I think I know at least one reason for Leko's sort to say "renewed" attitude in chess. Yesterday evening I went to the first Saturday blitz tournament in my local chess cafe. As usual there is the regular customer, an old acquaintance of mine, a former 2200 rated player from Chinese descend. He is psycologist and use to give unrequested advice to chess players. Mostly meaning belittling your performance. This is not so difficult with me since I'm a weak patzer, though I do sometimes beat him. But he also belittle grand masters. Leko is one of his "friends" and he has been giving him advice since Leko was still a prodigy. Leko did reach the World Championship Final though he would probably have even without those advices.

Amount of deviations per player:

Talk about all time greatest players as you can see I have made a top 50 list (in my profile). It has only changed slightly over the last year orso. Mind this is not the players' strength of what I think is at the moment but their place in history.

Carlsen fifth place (over kasparov) is of course an estimate. I don't think he is quite there yet but it seems he even exceeded my expectations here and in Corus! I just noticed that every player in Linares is in my ALL TIME top 50 list and you may have noticed that that list hasn't changed since the beginning of Linares-Morelia.

It seems like fun to have my ALL TIME GREATEST list order of the Linares participants als as a pseudo-fun contestant in the PREDICTION GAME. Since my final standings predictions is not good at the moment, maybe I do better with that list what is not a prediction list. Here the rankings of the Linares players according to my best ever list, with between brackets their place in history based on expert opinions:

pseudo-contestant
<ALL TIME GREATS>
(order according to lostemperor):

1 Carlsen (5)
2 Anand (12)
3 Ivanchuk (17)
4 Topalov (22)
5 Shirov (34)
5 Aronian (35)
7 Leko (40)
8 Radjabov (50)

My careful selected list of this does a lot better than my own predictions for Linares. It is ranked 7th now with 58 points in the prediction standings!

Anand is simply a magnificent player. He has the most first prizes behind Karpov and Kasparov both from the Soviet chess school!

I think these are the players who has won the most strong tournaments:

1. Karpov
2. Kasparov
3. Anand
4. Alekhine
5. Larsen

As to his match with Kasparov, Anand participated in two candidate cycles. In chess, unlike other sports, the World Champion has been always advantaged of not having to play qualification matches before. Anand faced a kasparov armed to the teeth as Kasparov admitted. On the question of why he seems a bit out of form after the match he said that the preparation of his match with Anand was still too dominating. Anand probably learned from this expperience by nnot playing two cycles anymore but only FIDE. This was a sensible decision as it turned out since the FIDE seems the only organisation able to organise these matches. He became world champion in 2000 and now the overall World Champion in 2007.

Standings:
1.Anand
2.Aronian, Carlsen, Topalov
5.Radjabov, Ivanchuk
7.Shirov, Leko

<PREDICTION GAME STANDINGS> Maximum score: 68

<amadeus> joins <cromat> in the lead (Both also tied in the square ranker)! Three rounds to go.

Standings:
1.Anand
2.Carlsen
3.Aronian
4.Topalov
5.Radjabov, Ivanchuk
7.Leko Shirov

PREDICTION GAME STANDINGS
Maximum score: 68

<cromat> leads. With two rounds to go anything can happen!:)

Standings:
1.Anand 8
2.Carlsen 7.5
3.Aronian, Topalov 7
5.Radjabov 6.5
6.Ivanchuk 6
7.Leko, Shirov 5

As thrilling as it is in Linares with one round to go as exciting is it here! Four men in the lead with 62 points, followed by five men tied at 60.

Pseudo-contestant <CHESSBOOKIE> the betting odds order of chessgames.com bookie game of the members here, does excellent with a virtual first place 64 points, see Morelia-Linares: WINNER.

Today the Grand Final in Linares.

Maximum score: 68
<PREDICTION GAME STANDINGS>

For the second surprise player, there are two awards ♘ and ♙

Final standings Morelia-Linares:

1.Anand 9
2.Carlsen 8
3.Aronian, Topalov 7.5
5.Radjabov 7
6.Ivanchuk 6.5
7.Leko, Shirov 5.5

The good news is it was todos tablas or all draws in the final Linares round so we know the four winners of the Gold!

<PREDICTION GAME ON FINAL STANDINGS MORELIA-LINARES 2008>

WINNERS (on tie-break points):

♔62<cromat>
♔62<Ezzy>
♔62<amadeus>
♔62<rogge>

Maximum score: 140

Rank,Score,UserID
♔134<CHESSBOOKIE>
♔134<cromat>
♔134<Ezzy>
♖132<amadeus>
♖132<rogge>

~~~~~~~~~~~~

6t,130,kolobok
6t,130,WannaBe
8t,128,acirce
8t,128,percyblakeney
10t,126,iron maiden
10t,126,Red October
12,122,stefan1967
13,120,YouRang
14,116,ahmadov
15t,114,chessmoron
15t,114,just a kid
17,112,Dim Weasel
18,111,ALL TIME GREATS
19t,108,Open Defence
19t,108,Youjoin
21,106,NakoSonorense
22,101,ELO VIRTUAL
23t,100,bumpmobile
23t,100,lostemperor
25t,98,TheGladiatres
25t,98,yalie
27,96,DCP23
28,95,Comandente
29t,92,firebyrd
29t,92,rgr459
29t,92,SwitchingQuylthulg
32,90,DrawingIsLife
33,89,suenteus po 147
34,79,YOUTH
35,72,ELO
36,70,whiteshark
37,66,ASKALTAMAN
38,45,EXPERIENCE
39,24,Aurora

Reviewing my picks:

<prediction>. <player> [<actual>] - <comment>

1. Anand - [1] Great, but hardly unique.
2. Radjabov [5] - Probably my worst pick.
3. Carlsen [2] - Good!
3. Topalov [3] - Great! (but no surprise)
5. Aronian [3] - Not bad, not great.
5. Shirov [7] - Thought he'd be better
7. Ivanchuk [6] - Not bad
8. Leko [7] - Probably my best pick