Two of the world’s best players, born months apart, have been in a race up the international rating list since they were wearing short pants.
Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who turns 20 next month, gets the lion’s share of the attention. Even current champ Vishy Anand acknowledges that Carlsen will be world champion some day.
But fans of Carlsen’s rival, Sergey Karjakin, point out that in serious games, Karjakin has the edge. And after at the Olympiad tournament this month at Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, Karjkin is the one who’s already a world champion, as a member of the gold medal-winning Ukrainian team.
When they were 11, Karjakin was rated a sizable 200 points above Carlsen. But within two years they were virtually tied. Last year Carlsen became, at 19, the youngest player to be rated No. 1 in the world — while many fans couldn’t identify Karjakin.
Carlsen remains No. 1 but for the first time is slipping. He dropped 15 ratings points in Siberia, and leads Anand by only 10 points, after losing games like this week’s fiasco against Sanan Sjugirov. Karjakin picked up nearly 14 points but still trails Carlsen by 50 points.