A00361 - The Preternatural Brilliance of Dommaraju Gukesh

 Like many who follow the world chess championships, I was stunned to hear and read about the triumph of Dommaraju Gukesh in the recent World Chess Championship



By all accounts, Gukesh's 7.5 to 6.5 victory over the world champion, China's Ding Liren, was not very impressive because Liren has been in decline over the past year.  Nevertheless, this victory cannot be so easily dismissed because Gukesh had to wade through a lot of very talented chess grandmasters to even play Liren and by all accounts he played brilliantly in doing so. 


What is now intriguing is whether the rise of Gukesh will prompt the still undisputed master Magnus Carlsen


to come out of his semi-retirement to play the wunderkind.  Now, that would be a chess match for the ages.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
December 13, 2024

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "skipjen2865@aol.com" <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 01:07:22 PM PST
Subject: The Brilliance of Magnus Carlsen


Over the weekend the 2021 World Chess Championship reached a stunning conclusion with the World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway winning his fifth world title by demolishing the Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi  7.5 games to 3.5.  The victory cements Carlsen's reputation as being the best chess player of all time.  He is certainly the highest rated (2882) of all time.

You can read about the match at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2021

and you can read about the career of Carlsen at 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen

For me, what made this match particularly intriguing was that the sometimes three to four hour games were condensed into 30 minute replays with commentary by Maurice Ashley, the first "official" chess grandmaster. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ashley

Ashley, whose siblings are professional fighters, made the chess games sound like boxing matches with Carlsen seeming to be a young Mike Tyson stalking his prey for the inevitable knockout.  The NBC Sports Network broadcast also paid tribute to the popularity of the marvelous Netflix series The Queen's Gambit by interspersing interview segments with Judit Polgar, the woman who is recognized as the greatest woman chess player of all time ... and one of the best chess players in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r


It was remarkable to see these games on television and it was remarkable to see Magnus Carlsen at his prime.  Sadly, with chess, it is generally a game for the young, and Magnus is now thirty.  Who knows how much longer his brilliance will last. Fortunately, for a few hours on Sunday, his brilliance was on full display, and for the chess fan his brilliance will be permanently memorialized in the notations of the games. 

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Class of 1975

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