Sunday 19 April 2015

The more you practice the luckier you get

I suspect Magnus Carlsen has sent most of the worlds top players batty, with his ability to convert equal positions, and save losing ones. It is as though he simply needs to sit down at the board to receive a +0.5 evaluation bonus against his opponent (maybe not Caruana but +1.5 against Nakamura).
In the first round of the Shamkir tournament he was worse against Anand after the Marshall Gambit just left him a pawn down, but still managed to escape with a draw in the end. Then in tonight's 2nd round game he just rolled over the top of Mamedyarov, using a now familiar strategy of throwing a pawn or two up the board, and watching his opponent fall to pieces.
To some commentators (especially non-GM ones) this looks a lot like luck, but as Arnold Palmer famously said "the more I practice, the luckier I get".


Carlsen,Magnus - Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar [D94]
Shamkir 2015, 18.04.2015



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