I recently saw a link to the following article about Magnus Carlsen.
Normally, SMH on the internet stands for “shaking my head” in response to something ludicrous. Here, the SMH is Sydney Morning Herald, but it could just as well have been the more common internet definition …
Here’s how the writer introduces Carlsen:
I have read he is easily bored (there is a theory that Carlsen sometimes deliberately loses the first few games in a tournament in order to make life more interesting); probably shy (in an interview for The New Yorker he barely made eye contact with the journalist) and possibly arrogant.
There’s a theory that he “sometimes deliberately loses the first few games” to spice things up?!
Given he’s averaged only a few losses in classical play the past few years, this is an easy one to check … and nope!
Not only have his losses not come early on, but they were important enough to the final standings that he probably didn’t do it on purpose. At least the author tried to address the 2nd and 3rd rumors in that sentence in the article …
There and Back Again 