User Profile: alexmagnus

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alexmagnus
Member since Dec-06-04 · Last seen Jan-12-26

Hobby player.
If you feel misunderstood, feel free to say it.
My favourite players are: Magnus Carlsen, Kateryna Lagno and Hanna Marie Klek!
The domination list, based on the peak rating distance to the #10 player (official lists only, distance 50+ needed to "qualify"):
Kasparov 175 (January 1990)
Fischer 160 (July 1972)
Karpov 130 (January 1989)
Carlsen 123 (March 2014)
Kramnik 110 (January 1998)
Tal 105 (January 1980)
Ivanchuk 105 (July 1991)
Anand 105 (July 1998)
Korchnoi 95 (January 1980)
Topalov 84 (July 2006)
Caruana 80 (October 2014)
Aronian 72 (March 2014)
Spassky 70 (January 1971)
Shirov 65 (July 1994)
Ding 64 (Nov 2022, Dec 2022, Jan 2023)
Nakamura 62 (October 2025)
Gelfand 60 (January 1991)
Kamsky 60 (January 1996, July 1996)
Morozevich 57 (July 1999)
Portisch 55 (January 1980)
Jussupow 55 (July 1986)
Timman 55 (January 1990)
So 53 (February 2017)
Adams 52 (October 2000)
Mamedyarov 52 (November 2018, December 2018)
Erigaisi 51 (Dec 2024, Jan 2025, Feb 2025)
Bareev 50 (July 1991)
Vachier-Lagrave 50 (August 2016)
...
(Gukesh 43 October 2024)
#1 record distances to #2 (no qualification hurdle):
Fischer 125 (1972)
Kasparov 82 (January 2000)
Carlsen 74 (October 2013)
Karpov 65 (January 1982)
Topalov 34 (July 2006, October 2006)
Anand 23 (July 2007)
Women's "domination list" since July 2000:
J. Polgar 248 (April 2007)
Hou 160 (December 2015, February 2019)
Humpy 114 (October 2007)
Goryachkina 100 (August 2021)
S. Polgar 96 (January 2005)
Xie 92 (January 2005)
Ju 92 (August 2019)
A. Muzychuk 82 (August 2012)
Zhu J. 77 (December 2025, January 2026)
Stefanova 76 (January 2003)
Lei 67 (December 2025, January 2026)
Galliamova 65 (January 2001)
Zhao 64 (September 2013)
Kosteniuk 58 (July 2006)
Lagno 58 (February 2019)
Chiburdanidze 57 (October 2000)
Cramling 56 (April 2007)
T. Kosintseva 56 (November 2010)
Zhu C. 52 (April 2007)
M. Muzychuk 52 (June 2019)
N. Kosintseva 51 (November 2010)
Earliest Soviet championship with living players: USSR Championship (1955) (Shcherbakov)
Earliest Interzonal with living players: Gothenburg Interzonal (1955) (Panno)
Earliest Candidates with living players: Amsterdam Candidates (1956) (Panno)
Earliest WC match with living players: Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978) (Karpov)
Earliest WC match with living winner: Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978) (Karpov)

Earliest WC match with both players living: Karpov - Kasparov World Championship Match (1984/85)

>> Click here to see alexmagnus's game collections.

   alexmagnus has kibitzed 11707 times to chessgames [more...]

   Jan-02-26 alexmagnus chessforum

alexmagnus: <2. Murzin 252> 2652 of course :D

   Dec-12-25 Yifan Hou

alexmagnus: I wonder if she still believes there was some conspiracy against her back in that Gibraltar tournament. A question I wouldn't dare to ask her in such a public AMA but that I'd really like to know the answer to. Now, after all the years that passed sice the controversy...

   Dec-12-25 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus

alexmagnus: <Highest-rated 12-year-old ever> Btw, you know who held that record before Erdogmus broke it? Judit Polgar. All the way since 1989.

   Dec-05-25 Vachier-Lagrave - Erdogmus (2025)

alexmagnus: <What ever happened to 60 years old Smyslov and Korchnoi being world top 20 dynamos?> Both were consequences of what I refer to as <Fischer gap>.

   Nov-30-25 FIDE World Cup (2025)

alexmagnus: o complete the statistics, here Sindarov's way to winning this World Cup. Qualified: by rating R1: bye R2: 1.5-0.5 vs Petrov R3: 1.5-0.5 vs Theorodrou R4: 1-1 vs Yu, rapid 1.5-0.5 R5: 1.5-0.5 vs F. Svane QF: 1-1 vs Martinez, rapid 1-1, quick rapid 1.5-0.5 SF: 1-1 vs ...

   Nov-24-25 Wei Yi vs A Esipenko, 2025

alexmagnus: <If Esipenko doesn't win the third-place match to get into the Candidates, this blunder could haunt him for the rest of his life. I hope he makes it; he played very well in the match against Wei Yi, all things considered. He also missed the Candidates by a whisker in the 2023 ...

   Oct-27-25 Vladimir Kramnik

alexmagnus: The worst thing to me in the whole debate is Kramnik claiming he showed concern for Naroditsky's health during the latter's final stream. Concern? It was pure <mockery>. If this is the way VK expresses concern, I don't want anyone, ever, to have an emergency with only ...

   Oct-23-25 Daniel Naroditsky

alexmagnus: Whatever the cause of death, we've all seen that final stream. Even if his death turns out to be unrelated to Kramnik, it doesn't make Kramnik less of a bully.

   Sep-15-25 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss (2025)

alexmagnus: <I think the women should play, say, nine rounds> Usually the formula for the optimal number of rounds in a Swiss system is the floor of the binary logarithm of the number of players plus three. So in this case it would be eight rounds in the women's section and nine in the

   Sep-11-25 FIDE Grand Swiss (2025)

alexmagnus: <When has a World Champion lost three games in a row? Kasparov lost to Karpov in the 1986 match, in a tournament surely never.> Ding lost four in a row one IIRC. And of course, when it comes to WC matches, Steinitz lost five in a row against in his match vs Lasker (games ...

indicates a reply to the comment.

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 47 OF 57 · Later Kibitzing>
Mar-01-21		beatgiant: Middle East: 1. Amin 2695 2. Salem 2682 3-4. Gelfand 2676 3-4. Maghsoodloo 2676 5. Ipatov 2644 6. Nabaty 2638 7. Sutovsky 2636 8. Yilmaz 2630 9. Tabatabaei 2629 10. Adly 2615

Mar-01-21		beatgiant: Nordic/Baltic: 1. Carlsen 2847 2. Grandelius 2670 3. Kovalenko 2643 4. Tari 2639 5. Nielsen 2618 6. Christiansen 2616 7. Hammer 2608 8. Hansen 2596 9. Hellers 2592 10. Andersen 2579

Mar-01-21		beatgiant: Rest of World: 1. Firouzja 2. Milov 2607 3. Pelletier 2581 4. Studer 2579 5. Bogner 2577 6. Hamdouchi 2561 7. Georgiadis 2553 8-9. Fontaine 2550 8-9Megaranto 2550 10. Bellahcene 2517 11. Priasmoro 2502 12. Arab 2487 *Not "rest of world" to those who list Indonesia under Asia instead of Oceania.

Mar-01-21		beatgiant: Old Guard: 1. Anand 2753 2. Topalov 2735 3. Adams 2716 4. Svidler 2714 5. Sadler 2694 6. Almasi 2687 7. Ivanchuk 2678 8. Gelfand 2676 9-10. Kamsky 2665 9-10. Malakhov 2665

Mar-01-21		beatgiant: For my novelty list this month, inspired by all the discussion around Aronian and changing federations, I list the top 10 "chess immigrants." Criterion: Active player whose federation (on the March 2021 list) is not their nationality of birth (or one of nationalities of birth, in case of multiple nationality). This info isn't easy to see from the FIDE profiles, so I may have missed some. As usual, I welcome any additions or corrections. 1. Giri 2776 fed: Netherlands, birth: Russia* 2. So 2770 fed: US, birth: Philippines 3. Firouzja 2759 fed: FIDE, birth: Iran 4. Dominguez Perez 2758 fed: US, birth: Cuba 5. Karjakin 2757 fed: Russia, birth: Ukraine (USSR) 6. Gelfand 2676 fed: Israel, birth: Belarus (USSR) 7. Kamsky 2665 fed: US, birth: Russia (USSR) 8. Shirov 2662 fed: Spain, birth: Latvia (USSR) 9. Donchenko fed: Germany, birth: Russia 10. Nisipeanu fed: Germany, birth: Romania *Giri's father is Nepali, but I was not able to find out quickly whether Giri himself was also a Nepali citizen at birth.

Mar-02-21		OhioChessFan: I spent some time thinking about the oldies and didn't come up with anything better than Wunderveterans. Maybe shortening it to Wundervets would be a touch better.

Mar-02-21		OhioChessFan: Immigrant: Gregory Kaidanov

Mar-02-21		OhioChessFan: Oh, he's down in the 2500's now. Never mind.

Mar-02-21		OhioChessFan: Of course Aronian might soon be an immigrant.

Mar-02-21		alexmagnus: March: European Union: 1. Giri 2776 2. Rapport 2763 3. Vachier-Lagrave 2758 4. Topalov 2735 5. Duda 2729 6. Vallejo 2710 7. Van Foreest 2701 8. Navara 2697 9. Wojtaszek 2694 10. Almasi 2687 Former Soviet Union: 1. Nepomniachtchi 2789 2. Aronian* 2781 3. Grischuk 2777 4. Mamedyarov 2770 5. Radjabov 2765 6. Karjakin 2757 7. Andreikin 2725 8. Vitiugov 2715 9. Svidler 2714 10. Dubov 2710 * Aronian annouced he will move to the US, but he is listed as playing for Armenia on the March list yet Former British Empire: 1. Caruana 2820 2. So 2770 3. Dominguez 2758 4. Anand 2753 5. Nakamura 2736 6. Harikrishna 2730 7. Vidit 2726 8. Adams 2716 9. Xiong 2709 10. Amin 2695 Asia: 1. Ding 2791 2. Wang 2763 3. Anand 2753 4. Wei 2732 5. Harikrishna 2730 6. Vidit 2726 7-8. Le 2709 7-8. Yu 2709 9. Bu 2705 10. Li 2683 Born later than the world champion: 1. Caruana 2820 2. Ding 2791 3. Giri 2776 4. So 2770 5. Rapport 2763 6. Firouzja 2759 7. Wei 2732 8. Duda 2729 9. Vidit 2726 10. Dubov 2710 Nuclear powers: 1. Caruana 2820 2. Ding 2791 3. Nepomniachtchi 2789 4. Grischuk 2777 5. So 2770 6. Wang 2763 7-8. Vachier-Lagrave 2758 7-8. Dominguez 2758 9. Karjakin 2757 10. Anand 2753

Mar-02-21		beatgiant: Oh, just noticed that I forgot to list the ratings of the last two players on my "immigrants" list. Here they are: 9. Donchenko 2659 fed: Germany, birth: Russia 10. Nisipeanu 2656 fed: Germany, birth: Romania

Mar-02-21		beatgiant: <OhioChessFan> <wundervets> Now I can't get the Wonder Pets theme song out of my head and got distracted from work all day trying to think of new lyrics about elderly chess players. "The clock, the clock is ticking. The clock, we'll move right now. The clock, the clock is ticking. The position's about to crumble, the position's about to crumble, the position's about to crumble, and how. "Two doubled pawns, with no defense, This is sewious, we have to help them, let's save the pawns, let's save the pawns, let's save the pawns, wheeee!! "Tolya, Bob, and Vlatko too, We're Wonder Vets and we'll help you. "The pawns are falling, what should we do? I have a feeling we could counter-attack with our pieces. "What's gonna work? Teamwork! What's gonna work? Teamwork! "The counter-attack is succeeding! We are going to rescue the pawns. Wheeee! "Wonder Vets, Wonder Vets, we're on our way, we're gonna save the game by launching counterplay, we're not too young, and we're not too buff, but when we work together we've got the right stuff. "Go, Wonder Vets! Yaaaayyyy!"

Mar-02-21		OhioChessFan: Oh my. I'd never heard of them or the theme song. My deepest sympathies if that was stuck in your head.

Mar-10-21		beatgiant: <OhioChessFan> Don't worry, I was just procrastinating from my procrastinating. I won't have time to do a full treatment like I did with the wunderkinder, so this may not work as well. I will at least post a rough index and a March 2021 list of "golden oldies" (or whatever we decide to call them other than "wundervets"). After eyeballing the rating list, I estimated the following parameters for the index. The target ratings begin at 2600 for age 65 and decline by 20 rating points per year. An index of 1 means a player is performing "a year younger than expected" based on (actual minus target rating divided by 20). With this, I identified the following golden oldies. As usual I estimate age from birth year alone, and further cutting corners, I'm giving them in order of year of birth, I'm not converting the indices to decimals, I'm not giving the full details for those over age 80, and I'm not searching carefully for those over age 90. Dorfman 2540, b. 1953, age 68, target 2540, index 0. Mecking 2553, b. 1952, age 69, target 2520, index 33/20. Karpov 2617, b. 1951, age 70, target 2500, index 117/20. Vaisser 2501, b. 1949, age 72, target 2460, index 41/20. Balashov 2461, b. 1949, age 72, target 2460, index 1/20. Huebner 2574, b. 1948, age 73, target 2440, index 134/20. Gulko 2542, b. 1947, age 74, target 2420, index 122/20. Rashkovsky 2446, b. 1946, age 75, target 2400, index 46/20. Ivanovic 2402, b. 1946, age 75, target 2400, index 2/20. Gutman 2393, b. 1945, age 76, target 2380, index 13/20. Hort 2387, b. 1944, age 77, target 2360, index 27/20. Gheorghiu 2375, b. 1944, age 77, target 2360, index 15/20. Kovacevic 2466, b. 1942, age 79, target 2320, index 146/20. Murey 2379, b. 1941, age 80, target 2300, index 79/20. Zilberman 2325 b. 1940 F. Portisch 2340 b. 1939 Hecht 2306 b. 1939 Khanukov 2288 b. 1939 Milosavljevic 2285 b. 1939 Karasev 2289 b. 1938 Gerusel 2243 b. 1938 Saidy 2300 b. 1937 Garcia 2240 b. 1936 Gruzmann 2167 b. 1934 Rotstein 2330 b. 1933 Kraidman 2254 b. 1932 Kornilov 2180 b. 1931 Bhend 2104 b. 1931 Rutman 2056 b. 1927

Mar-10-21		beatgiant: At a quick glance, the top 10 look like: Rotstein 190/20 Kovacevic 146/20 Huebner 134/20 Kraidman 134/20 Gulko 122/20 Saidy 120/20 Karpov 117/20 Kornilov 80/20 F. Portisch 80/20 Murey 79/20

Mar-13-21		beatgiant: I took a quick second look and clearly missed a few, like Jansa 2420 b. 1942, Vucik 2399 b. 1942. In a future month I might revisit the list and maybe try to fine-tune the formula.

Mar-31-21		alexmagnus: April: European Union: 1. Giri 2776 2. Rapport 2763 3. Vachier-Lagrave 2758 4. Topalov 2735 5. Duda 2729 6. Vallejo 2710 7. Van Foreest 2701 8. Navara 2697 9. Wojtaszek 2694 10. Almasi 2687 Former Soviet Union: 1. Nepomniachtchi 2789 2. Aronian 2781 3. Grischuk 2777 4. Mamedyarov 2770 5. Radjabov 2765 6. Karjakin 2757 7. Andreikin 2725 8. Vitiugov 2715 9. Svidler 2714 10. Dubov 2710 Former British Empire: 1. Caruana 2820 2. So 2770 3. Dominguez 2758 4. Anand 2753 5. Nakamura 2736 6. Harikrishna 2730 7. Vidit 2726 8. Adams 2716 9. Xiong 2709 10. Amin 2697 Asia: 1. Ding 2791 2. Wang 2763 3. Anand 2753 4. Wei 2732 5. Harikrishna 2730 6. Vidit 2726 7-8. Le 2709 7-8. Yu 2709 9. Bu 2705 10. Li 2683 Born later than the world champion: 1. Caruana 2820 2. Ding 2791 3. Giri 2776 4. So 2770 5. Rapport 2763 6. Firouzja 2759 7. Wei 2732 8. Duda 2729 9. Vidit 2726 10. Dubov 2710 Nuclear powers: 1. Caruana 2820 2. Ding 2791 3. Nepomniachtchi 2789 4. Grischuk 2777 5. So 2770 6. Wang 2763 7-8. Dominguez 2758 7-8. Vachier-Lagrave 2758 9. Karjakin 2757 10. Anand 2753

Apr-01-21		beatgiant: April: Post-Communist (ex. USSR, China) 1. Rapport 2763 2. Topalov 2735 3. Duda 2729 4. Le 2709 5. Navara 2697 6. Wojtaszek 2694 7. Almasi 2687 8. Berkes 2673 9. Cheparinov 2667 10. Leko 2663 Latin America: 1. Cori 2652 2-3. Granda Zuniga 2630 2-3. Pichot 2630 4. Mareco 2629 5. Delgado Ramirez 2622 6. Martinez Alcantara 2620 7. Henriquez Villagra 2600 8-9. Bachmann 2599 8-9. Flores 2599 10. Leitao 2592

Apr-01-21		beatgiant: Middle East: 1. Amin 2697 2. Salem 2682 3. Gelfand 2676 4. Maghsoodloo 2676 5. Ipatov 2644 6. Sutovsky 2636 7. Nabaty 2635 8. Yilmaz 2630 9. Tabatabaei 2629 10. Adly 2615 Nordic/Baltic: 1. Carlsen 2881 2. Grandelius 2670 3. Kovalenko 2643 4. Tari 2639 5-6. Christiansen 2618 5-6. Nielsen 2618 7. Hammer 2608 8. Hellers 2592 9. Gretarsson 2588 10. Andersen 2579

Apr-01-21		beatgiant: Rest of World: 1. Firouzja 2759 2. Milov 2607 3. Pelletier 2581 4. Studer 2579 5. Bogner 2577 6. Hamdouchi 2561 7. Georgiadis 2553 8-9. Fontaine 2550 8-9. Megaranto 2550 10. Bellahcene 2518 11. Priasmoro 2510 12. Arab 2487 Old Guard: 1. Anand 2753 2. Topalov 2735 3. Adams 2716 4. Svidler 2714 5. Sadler 2694 6. Almasi 2687 7. Ivanchuk 2678 8. Gelfand 2676 9-10. Kamsky 2665 9-10. Malakhov 2665

Apr-01-21		beatgiant: For this month's novelty list, inspired by a recent discussion on the Nepomniachtchi page, I present the top 10 players with a щ in their name. It's not easy to do such a search from the FIDE lists, because the names are always in Latin script and the romanization is far from standardized. In particular, some names spelled with "sch" in Latin script are written with ш, and some with щ. So, I can't guarantee the complete accuracy of the list and as always, I welcome any corrections. (Refrains of "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" repeating over and over in my head) 1. Nepomniachtchi 2789 2. Grischuk 2777 3. Areshchenko 2687 4. Onischuk 2622 5. Shcherbakov 2527 6. Shchekachev 2515 7. Polschikov 2420 8. Schekachikhin 2417 9. Khruschiov 2392 10. Shchukin 2236

Apr-01-21		alexmagnus: <1. Carlsen 2881> Is this some well-hidden April Fool? :D

Apr-01-21		beatgiant: <alexmagnus> It should be <1. Carlsen 2847>. I stand corrected. Looks like I copied Carlsen's rapid rating by mistake. Schh...t happens. (Would you believe it was a setup just so I could use that line?)

Apr-26-21		alexmagnus: <<he loses his world champion title to an older player> Good point. Also Norway could try out Communism, develop a nuke, join the British Empire or acquire some territory in the Middle East. I wonder which is <least> likely?> The least likely is probably Norway getting a colony in the Middle East (Norway joining the UK is at least an <extremely> remote possibility due to the two royal lines being distantly related). But the probability of MC losing his title to an older player now increased with Nepo being the challenger (he is older than Carlsen by 4 months and 16 days, which must be the smallest ever age difference in a WC match).

Apr-26-21		alexmagnus: <which must be the smallest ever age difference in a WC match> Nah, it isn't. Forgot about Kramnik-Topalov (there the age difference was 3 months and 10 days)

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