Mind games: The unstoppable genius of Carlsen in Rapid win

“It's never easy.”

- Ashish Magotra

By a quirk of fate, the first and last sentence of Magnus Carlsen’s press conference after becoming the World Rapid Champion looked to drive home the same point.He started off by letting the world know that it's never easy to come into such a tournament and win it. And he ended by sending a touching message to the 14-year-old Yagis Khan Erdogmus, who broke down during the final moments of his loss against the world No.1 on Sunday.

‘And we get it. It is never easy, yet Carlsen has amassed 19 world titles (5 classical, 6 Rapid and 8 Blitz). The greater mystery though isn’t how the Norwegian does it. Rather, why haven't the rest of the best managed to get a handle on him after so many years.

The old days, way before Carlsen, were the age of novelties. New openings were a regular occurrence, positional play was still evolving and the nonavailability of chess literature meant that preparation could be a hit-and-miss affair. So experimentation was fair game and even won many admirers.

But several of these openings i.e. the King’s Gambit that was immensely popular in the 19th century, French Defence, Queen’s Indian Defence, Colle system - have been largely abandoned at the top level. As chess theory has evolved with the help of computers, strategic flaws or the possibility of strong counterplay has made players look at other methods.