For example, in 2022 the national championship game was won by the team I support, Georgia Bulldogs.
But during the season they lost to Alabama Crimson Tide, who in turn had lost to Texas A&M, who lost to Mississippi State, who lost to Memphis Tigers, etc, etc.
Eventually the chain leads to one of the lowliest teams in the land, which can thus make a claim to be #1!
It is possible to play a similar game in chess, by which you trace your wins up to a victory over a reigning world champion, thus putting yourself in position to claim, however far-fetched the claim may be, to be #1!
The third link in my chain comes from round five of the 1951 Wertheim Memorial, New York.
Max Euwe - Larry Evans
Queen's Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 Ne4 8.Qc2 Nxc3 9.Qxc3
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| There are 4,629 examples of this position in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database |
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9...f5
This is the commonest move in Mega24, narrowly ahead of 9...c5.
10.Ne1!?
But this invitation to exchange light-square bishops is only sixth-most popular in Mega24. It seems to have been introduced into master play at Carlsbad 1929 by Karl Glig against Euwe.
10...Bxg2 11.Nxg2 Bf6
Euwe played 11...Qe8, drawing in 31 moves.
12.Be3 d6!?
This seems to have been a novelty, and makes no other appearance in Mega24, but seems reasonable.
13.Qc2 Qc8 14.Nf4 c6 15.Qb3 g5!? 16.Nh5 Be7 17.c5!? d5!? 18.cxb6 axb6
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| How should White proceed? |
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19.f3!?
After 19.Qxb6!? c5 20.dxc5 Nc6 Black's queenside pressure, combined with White's out-of-play knight, gives more than enough compensation for two pawns, according to Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1. However the engines reckon White should prefer 19.Rac1 or 19.a4, slowing Black's queenside play.
19...Nd7
Black is at least slightly better after 19...c5, according to the engines.
20.g4!? Qa6 21.Qc2 Qc4!? 22.Qxc4 dxc4 23.f4 fxg4 24.fxg5 Rxf1+ 25.Kxf1 b5
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| How would you assess this ending? |
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It looks a mess, and it may well be the players were unsure who stood better, but the engines give Black the upper hand.
26.Kg2 Nb6 27.Kg3 b4 28.Kxg4 b3 29.d5?
Activating the bishop, but at too high a cost. The engines suggest 29.a4, or retreating the bishop to d2 or c1.
29...Nxd5 30.Bd4 bxa2 31.Nf6+ Bxf6 32.gxf6 Nb4
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| White is busted |
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33.Kf4 Kf7 34.Be5 Nc2 35.Rd1 a1=Q 36.Rd7+ Ke8 37.Re7+ Kf8 38.Rxh7 Qf1+ 39.Kg3 Qf5 0-1
I'd have thought many older English players who've reached a decent standard at some point in their playing career would be able to claim a 2 in this game. I can.
ReplyDeleteCarlsen has lost to the following English players at slow time controls - Adams, Arkell, Brameld, McShane, Williams and Weighell. You can add Jones and Short if you include blitz games.
Weighell was graded 150 - 170 before he stopped playing about 15 years ago so that's a route for players who didn't manage to beat any of the other players before they got very good at the game.
An interesting point! I have wins against Luke McShane, but they were at rapid games, which I am not counting (and anyway, as far as I know, McShane's only win against Magnus Carlsen was in 2010, before the latter was a reigning world champion). I also have a classical time-limit win against Simon Williams, but his only win against Carlsen that I can find in Mega was in 2005, again before Carlsen became world champion.
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