The Twitter war between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri
3/9/2018 – Twitter is becoming a battlefield of exchanges between top players these days. The Candidates 2018 is beginning in a couple of days from now and Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri have already had quite some serious battle of words on Twitter. While Magnus attacked Anish with all his might, the Dutch GM has been able to maintain his cool. A lot of this happened after it was made public that Anish Giri is working with Vladimir Kramnik in Berlin. We bring you chronologically all of what happened along with some background behind the tweets! | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen
Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.
Top players play games off the board too!
Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri have been opponents on the board on many occasions. However, for the Berlin Candidates 2018, they have decided to join forces.
Giri will be helping Kramnik to win the Candidates and qualify for a match against Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes
When it was publicly known that Anish Giri would be helping Kramnik, Carlsen made the following tweet:
So supposedly @anishgiri will be seconding Kramnik during the candidates. Before Tata (an unbeaten +7 with just a few draws for Vlad) this would have been a clear cut case of "if you can't beat em, join em" Now it's rather "if you can't draw em, join em"
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) March 7, 2018
Magnus' tweet is quite complicated, but can be understood better if you know that Anish managed to beat Vladimir at the Tata Steel Masters 2018 held in January 2018:
Anish had the following reply to Magnus' tweet:
I guess this deep joke only makes sense in Norwegian?! 🤔 Or maybe I am just too tired from all the work on the openings. 😆
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) March 7, 2018
A couple of days ago MVL wrote a very nice article on the chances of each of the participants at the Candidates. He gave Vladimir Kramnik an outside chance of winning the event, but he mentioned: "In my opinion, Vlad is probably the player in the world who best understands chess. You can show him whatever position, his instincts will seldom let him down. He will always find what the evaluation of the position is and which plan to adopt." Magnus was not so magnanimous as MVL and tweeted the following:
Giri, who is Kramnik's second, stood up for the man he is backing with the following tweet:
In wake of the World Championship qualifier, someone appears to be more nervous than all of the 8 candidates put together!😅 (Hint: it is not me or MVL). https://t.co/16Bmeqq8A6
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) March 8, 2018
Carlsen it seems lost his cool and got a bit rude:
Come on, that is just weak. Win a tournament for the first time in your life, and maybe people will start taking you seriously https://t.co/WgF3fAmOvK
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) March 8, 2018
Anish kept his calm and cooled down the situation:
Don't know about people, but you seem to be taking me seriously and that is flattering! A little more and I may have enough confidence to finally win one. As for now, I haven't even qualified to the qualifier, so no worries...
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) March 8, 2018
Hikaru Nakamura didn't miss the opportunity to chime in:
Finally, somebody gets fed up with @anishgiri and all of his ridiculous tweets! https://t.co/fsKgyZwLas
— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) March 8, 2018
These Twitter exchanges have made the Candidates a tournament to look forward to!
Magnus and Anish making their moves at the same time! | Photo: Alina l'Ami
Thanks to this Twitter war, Anish must be highly motivated to ensure that Kramnik wins the Candidates. Good news for the Big Vlad! As for the fans out there, they are having ample of fun:
Reminds me of the book "Chess for fun and Chess for blood", Lasker must add these tweets to the next edition 😁https://t.co/CfRdwHmNq4
— Himadri Mukherjee (@baharampuri) March 8, 2018
Source: This article was first published on ChessBase India.
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
Carlsen clearly got the better of the exchange. The fact that Anish didn't get Carlsen's joke started things off...
I am a fan of Kramnik, but Giri's suggestion that "Carlsen is nervous" or such things is absolutely ridiculous. Carlsen is never nervous against any opponent, since at least 15 years ago. Nor is Kramnik or any other top player nervous, they always play with confidence. Perhaps Giri is an exception, and he judges others according to his own self weakness.
@ fixpont
Carlsen's record vs. Kramnik is not especially impressive (in classical time control, that is)
And the two last games (Norway 2017 and WIZ 2018 were rather unpleasant for Carlsen
Carlsen's record vs. Kramnik is not especially impressive (in classical time control, that is)
And the two last games (Norway 2017 and WIZ 2018 were rather unpleasant for Carlsen
Anish Giri is right, looking at Carlsen's language, it does indicate that he is nervous. Carlsen has every reason to be worried of Kramnik becoming his opponent for the title. The man who destroyed Kasparov several years ago has simply refused to fade away.
Kram fans: dont be ridiculous, there is no way a 40+ player can beat Carlsen in a match, maybe a ~30 year-old Kram would have a chance but today's does not have. He was even given the free card because he was not able to qualify on his own.
Im not even sure this twitter drama being staged or not for generating hype around.
Im not even sure this twitter drama being staged or not for generating hype around.
It was Giri who first blinked. And taking a potshot at the Norwegian people at that.
Maybe he's jealous; Magnus. Of the attention his (great) rivals will be getting from the chess world and fans all over, these next weeks. He shouldn't, though. For events of this kind are nothing but good for chess and, by extension, its reigning king... (Maybe, after the tournament has finished, he could challenge Anish to a match, you know, so he can put him in his place? I'd love to see that match happening).
Trash talkin...
Anish is such a cuck. Long live the Magnus.
Is it just me, or is Giri just compensating for something else. Seems like what he cannot do on the board he makes up for with tweets;)
Dear Kramnik
You are one who can beat Carlsen.
And we would love you to win the candidates.
You are one who can beat Carlsen.
And we would love you to win the candidates.
Kramnik will not qualify for the wcc match because Fabiano Caruana going to win it of course he didn't perform well in the last tournaments but that is just hiding his opening ideas and saving some energy for the candidates but he can't beat the dry magnus but I will beat any magnus in 2024 or 2025 or before 2030.My Name is GM DENETH THEMINDA AND I'M FROM SRI LANKA.
@ lajosarpad
IMO, Carlsen thinks Kramnik is the only Candidate able to bother him to some extent.
His classical record against Vlad is just +1 and many games ended luckily for him.
He never misses an opportunity to denigrate Kramnik or question his playing strength.
IMO, Carlsen thinks Kramnik is the only Candidate able to bother him to some extent.
His classical record against Vlad is just +1 and many games ended luckily for him.
He never misses an opportunity to denigrate Kramnik or question his playing strength.
Giri won the exchange, no doubt about it. However, Carlsen might think that Kramnik would be an easy opponent for him in comparison to the others and might be motivating the Kramnik camp by trolling.
All this twittering reminds me of Plato's line:
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
time will heal everything,lets see the right candidate
Note how quickly Kakamura jumps to the defense of his master and torturer...
Sounds like Saruman suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Sounds like Saruman suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Kasparov school vs Euwe cool.
Bobby Fischer could get away with crazy, self-indulgent, eccentric comments because he was Bobby Fischer - a unique individual in every way.
Magnus is certainly not Bobby Fischer. He is, however, too old to react like a spoiled child every time someone rubs him the wrong way. He needs to man up and start acting like a true champion.
Magnus is certainly not Bobby Fischer. He is, however, too old to react like a spoiled child every time someone rubs him the wrong way. He needs to man up and start acting like a true champion.
Wow!
@nuwandalton - spot on!
Carlsen makes Kasparov and Fischer sound like gentlemen...
That's definitely his greatest achievement so far.
That's definitely his greatest achievement so far.
agree!
Ok, time to start following Anish on Twitter! :D
Come on Magnus,
You seem to have a good sense of humour. Don't turn away fans being spiteful.
You're lucky that one of the contenders for your crown is not Australian! With their reputation
for sledging, you wouldn't last 5 minutes.
You seem to have a good sense of humour. Don't turn away fans being spiteful.
You're lucky that one of the contenders for your crown is not Australian! With their reputation
for sledging, you wouldn't last 5 minutes.
poor giri
So will the candidates be broadcasted by chessbase or will we have to suffer the official cap broadcast?
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