Quote:
Originally Posted by RoundTower
I like the idea that the youngest GM in history has absolutely no talent for chess
Children reproduce and there is no talent in reproducing
All of this only raises the question what a "Wunderkind" is really all about. They are usually the project of their parents. In piano you got to force your 4 year old child to practice for 10 hours each day and it will be a master pianist at the age of 7. In chess, you can have it trained in opening theory by some washed up GM and make him memorize engine printouts and your child will be GM at the age of 12.
That is if the child can imagine the board like a diagram with eyes closed. Let's not "kid" ourselves. In order to become successful at chess, you need to have the physical ability to play blindfold, which only a few people seem to have. Without this core ability, you can still become a strong player on club level of course.
Besides that, I don't really care about children achieving something special. What's the point in it? They don't stop growing older and who knows how much they will improve in the future. Leko was a child prodigy, Bacrot and Ponomariov too. 15 year old Radjabov even beat Kasparov. Nowadays with the exception of Radjabov these guys don't even get invited to the absolute top events anymore. Nowadys it is Giri's turn and that young chinese. I don't even care about their games, because it's 100% engine prep up until move 35. It doesn't matter if Giri plays the line first or Adams or Caruana. They are all using the same engines anyways. In fact they could even set up the games like they set up fights in wrestling. It's a travelling circus after all whey the same guys play each other over and over again all year long.
Children are humans too and there is nothing special about it when children achieve something, because they couldn't have done it without massive support by their parents. The parents pay the teachers and without teachers those kids achieve nothing. We all think of children as being somewhat mentally ******ed and that's why we are impressed when the accomplish something. But really, who cares?
If your dog brings the newspaper it's quite impressive, but all you have is your newspaper. Big deal! If a 12 year old can memorize a forced draw in the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn, all you got is a draw. Big deal!
I may change my opinion once one of these Wunderkinders wins a top class chess960 event.
Last edited by Shandrax; 02-23-2016 at 08:08 AM.