An Interesting Year Ahead
: Created:20 Feb 2014 , byThe Candidates tournament starts next month and there is super tournament in Stavanger in June 2014. Let's compare the situation today with forty years ago.
Players of my generation were thrilled by the 1972 match between champion Boris Spassky from the Soviet Union and challenger Bobby Fischer. The victorious American swore that he would be an active title holder but in reality he avoided serious chess for twenty years and even then only dared to face Spassky, by now outside the world top twenty in a new contest.
We were disappointed in the first western champion for twenty-five years but it looks as though Magnus Carlsen our current champion is made out of much better material. He has achieved a magnificent result at Zurich 2014 since capturing the championship from Vishy Anand victorious with the cream of world chess in the line up.
The challengers start their campaign next month with eight players competing for the right to go up against garlsen for the world title. Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Sergey karjakin, Peter Svidler, Veselin Topalov, Vishy Anand, S Mamedyarov and D Andrietov. With four Russians in the field FIDE have organised the draw in an attempt to prevent national connivance.
Norway chess is celebrating its world champion. Seven of the top eleven grandmasters have signed up for a tournament in Stavanger in the first half of June 2014 and arguably it will be stronger than the candidates tournament. Magnus Carlsen and world number two levon Aronian are competing in the same tournments. It's a refreshing change from the early 1930s when champion Alexander Alekhine and previous number one Jose Capablanca ddominated chess but were never seen in the same tournament.