closed and you get a nice Danish accent in English].
And, while we are at Youtube and languages, here is a video about a German speaking and (mis)understanding English - originally pointed out to me by a Dutch friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD4roXEY8hk
acirce,
that was a hilarious parody! LMAO.
The Danes shouldn't take offence, Team Antonsen are comedians, who knows that some of own dialects are a far greater challenge. frogbert is from the west coast, so just listen to how they speak in the area around the biggest fjord there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7AfcmRH8ds
being from northern Sweden, doesn't help you here, right? :)
Thomas,
I assume the clip you watched on the net with subtitles, was from the Swedish broadcast of the show. However, it's quite possible I simply didn't notice, if the Norwegian broadcast had subtitles or not.
When you live in a minor country and take a higher education, most if not all, of your textbooks are in English. After a while, you simply stop noticing that you are reading in English.
When you know one Germanic language, it's much easier to learn another Germanic language, than let say, French or Italian. First time I peeked into a Dutch newspaper, I could read and understand 30-40% of the content, without any prior training, or having watched Dutch TV.
I strictly recommend not to hold back until you earn enough cash to order different goods! You can get the loan or just student loan and feel comfortable