Blitzkrieg

Chess, unlike football, appears to confer little or no home advantage. In a recent article for Kensington & Chelsea Today, my esteemed colleague Barry Martin, who enjoys more space than any other chess columnist in the UK, and possibly even the world, inveighed against the psychological pressures which seem to afflict great players operating on their home turf. Barry drew attention in particular to the setbacks suffered by Topalov against Anand in Sofia, and the humiliation of Anand himself in Chennai last year, in his match defence against Carlsen. Carlsen has shown signs of this syndrome when he twice failed to capture first prize in the annual elite Norway tournament (see last week’s column), on both occasions finishing as runner-up to Karjakin.
 
Once liberated from the shackles imposed by competing in front of his own home crowd, Carlsen sailed on to a further two impressive set of laurels in Dubai. There, to add to his possession of the Classical world title, he conquered in both the championships of Rapid (usually 25 minutes per player per game) and Blitz (standardly completing all moves in 5 minutes each).