Quote:
Originally Posted by Do it Right
Now comes along Magnus and he is not only playing pseudo-random openings that are far from intricately prepared, but he is basically never agreeing to draws unless the position is absolutely dead and devoid of any practical winning chances whatsoever. And in doing so he's done a great job of showing that the technique of these world class players is simply lacking, making all their premature draws look even more inappropriate.
Agree with this--he wins games.
Analyst, in the Tata thread, produced some 2011-present stats showing that Carlsen is performing a cut about the rest of the top 5, even when just looking at his performance against them.
Now, he isn't beating them at will, but he is performing at 2880 against 2780 competition, with just one loss--remarkable.
I'm a fan of matchplay as a metric of chess dominance and I hope we'll see a great match with Carlsen soon. But Carlsen is clearly playing the best chess right now, no doubt, and I happen to think that, generally, chess players are improving over time.