So defeats Carlsen at World Fisher Random Chess Championship
Credit to Author: THE MANILA TIMES| Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2019 16:25:15 +0000
Filipino-American Wesley So made history by winning the first World Fisher Random Chess Championship at the expense of top-ranked Magnus Carlsen on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the Henei Onstad Art Canter in Norway.
So, who started representing the United Sates in 2014, dominated Carlsen in the final, 13.5 to 2.5. The Cavite-born woodpusher subdued the No. 1 world player by winning the first two fast rapid games to cement his upset.
“I’m very happy! It’s my favorite type of chess, and it hasn’t been popular until the last couple of years. I usually win tournaments the first time and never again. Magnus had a bad couple of days. If it was regular chess he would probably have beaten me easily,” So, the No. 14 player in the world, said in an interview.
“I’m very happy to be the world champion, but it doesn’t change much. I think he was shaken in our game 2, and wasn’t able to bounce back, but he congratulated me right after the match. He is a great sportsman,” he added.
So halved the points with Carlsen in their first slow rapid game, but overwhelmed the next three to build a lead over the Norwegian.
Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia took the bronze by beating Fabiano Caruana of the US, 12.5 to 5.5.
This marked the first year that Fischer Random Chess was officially recognized by the World Chess Federation. In the variant developed by former world champion Bobby Fischer, the starting positions of the pieces are randomized before each game.
Fisher Random Chess, also known as Chess960, is a variant of chess introduced by Fisher in 1996. While pawns still planked in front, king, queen, bishops, knights, and rooks are placed not in their usual positions. In the game of chess, players who have mastery of the openings have the advantage. To eliminate this, the positions of kings and the rest of the officials are placed not in their usual squares.
So never experienced loss in the Random Chess, showing his supremacy of the variant.
“I just want to congratulate Wesley So. He played a lot better than me,” Carlsen said.
In random chess, memorizing chess openings have no advantage; the player must rely on his sheer talent and creativity by facing a completely fresh position.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich was all praises of the new chess variant. “We couldn’t be oblivious to that: it was time to embrace and incorporate this modality of chess.”
Chess game has also other variants, but they are basically on time control like classic, rapid and blitz.