Imagine someone with Roger Federer’s genius and Rafael Nadal’s spirit. Or someone with Brian Lara’s genius and Jacques Kallis’s versatality. Or someone with Lionel Messi’s genius and Arjen Robben’s pace.
If you meet someone like that, you are meeting a rare champion who is not far from perfection. A champion dislodging whom can be so difficult — impossible even.
Magnus Carlsen, who retained his World chess championship in London on Wednesday, is proving to be unbeatable. He won three rapid games, back to back, against Fabiano Caruana, to claim his fourth World title.
It was in 2013 that he ascended to the throne, after defeating Viswanathan Anand in Chennai. A year later, he tamed the Madras Tiger yet again. In 2016, he beat Sergey Karjakin.
Caruana, however, managed to do in London what the other challengers could not. He didn’t lose in classical chess, as, for the first time in the 132-year history of the World championship, not a single game produced a decisive result.
Unlike Carlsen
It was so unlike Carlsen. The Norwegian, who turns 28 on Friday, hates settling for a draw and prefers to fight till there is the slimmest of possibilities for a result.
When he refused to do that in Game 12, and offered his American rival a draw in a slightly superior position, many were surprised. Why should he take the risk of extending the match into tie-breakers, in which costly mistakes are very likely because of less time?
The world soon found out. Because, he backed himself totally.
Former greats like Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Krmanik had criticised his attitude in the classical games. “They are entitled to their stupid opinions,” Carlsen said.
That is not arrogance. It is the supreme self-confidence of a man who knows his fight is only with history, not with any of his rivals.
