Now I understand why Carlsen fans "criticize" the opening preparation of Anand and Gelfand, claiming that it leads to boring games. Carlsen managed to be worse out of the opening twice in a row, and in the same variation once with white and once with black ... .

Let’s now here from the deniers who will assert against all evidence and chess knowledge that the level of play here is not far superior to the pathetic Anand/Gelfand fiasco.

And his second game went 59 moves...weird.

The huge differnce are the rest days only after three games in Tal against two games in the wcc , so blunders appear

And he's in 5th place. Bravo.

Look at McShane's moves against Rajabov. He plays like a beginner i'm serious!

Carlsen's opening preparation certainly had problems in first 2 games.

Nevertheless, he managed to draw out of worse positions and his current performance rating is 2785 which, if i am not mistaken, higher than both Anand's and Gelfand's live rating.

For those who believe chess is all about opening preparation, Carlsen has not been doing well.

However for rest of us, his (and other Tal memorial participants') games are quite interesting.

For the record, I never said opening preparation leads to boring game. The problem is Anand and Gelfand hardly played later phase of chess game in the world championship match.

Opening preparation leads to boring games only when Gelfand and Vishy play! eheh

Poor quality of the games, indeed. But since ´the masses´ prefer the thrill of the blunderfest(s) to the quality and depth they fail to understand, everything seems to be OK.

Very simple.
If you feel you are the rightful World Champion, just don't sit there and criticize the World Champion. Go, play, win the World Championship and leverage your status as a World Champion from Europe or Russia and modify the format to what you think brings the two best players in the world.
For the predominantly football fans here, here is a beautiful goal by the best soccer play in the world against my favorite football team in the world:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/lionel-messi-superb-wi...

Playing the KID vs Kramnik....you silly boy Grischuk.

Love the chess. Tal memorial is great.

If Gelfand had been invited here he would probably win all his games

It´s good to see some real chess after the miserable world championship match.

Caruana-Nakamura is a good example of why blueofnoon's theory about playing on is nonsense. They played on when it was an obvious draw and all they did was waste energy. Chances are they will lose next round.

Let's be honest, when Gelfand would be in your local town for a simultanious chess event, would you go. Maybe - Maybe not. He isn't a Legend, excet for his own village where he comes from. of course he is a good chess player, but not exceptional.

I think it's good that there are different types of players, some take risk, others don't, some are opening specialists, other tactical wizards. Just like in real live.

For me almost all players in the Tal Memorial have exceptional chess qualities. Some also have an exceptional character. I especially love the bored look on Carlsen's face, little bit arrogant, so what. That makes chess fun. A clash of characters is great to watch when people are fundamentally different.

Gens Una Sumus and Pecunia Non Olet.