With less than two months to go before the 2018 World Championship match begins in London, Magnus Carlsen spoke to Norwegian media at his training camp in the Kragerø Resort southwest of Oslo. He was hoping the pressure of playing a match for the first time will tell on Fabiano Caruana, but had no illusions it was going to be easy, describing Fabi as a player he’s long felt had “the strength to be almost at my level”.

Magnus describes Fabiano Caruana as, “on paper the absolute worst World Championship opponent”, meaning the one most likely to pose him problems. He comments:

…I’ve long felt that Caruana has the strength to be almost at my level, but he hasn’t been stable enough. This year he’s been very stable, and it’s meant that he’s approached my rating and qualified for a battle that’s going to be very tough…

So what will Magnus do other than attempt to get off to a fast start? Well, understandably he wasn’t going into any details, but he did give an indication of what he wasn’t planning to do. When asked if he would adapt his game to his opponent’s style, he commented:

It’s difficult to do and also not so wise. I think I should be able to dictate the game rather than focusing too much on him. I know a little about what he’s good and bad at, but I don’t want to adjust too much, because then I won’t be playing to my own strengths.

Magnus is one of the few top players skipping the Olympiad, but he’s expected to play in the European Club Cup in October, while he’s also planning a trip to London to check out the venue and decide where to stay. Before the match he’ll have one more training camp, “somewhere warmer than Kragerø”. That narrows things down!

read more at chess24.com

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