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Subject: Re: The Psychology of Chess and Kramnick's Blunder

Author: stuart taylor

Date: 01:39:13 10/15/02

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On October 15, 2002 at 01:36:59, Peter McKenzie wrote:

>Well said.
>
>Remember how Fischer's opponents folded so terribly sometimes?  In particular
>those amazing 6-0 victories in the candidates matches vs Larsen and Taimanov.
>In my opinion this wasn't just because of Fischer's excellent moves, but also
>the psychological strain of playing an opponent with machine like efficiency,
>knowing they will punish your every blunder, can cause some players to 'crack'
>under the pressure.
>
>Another interesting example of someone cracking is Karpov in his first match vs
>Kasparov.  Kasparov, by adopting a for him unnaturally dry style, demonstrated
>that he was at least Karpov's equal in purely technical play.  This seemed to
>throw Karpov completely, and he was only saved by Fide weirdly calling the match
>off.
>
>The question is whether Kramnik has cracked completely, or whether this was just
>a temporary aboration and he can regain his composure.  I think he will be able
>to recover, but it will be interesting!
>
>Peter

The elo system makes no allowances for these things. When fide stopped the
Karpov-Karpov match, perhaps they should have taken the later games away from
the rating system too!
And what about the first few games which Kasparov lost? Maybe that was also not
fair! And why was HE not under tremendous pressure when for many many games, all
Karpov needed was a sigle draw and he is world champion again?
 I think however that fide was absolutely corrupt, and if they had to call it to
a halt, they should have done it no later than when Karpov needed one and a half
points more.
 If Karpov was ill, they could have applied the rules of if someone is sick.
S.Taylor



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