Mtel Masters was an annual super-GM chess tournament held between 2005 and 2009 in Sofia , Bulgaria , sponsored and organized by the Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel . The tournament was held as a double round-robin at the five-star Grand Hotel Sofia .
86-519: The first edition of the tournament took place between 11 and 22 May 2005 as part of M-Tel's tenth anniversary celebrations and with the participation of top chess players such as Viswanathan Anand , Veselin Topalov , Vladimir Kramnik , Michael Adams , Judit Polgár and Ruslan Ponomariov . M-Tel Masters 2005 was classified in FIDE's Category 20 and was named the strongest tournament of 2005 according to
172-630: A sudden-death blitz game to secure a 3–2 victory. Immediately after defeating Adams, Anand arranged a flight with his team to the International Olympic Committee museum in Lausanne , Switzerland to play Karpov in a six-game match for the FIDE world title. With just four hours of pre-match preparation, Anand lost Game 1 after Karpov surprised him with a bold queen sacrifice on the 31st move. But he won Game 2 in 42 moves from
258-463: A 12-game final match held at Las Palmas , Anand lost Game 1 on time in a winning position but recovered with wins in Game 3, 9, and 11 to secure a 6½–4½ victory and a match against reigning champion Kasparov for the world chess championship. It was the first Candidates' Tournament victory of Anand's career. The 20-game championship match was held from 10 September to 16 October 1995 on the 107th floor of
344-477: A 15-minute tiebreak game to progress. Against Adams in the semifinals, Anand quickly drew Game 1 and took advantage of a positional blunder by Adams (20...c5?) to win Game 2 in 36 moves with white. Quick draws in games 3 and 4 then saw Anand through to the final match. The final match played from 20 to 26 December 2000 in Tehran, pitted Anand against fourth-seeded Shirov, who was denied a chance to play Kasparov for
430-540: A 54-player, 11-round Swiss-style qualifying tournament in Groningen on 19–30 December, an equivalent of FIDE's Interzonal . Anand scored 7½/11 to finish tied for first and secure a berth in the 1994 Candidates' Tournament . In the single-elimination tournament , Anand handily dispatched Adams and Oleg Romanishin in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches, held in New York City and Linares . Facing Kamsky in
516-456: A K-factor of 10, which means that the maximum ratings change from a single game is a little less than 10 points. The United States Chess Federation (USCF) uses its own classification of players: The K-factor , in the USCF rating system, can be estimated by dividing 800 by the effective number of games a player's rating is based on ( N e ) plus the number of games the player completed in
602-521: A coffin" to play Karpov, the regular match ended 3–3, which led to a rapid playoff, which Karpov won 2–0. Karpov thus remained the FIDE champion. Anand has won the Mainz Chess Classic , a Category 21 Championship , a record 11 times. In 2008, he defeated Carlsen en route to his 11th title in that event. Anand is the first player to have won five titles of the Corus chess tournament . He
688-492: A disadvantaged position after accepting a sharp exchange sacrifice and outplaying Karpov in the resulting endgame. After losing Game 4, Anand entered the final game of the match needing a win to force the match into a playoff. Playing white, he opened with the Trompowsky Attack . Karpov defended well until 28...Qd8?, a critical mistake that lost him a piece and the game. In the first rapid playoff game, Anand secured
774-411: A few points from the higher rated player in the event of a draw. This means that this rating system is self-correcting. Players whose ratings are too low or too high should, in the long run, do better or worse correspondingly than the rating system predicts and thus gain or lose rating points until the ratings reflect their true playing strength. Elo ratings are comparative only, and are valid only within
860-446: A floor of at most 150. There are two ways to achieve higher rating floors other than under the standard scheme presented above. If a player has achieved the rating of Original Life Master, their rating floor is set at 2200. The achievement of this title is unique in that no other recognized USCF title will result in a new floor. For players with ratings below 2000, winning a cash prize of $ 2,000 or more raises that player's rating floor to
946-432: A lower level. If the game ends in a draw, the two players are assumed to have performed at nearly the same level. Elo did not specify exactly how close two performances ought to be to result in a draw as opposed to a win or loss. Actually, there is a probability of a draw that is dependent on the performance differential, so this latter is more of a confidence interval than any deterministic frontier. And while he thought it
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#17327973952211032-511: A match for the lineal world title earlier in the year, did not participate in the event. Anand's second and preparation partner for the tournament was Spanish grandmaster Elizbar Ubilava . Enjoying boisterous home-crowd support, Anand moved through the early rounds with relatively little difficulty, notching quick wins against Viktor Bologan , Smbat Lputian , and Bartłomiej Macieja . In the quarterfinals, he had four consecutive draws against defending champion Alexander Khalifman before winning
1118-646: A perception that the ratings are fair. The USCF implemented Elo's suggestions in 1960, and the system quickly gained recognition as being both fairer and more accurate than the Harkness rating system . Elo's system was adopted by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1970. Elo described his work in detail in The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present , first published in 1978. Subsequent statistical tests have suggested that chess performance
1204-403: A player who won more games than expected would be adjusted upward, while those of a player who won fewer than expected would be adjusted downward. Moreover, that adjustment was to be in linear proportion to the number of wins by which the player had exceeded or fallen short of their expected number. From a modern perspective, Elo's simplifying assumptions are not necessary because computing power
1290-565: A player with an Elo rating of 1000, If you beat two players with Elo ratings of 1000, If you draw, This is a simplification, but it offers an easy way to get an estimate of PR (performance rating). FIDE , however, calculates performance rating by means of the formula performance rating = average of opponents' ratings + d p , {\displaystyle {\text{performance rating}}={\text{average of opponents' ratings}}+d_{p},} where "rating difference" d p {\displaystyle d_{p}}
1376-404: A positive score against every other player. Veselin Topalov , who had won the tournament the three previous years, was second. The 2009 edition of the tournament took place from 12 to 23 May. Besides regular feature Veselin Topalov, the participating grandmasters were Magnus Carlsen , Vasyl Ivanchuk , Alexei Shirov , Wang Yue and Leinier Domínguez . The tournament was cancelled because of
1462-410: A rating of 1500 and Elo suggested scaling ratings so that a difference of 200 rating points in chess would mean that the stronger player has an expected score of approximately 0.75. A player's expected score is their probability of winning plus half their probability of drawing. Thus, an expected score of 0.75 could represent a 75% chance of winning, 25% chance of losing, and 0% chance of drawing. On
1548-453: A rematch to Carlsen in 2014 after winning the 2014 Candidates Tournament . In April 2006, Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Kramnik, Topalov, and Garry Kasparov . He occupied the number-one position for 21 months, the sixth-longest period on record. Known for his rapid playing speed as a child, Anand earned the sobriquet " Lightning Kid " during his early career in
1634-480: A result of Kasparov's withdrawal, Anand entered the tournament in Groningen , Netherlands as the #1 seed. After dispatching future FIDE champion Alexander Khalifman in the third round, he scored quick victories over Zoltán Almási , Alexei Shirov , and Boris Gelfand to advance. In the final against ninth-seeded Michael Adams, held on 30 December, both players drew their first four games. A visibly tired Anand, having played 21 games in 23 days, eventually prevailed in
1720-410: A significant advantage on the board before a calculation mistake (40...a4?) cost him the game. Karpov then won the second game with black to seal a 5−3 victory and retain the FIDE title. After the match, Anand reiterated his concerns with the unfairness of the tournament format. It was almost as if I had been asked to run a 100-metre sprint after completing a cross-country marathon... Karpov waited for
1806-437: A system based on statistical estimation. Rating systems for many sports award points in accordance with subjective evaluations of the 'greatness' of certain achievements. For example, winning an important golf tournament might be worth an arbitrarily chosen five times as many points as winning a lesser tournament. A statistical endeavor, by contrast, uses a model that relates the game results to underlying variables representing
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#17327973952211892-458: A tournament ( m ). The USCF maintains an absolute rating floor of 100 for all ratings. Thus, no member can have a rating below 100, no matter their performance at USCF-sanctioned events. However, players can have higher individual absolute rating floors, calculated using the following formula: where N W {\displaystyle N_{W}} is the number of rated games won, N D {\displaystyle N_{D}}
1978-457: A unique implementation, and none of them follows Elo's original suggestions precisely. Instead one may refer to the organization granting the rating. For example: "As of April 2018, Tatev Abrahamyan had a FIDE rating of 2366 and a USCF rating of 2473." The Elo ratings of these various organizations are not always directly comparable, since Elo ratings measure the results within a closed pool of players rather than absolute skill. For top players,
2064-421: Is a hypothetical rating that would result from the games of a single event only. Some chess organizations use the "algorithm of 400" to calculate performance rating. According to this algorithm, performance rating for an event is calculated in the following way: Example: 2 wins (opponents w & x ), 2 losses (opponents y & z ) This can be expressed by the following formula: Example: If you beat
2150-410: Is almost certainly not distributed as a normal distribution , as weaker players have greater winning chances than Elo's model predicts. In paired comparison data, there is often very little practical difference in whether it is assumed that the differences in players' strengths are normally or logistically distributed. Mathematically, however, the logistic function is more convenient to work with than
2236-426: Is based on a player's tournament percentage score p {\displaystyle p} , which is then used as the key in a lookup table where p {\displaystyle p} is simply the number of points scored divided by the number of games played. Note that, in case of a perfect or no score d p {\displaystyle d_{p}} is 800. FIDE updates its ratings list at
2322-442: Is calculated by taking the player's peak established rating, subtracting 200 points, and then rounding down to the nearest rating floor. For example, a player who has reached a peak rating of 1464 would have a rating floor of 1464 − 200 = 1264 , which would be rounded down to 1200. Under this scheme, only Class C players and above are capable of having a higher rating floor than their absolute player rating. All other players would have
2408-430: Is defined as 200 points, the standard deviation σ' of the differences in performances becomes σ√2 or 282.84. The z value of a difference then is D / 282.84 . This will then divide the area under the curve into two parts, the larger giving P for the higher rated player and the smaller giving P for the lower rated player. For example, let D = 160 . Then z = 160 / 282.84 = .566 . The table gives .7143 and .2857 as
2494-508: Is inexpensive and widely available. Several people, most notably Mark Glickman , have proposed using more sophisticated statistical machinery to estimate the same variables. On the other hand, the computational simplicity of the Elo system has proven to be one of its greatest assets. With the aid of a pocket calculator, an informed chess competitor can calculate to within one point what their next officially published rating will be, which helps promote
2580-414: Is necessary because chess performance in the above sense is still not measurable. One cannot look at a sequence of moves and derive a number to represent that player's skill. Performance can only be inferred from wins, draws, and losses. Therefore, a player who wins a game is assumed to have performed at a higher level than the opponent for that game. Conversely, a losing player is assumed to have performed at
2666-424: Is not measured absolutely; it is inferred from wins, losses, and draws against other players. Players' ratings depend on the ratings of their opponents and the results scored against them. The difference in rating between two players determines an estimate for the expected score between them. Both the average and the spread of ratings can be arbitrarily chosen. The USCF initially aimed for an average club player to have
M-Tel Masters - Misplaced Pages Continue
2752-558: Is often used to mean a player's chess rating as calculated by FIDE. However, this usage may be confusing or misleading because Elo's general ideas have been adopted by many organizations, including the USCF (before FIDE), many other national chess federations, the short-lived Professional Chess Association (PCA), and online chess servers including the Internet Chess Club (ICC), Free Internet Chess Server (FICS), Lichess , Chess.com , and Yahoo! Games. Each organization has
2838-473: Is the first player to have won each of the Big Three supertournaments at the time: Corus (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006), Linares (1998, 2007, 2008), and Dortmund (1996, 2000, 2004). Anand has a stellar record at the annual Melody Amber Tournament (2 separate and unique Blindfold and Rapid Chess supertournaments played): he has 5 overall prizes (winning in 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005, and 2006), and has
2924-417: Is the number of rated games drawn, and N R {\displaystyle N_{R}} is the number of events in which the player completed three or more rated games. Higher rating floors exist for experienced players who have achieved significant ratings. Such higher rating floors exist, starting at ratings of 1200 in 100-point increments up to 2100 (1200, 1300, 1400, ..., 2100). A rating floor
3010-477: Is what I did. In 2005, Anand finished in a tie for second place at the 2005 FIDE World Chess Championship , won by Topalov. The finish of the 2005 World Chess Championship qualified Anand for the 2007 championship, an eight-player double round-robin tournament held in Mexico City from 12 to 30 September 2007. In 2006, Kramnik took Topalov's place in the event after his victory over the latter to reunify
3096-502: The PCA World Chess Championship against Kasparov at New York City's World Trade Center . After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match until 21 November 2018), Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice , but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10½–7½. In the 1998 FIDE cycle, FIDE granted Karpov, the reigning champion, direct seeding into
3182-536: The World Chess Championship 2010 match in Sofia. Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan " Vishy " Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster , a former five-time World Chess Champion and a record two-time Chess World Cup Champion . He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time . In 2022, he was elected
3268-543: The World Trade Center in New York City. The match started with a then-record eight consecutive draws before Anand broke open the match in Game 9, pressing and eventually breaking through Kasparov's Sicilian Defense with a powerful exchange sacrifice. But Anand scored just half a point in the next five games, losing twice to Kasparov's Sicilian Dragon defence, and eventually conceded a 10½–7½ loss. Afterwards, Kasparov commented on Anand's psychological approach to
3354-607: The endgame . Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports . It is named after its creator Arpad Elo , a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved chess-rating system over the previously used Harkness system , but is also used as a rating system in association football (soccer) , American football , baseball , basketball , pool , various board games and esports , and, more recently, large language models . The difference in
3440-508: The "Live" No. 1 ranking. The unofficial live ratings of players over 2700 were published and maintained by Hans Arild Runde at the Live Rating website until August 2011. Another website, 2700chess.com , has been maintained since May 2011 by Artiom Tsepotan , which covers the top 100 players as well as the top 50 female players. Rating changes can be calculated manually by using the FIDE ratings change calculator. All top players have
3526-623: The 1980s. He has since developed into a universal player, and many consider him the greatest rapid chess player of his generation. He won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and 2017, the World Blitz Cup in 2000, and numerous other top-level rapid and blitz events. Anand was the first recipient of the Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honour. In 2007, he
M-Tel Masters - Misplaced Pages Continue
3612-761: The Indian chess world was meteoric. National success came early for him when he won the sub-junior championship with a score of 9/9 points in 1983, at age 14. In 1984 Anand won the Asian Junior Championship in Coimbatore , earning an International Master (IM) norm in the process. Soon afterward, he participated in the 26th Chess Olympiad , in Thessaloniki , where he made his debut on the Indian national team. There, Anand scored 7½ points in 11 games, gaining his second IM norm. In 1985 he became
3698-581: The Linares chess tournament and it was widely believed that he would be ranked world No. 1 in the FIDE Elo rating list for April 2007. But Anand was No. 2 on the initial list released because the Linares result was not included. FIDE subsequently announced that Linares would be included, pushing Anand to number one in the April 2007 list. In 1993, the newly formed Professional Chess Association (PCA) held
3784-560: The Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore , India. One of his notable successes in this tournament was his win against Russian grandmaster Efim Geller . He was awarded Padma Shri at age 18. In the 1993 World Chess Championship cycle, Anand qualified for his first Candidates Tournament , winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarterfinal match to 1990 runner-up Anatoly Karpov . In 1994–95, Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated
3870-470: The ability of each player. Elo's central assumption was that the chess performance of each player in each game is a normally distributed random variable . Although a player might perform significantly better or worse from one game to the next, Elo assumed that the mean value of the performances of any given player changes only slowly over time. Elo thought of a player's true skill as the mean of that player's performance random variable. A further assumption
3956-450: The areas of the two portions under the curve. These probabilities are rounded to two figures in table 2.11. The table is actually built with standard deviation 200(10/7) as an approximation for 200√2 . The normal and logistic distributions are, in a way, arbitrary points in a spectrum of distributions which would work well. In practice, both of these distributions work very well for a number of different games. The phrase "Elo rating"
4042-487: The average Elo rating of the participants of 2744. The winner of the tournament was the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, with the award being conferred by President Georgi Parvanov . The 2006 tournament took place between 10 May and 21 May and was attended by Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Svidler , Étienne Bacrot and Gata Kamsky . Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho played
4128-576: The beginning of each month. In contrast, the unofficial "Live ratings" calculate the change in players' ratings after every game. These Live ratings are based on the previously published FIDE ratings, so a player's Live rating is intended to correspond to what the FIDE rating would be if FIDE were to issue a new list that day. Although Live ratings are unofficial, interest arose in Live ratings in August/September 2008 when five different players took
4214-458: The chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen, all of whom were rivals for the world championship during Anand's career, each aided him in his preparations for the 2010 World Chess Championship . Anand is sometimes known as the "Tiger of Madras". Anand was the only sportsperson invited to the dinner Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted for US President Barack Obama on 7 November 2010. Anand
4300-400: The closest 100-point level that would have disqualified the player for participation in the tournament. For example, if a player won $ 4,000 in a 1750-and-under tournament, they would now have a rating floor of 1800. Pairwise comparisons form the basis of the Elo rating methodology. Elo made references to the papers of Good, David, Trawinski and David, and Buhlman and Huber. Performance
4386-515: The corpse of his challenger to be delivered in a coffin. If anybody else other than Karpov wins, it's a world championship. Otherwise, it's not. Karpov, meanwhile, questioned Anand's temperament and remarked that he "doesn't have the character" to win big games. For his part, Kasparov dismissed the match as between "a tired player and an old player". From 25 November to 27 December 2000, the FIDE World Chess Championship
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#17327973952214472-409: The defending champion, was seeded directly into the final, held just three days after the conclusion of the three-week tournament. This format gave Karpov a significant advantage in rest time and preparation; Kasparov and Kramnik both declined to participate as a result. The latter explained his absence bluntly: "Is it fair to expect Sampras to only play one match and defend his Wimbledon title?" As
4558-409: The deputy president of FIDE . Anand defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship , a title he held until 2002. He became the undisputed world champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 , Veselin Topalov in 2010 , and Boris Gelfand in 2012 . In 2013 , he lost the title to challenger Magnus Carlsen , and he lost
4644-519: The draw. With the win, Anand became the first undisputed world champion to win the title in a tournament, rather than in match play, since Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948. In addition to the world title, Anand received a $ 390,000 cash prize. Key: H2H = head-to-head, points against tied player; NS = Neustadtl score Anand convincingly defended the title against Kramnik in the 2008 World Chess Championship held on 14–29 October in Bonn , Germany. The winner
4730-579: The entire tournament, with eight wins and 12 draws. With the win, he became the first world champion from east Asia and the first world champion from outside the ex-Soviet Union since Bobby Fischer . In addition to the title of FIDE world champion, Anand received a $ 528,000 cash prize. Upon returning to India, Anand was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in recognition of his victory. Later, he gave his thoughts on his matches against Khalifman and Shirov: The tiebreaker against Khalifman
4816-432: The final against the winner of the seven-round single-elimination Candidates tournament. The psychological and physical advantage Karpov gained from this decision caused significant controversy, leading to Kramnik's withdrawal from the tournament. Anand won the tournament, defeating Adams in the final, and immediately faced Karpov for the championship. Despite this disadvantage for Anand, which he described as being "brought in
4902-549: The intricacies of the game in Manila , where he lived with his parents from 1978 through the 1980s while his father was contracted as a consultant by the Philippine National Railways . Anand was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai , and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai . Anand married Aruna in 1996 and has a son, born on 9 April 2011, named in
4988-464: The match we have played here... I'm criticizing the strategy. He could have played without a fixed strategy and adjusted during the match. The chess preparation was excellent, but there was some psychological advice not appropriate In a radical departure from previous years, the 1998 world championship was a 100-player knockout tournament , with each round consisting of two-game matches and ties resolved by rapid and blitz games. Controversially, Karpov,
5074-510: The match: Anand lost the match in five games, Games 10 to 14. I lost many games in a row to Karpov in the first match I played with him, but I don't think he was that much better. It was a great experience for me. Anand wasn't paying enough attention with his team to the fact that he was playing the World Championship. He has never played such a strong opponent for such a long event. You can't compare his match with Kamsky in April to
5160-545: The most "rapidplay" titles, winning 9 times. He is also the only player to win the blind and rapid sections of the tournament in the same year (twice, in 1997 and 2005). Anand won three consecutive Advanced Chess tournaments in Leon , Spain, after Kasparov introduced this form of chess in 1998, and is widely recognised as the world's best Advanced Chess player, where players may consult a computer to aid in their calculation of variations. Anand's collection My Best Games of Chess
5246-561: The most important rating is their FIDE rating. FIDE has issued the following lists: The following analysis of the July 2015 FIDE rating list gives a rough impression of what a given FIDE rating means in terms of world ranking: The highest ever FIDE rating was 2882, which Magnus Carlsen had on the May 2014 list. A list of the highest-rated players ever is at Comparison of top chess players throughout history . Performance rating or special rating
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#17327973952215332-517: The normal distribution. FIDE continues to use the rating difference table as proposed by Elo. The development of the Percentage Expectancy Table (table 2.11) is described in more detail by Elo as follows: The normal probabilities may be taken directly from the standard tables of the areas under the normal curve when the difference in rating is expressed as a z score. Since the standard deviation σ of individual performances
5418-465: The only undefeated player in the tournament with a 2848 performance rating. This was his second world chess championship, and first since the reunification of the title in 2006. As a result, he gained nine rating points to break the 2800 Elo rating barrier for the second time in his career in October 2007. In the post-event press conference, Anand commented on his final game and his feelings on winning
5504-442: The other extreme it could represent a 50% chance of winning, 0% chance of losing, and 50% chance of drawing. The probability of drawing, as opposed to having a decisive result, is not specified in the Elo system. Instead, a draw is considered half a win and half a loss. In practice, since the true strength of each player is unknown, the expected scores are calculated using the player's current ratings as follows. If player A has
5590-473: The outcome of rated games played. After every game, the winning player takes points from the losing one. The difference between the ratings of the winner and loser determines the total number of points gained or lost after a game. If the higher-rated player wins, then only a few rating points will be taken from the lower-rated player. However, if the lower-rated player scores an upset win , many rating points will be transferred. The lower-rated player will also gain
5676-629: The pack with wins over Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk , taking the lead. He then held Kramnik to a draw in Round 10, and extended his lead to 1½ points with a 56-move win over Alexander Morozevich . In Round 13, Anand played precise defence and salvaged a lost rook endgame against Grischuk with black to retain his lead, and sealed the championship in the final round with a 20-move draw against Peter Leko . Anand's performance in Mexico City saw him pick up four wins and 10 draws, and he finished as
5762-495: The qualifying cycles for the rival FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle , Anand lost his second round (Candidates semifinal) match to Kamsky after leading early. Kamsky lost the 1996 FIDE championship match to Karpov. In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand won matches against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Kamsky in the Candidates final. In 1995, he played
5848-649: The rating pool in which they were calculated, rather than being an absolute measure of a player's strength. While Elo-like systems are widely used in two-player settings, variations have also been applied to multiplayer competitions. Arpad Elo was a chess master and an active participant in the United States Chess Federation (USCF) from its founding in 1939. The USCF used a numerical ratings system devised by Kenneth Harkness to enable members to track their individual progress in terms other than tournament wins and losses. The Harkness system
5934-433: The ratings between two players serves as a predictor of the outcome of a match. Two players with equal ratings who play against each other are expected to score an equal number of wins. A player whose rating is 100 points greater than their opponent's is expected to score 64%; if the difference is 200 points, then the expected score for the stronger player is 76%. A player's Elo rating is a number that may change depending on
6020-562: The token initial move of the 2006 tournament, which was officially opened by the President of Bulgaria , Georgi Parvanov. Topalov won the tournament for the second time after a decisive comeback from a somewhat hesitant start. He recorded four consecutive wins in the final rounds to clinch the M-Tel Masters 2006 first place with 6½ points, also defeating his main rival Gata Kamsky in the penultimate round. M-Tel Masters' 2007 edition
6106-517: The tournament: This time there is no rival claimant, so obviously it is a fantastic feeling. You can imagine how I feel. This is something very special for me. I feel that here I played the best. You have to perform at the right moment-it's important that I peaked here. This tournament went like a dream... Yesterday I had to work really hard but today I just remembered Tal's saying that when your hand plays one way and your heart plays another, it never goes well. So I decided to be very solid and just go for
6192-486: The traditional patronymic way Anand Akhil. Anand is Hindu and stated that he visits temples to enjoy the tranquility and joy they symbolize. He has credited his daily prayers with helping him achieve a "heightened state of mind" that helps him focus better when playing chess. In August 2010, Anand joined the board of directors of Olympic Gold Quest , a foundation for promoting and supporting India's elite sportspersons and potential young talent. On 24 December 2010, he
6278-539: The world title two years earlier. After a draw in Game 1, Anand entered a sharp line in the Ruy Lopez in Game 2, ultimately converting a passed pawn into a winning endgame after placing Shirov in zugzwang on move 41. Anand then seized control of the match with a 41-move win in Game 3 after neutralizing a rook sacrifice by Shirov on move 19, and sealed victory in the match with another win in Game 4. Anand's run to his first world championship saw him go unbeaten through
6364-416: The world title. Anand entered the tournament as the world's top-ranked player, and was considered a favourite to win alongside the defending champion Kramnik. After a Round 1 draw, Anand drew first blood in the tournament, handily defeating Aronian with black in Round 2. After the fourth round, Anand and Kramnik were tied for the lead with 2½ each. But in the next three rounds, Anand separated himself from
6450-663: The youngest Indian to achieve the title of International Master, at age 15, by winning the Asian Junior Championship for the second year in a row, this time in Hong Kong. At age 16, he became the national chess champion . He won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship . In 1988, at age 18, he became India's first grandmaster by winning
6536-511: Was a 100-player single-elimination tournament in New Delhi , India and Tehran , Iran. After winning the 2000 FIDE World Cup , Anand entered the event as the #1 overall seed and one of the favourites to win alongside Topalov, Gelfand, and Shirov. Anand decided to join the event after skipping the 1999 edition , due to ongoing negotiations for a title match with Kasparov that ultimately fell through. Kasparov and Kramnik, who defeated Kasparov in
6622-515: Was a housewife, chess aficionado, and an influential socialite. Anand is the youngest of three children. He is 11 years younger than his sister, and 13 years younger than his brother. His brother, Shivakumar, is a manager at Crompton Greaves in India. His sister, Anuradha, is a professor at the University of Michigan . Anand started learning chess from age six from his mother, but he learned
6708-672: Was awarded India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan , making him the first sportsperson to receive the award. Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in Mayiladuthurai , Tamil Nadu, India. He later moved to Chennai , where he grew up. His father, Krishnamurthy Viswanathan, was a general manager in the Southern Railways who had studied in Jamalpur, Bihar ; and his mother, Sushila,
6794-524: Was denied an honorary doctorate from University of Hyderabad because of confusion over his citizenship status; India's Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal later apologised and said, "There is no issue on the matter as Anand has agreed to accept the degree at a convenient time depending on his availability". According to The Hindu , Anand finally declined to accept the doctorate. On 26 May 2015, Anand's mother died at age 79. On 15 April 2021, Anand's father died at age 92. Anand's rise in
6880-453: Was held between 9 May and 20 May and featured Veselin Topalov, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu , Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , Gata Kamsky, Michael Adams and Krishnan Sasikiran . Topalov won the tournament for a third consecutive time in a dramatic fashion, defeating the then-current leader Sasikiran in the final round. The 2008 M-Tel Masters was held 8–18 May. Vasyl Ivanchuk won by a wide margin. Ivanchuk won his first five games, lost no games, and had
6966-477: Was likely that players might have different standard deviations to their performances, he made a simplifying assumption to the contrary. To simplify computation even further, Elo proposed a straightforward method of estimating the variables in his model (i.e., the true skill of each player). One could calculate relatively easily from tables how many games players would be expected to win based on comparisons of their ratings to those of their opponents. The ratings of
7052-638: Was more thrilling, because this was in the knockout stage. There was a stage when I felt that I was on the verge of being eliminated. We played a series of games one after another. It was touch and go. I could not prepare myself before every game in Delhi because I did not know who was going to be my opponent the next day. So I would prepare for a general game. But I knew that in the final I was playing against Shirov. I knew that he had not been playing well. If he had won six games, he had lost eight. So I knew if I could put him under pressure he would make mistakes. And that
7138-526: Was published in 1998 and updated in 2001. His individual tournament successes include the Corus chess tournament in 2006 (tied with Topalov), Dortmund in 2004, and Linares in 2007 and 2008. In 2007 he won the Grenkeleasing Rapid championship for the tenth time, defeating Levon Aronian . Just a few days before, Aronian had defeated Anand in the Chess960 final. In March 2007, Anand won
7224-513: Was reasonably fair, but in some circumstances gave rise to ratings many observers considered inaccurate. On behalf of the USCF, Elo devised a new system with a more sound statistical basis. At about the same time, György Karoly and Roger Cook independently developed a system based on the same principles for the New South Wales Chess Association. Elo's system replaced earlier systems of competitive rewards with
7310-426: Was the guest of honour on the grounds of Gujarat University , where 20,486 players created a new world record of simultaneous chess play at a single venue. His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music. Anand has been regarded as an unassuming person with a reputation for refraining from political and psychological ploys and instead focusing on his game. This has made him a well-liked figure throughout
7396-586: Was to be the first to score 6½ points in the 12-game match. Anand won by scoring 6½ points in 11 games, winning three of the first six games (two with black). After the tenth game, Anand led 6–4 and needed only a draw in either of the last two games to win the match. In Game 11, Kramnik played the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense . Once the players traded queens, Kramnik offered a draw after 24 moves since he had no winning chances in
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