Garry Kasparov left the city on Wednesday night. Not before taking to Twitter with a vengeance, though.
As usual, the former World champion from Russia had many interesting things to say. What was not usual perhaps was him paying some compliments to Viswanathan Anand (the two have rarely been the best of friends, and Kasparov has been pretty vocal about his support for Magnus Carlsen).
“Ironic it’s the young guy who is looking for quiet positions, while the veteran wants it sharp!” wrote Kasparov, who watched the third and fourth games at the venue.
Another tweet went like this: “My feeling is Magnus is trying to reach ‘his’ positions, where he can play forever with little risk. Anand has blocked this plan very well.”
“Carlsen got nothing in the opening,” he tweeted after watching Game Three at the venue.
“He wants calm positions but so far is getting calm and slightly worse against Anand's strong reactions.”
“Anand is responding in a way that offers either a sharp fight not (conforming) to Carlsen's preferred style or calm with no advantage. Well done,” he complimented the man who had challenged him for the PCA World championship in 1995.
“Anand didn’t play great against Topalov or Gelfand but he beat them both! Against Kramnik he was fantastic and I’m sure Magnus is very aware of that,” he wrote.
He was impressed with the hard-fought fourth game. “A great game,” he said.
“A true pleasure to watch. A top-level battle that did credit to Anand & Carlsen and to fighting human chess! Berlin Defence (the opening of the fourth game) also has the benefit of rendering most machine analysis useless. Human chess — deep, strategic planning — is the only way. Great from both players… Berlin is more than a wall.”
Maybe this tweet takes the cake: “An old tiger may not be able to chase down his prey like he used to, but put your head in his mouth and you will learn his teeth are still sharp!”
