Tte real giant-killlers

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Colin S Crouch
Posts: 163
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:37 pm

Tte real giant-killlers

Post by Colin S Crouch » Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:32 pm

Yesterday (Feb 2014), Nakamura almost had the enormous distinction of beating the previous World Champion, Anand, and the current World Champion, Carlsen, in successive days. Nakamura instead went for notoriety, achieving a +8 score on Houdini, but somehow managed to allow Carlsen to slip out for a totally unexpected win.
So has anyone ever achieved this remarkable winning double (beating two consecutive World Champions in two days? And what were the nearest misses? Hint for the reader – there was an extremely close miss in 2013, but Carlsen was not yet World Champion.
And what about various Icarus moments like that of Nakamura?

Tryfon Gavriel
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 2:02 pm

Re: Tte real giant-killlers

Post by Tryfon Gavriel » Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:57 pm

Colin S Crouch wrote:Yesterday (Feb 2014), Nakamura almost had the enormous distinction of beating the previous World Champion, Anand, and the current World Champion, Carlsen, in successive days. Nakamura instead went for notoriety, achieving a +8 score on Houdini, but somehow managed to allow Carlsen to slip out for a totally unexpected win.
So has anyone ever achieved this remarkable winning double (beating two consecutive World Champions in two days? And what were the nearest misses? Hint for the reader – there was an extremely close miss in 2013, but Carlsen was not yet World Champion.
And what about various Icarus moments like that of Nakamura?
Hi Colin - great to see an IM posting here!

I think Sir George Alan Thomas as noted in another thread beat two World champions in two days:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79240

Cheers, Tryfon
Webmaster, http://www.chessworld.net/chessclubs/as ... ?from=1053
Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/kingscrusher
Host of Kingscrusher's weekly radio show on Playchess.com : "Kingscrusher's radio show"

Stephen Saunders
Posts: 59
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:35 pm

Re: Tte real giant-killlers

Post by Stephen Saunders » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:41 pm

Colin, the classic near-example would be Reuben Fine at AVRO 1938: 12 November, beat Euwe; 13 November, beat Flohr; 14 November, beat Alekhine. Not quite consecutive, but within two days. On 15 November he lost to Keres and ended up sharing first place with him.

User avatar
Matt Mackenzie
Posts: 5206
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:51 pm
Location: Millom, Cumbria

Re: Tte real giant-killlers

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:05 pm

Tryfon Gavriel wrote:
Colin S Crouch wrote:Yesterday (Feb 2014), Nakamura almost had the enormous distinction of beating the previous World Champion, Anand, and the current World Champion, Carlsen, in successive days. Nakamura instead went for notoriety, achieving a +8 score on Houdini, but somehow managed to allow Carlsen to slip out for a totally unexpected win.
So has anyone ever achieved this remarkable winning double (beating two consecutive World Champions in two days? And what were the nearest misses? Hint for the reader – there was an extremely close miss in 2013, but Carlsen was not yet World Champion.
And what about various Icarus moments like that of Nakamura?
Hi Colin - great to see an IM posting here!

I think Sir George Alan Thomas as noted in another thread beat two World champions in two days:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79240

Cheers, Tryfon
Botvinnik had not actually become WC then, though. I think the OP referred to those already holding that most august of honours.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Colin S Crouch
Posts: 163
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:37 pm

Re: Tte real giant-killlers

Post by Colin S Crouch » Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:50 pm

As Matt noted, the precise wording of my posting was to look for a case in which a player has beaten a reigning World Champion and the previous World Champion, in successive rounds of a tournament or match. Off-hand, I could not think of an example. Perhaps that is not all that surprising, in that a player not only has to beat a world champion once, he also has to do it twice, and he also needs the good luck for the opponents for the opponents to be paired against him in successive rounds.
What I am getting at, is whether Nakamura has blown away an opportunity to beat two established world champions in two rounds.
Since is a matter of chance (the pairings must run right), as well as chess ability, near misses need to be fully acknowledged. The closest example would be one of the lesser known super-grandmasters, Wang Hao (now rated 2734), who last year beet Anand and Carlsen, and a few months earlier, in Wijk aan Zee 2013, almost beet both of them. See my commentary and analysis on the earlier game between Wang and Carlsen, on my book, Magnus Force. Wang had the distinction on beating both the World Champion at the time, and also the player, a different player, the person with the highest ever FIDE raqting.
Good luck for those looking for other giant-killers of the world of chess!
And respect too to Sir George Thomas, and to Reuben Fine.