Magnus Carlsen's Unfair Advantage

It's a bit unfair that in every tournament Carlsen plays in, all the other players are obliged to play against a field with a higher average rating than Carlsen is -- only Carlsen always gets to play against lower-rated players.

Magnus Carlsen got up to #1 in the world on the rating lists by actually being the best in the world... It's not at all unfair because he had to rise up the ratings list just as everyone else will have to do now to catch him. It is actually a disadvantage if anything, because it is much easier to lose rating points playing against lower rated opponents. Your argument makes little sense.

My argument is a statement of fact. If you determine the average rating of Carlsen's opponents in any tournament, you'll find that average will be lower than the averages you get when you calculate the equivalent for each of his opponents.

Consider, for example, a tournament with three players: A (rated 2600), B (rated 2700), and C (rated 2800). These are extreme values for ease of calculation and to illustrate the point, but you can plainly see that A plays against a field with an average rating of 2750, while B plays against a field with an average rating of 2700, and C plays against a field with an average rating of only 2650. Magnus is the guy who's always in the position of player C above, and he always has the unfair advantage of being paired only against lower-rated players.

That's the only competition he CAN play! He's number one! And he got there legitimately, having to defeat the other top players numerous times on the way. 

He's the world's number one.  Of course the average rating of his opponents will be lower, because when you have to determine the average rating of the opponents of the other players, the average ratings they face are higher than the one Carlsen faces because Carlsen himself is number one, and he can't play himself.  I agree with jposthuma, your argument makes little sense.  You say that it's unfair that Carlsen can't play anyone higher rated than himself because he's number one?  It's perfectly fair, because he earned his way to number one by being stronger than the rest in the first place.

My point exactly. Sometimes they start at the back of the alphabet or go in random order, but Carlsen always gets the easiest competitors.

Caruana is stronger than Carlsen

One swallow does not a summer make.

Seems unfair that both his draws and losses always lose points. He can only get rating points if he wins, and even then it's less than everyone else.

So unfair.

I think sapientdust is putting us on.

I'm afraid I dont understand what you are saying. If Magnus Carlsen is the highest rated player in THE WORLD how could he play anyone that has a higher rating. If you are number one it means that you are the best. How could you be better than the best? To clarify I'm saying that Carlsen is the highest rated player in the world, meaning NO ONE has a higher rating than him. So how could he play somebody with a lower rating?

Duh

Yes !....Monster plays white. Then turns the board a'O and moves as black. etc etc !

At monopoly or checkers? Because chess, basket, football are all already taken...

Wow, man. What great thinking!

I had never thought about these matters this way. You should write to Fide and explain your concerns. Here are somethings we can do to ameliorate this injustice:

(1) Penalize Carlsen's rating so that it's not as high - and as such he's not facing unfair competition.

(2) Boost the ratings of his opponents so that Carlsen is not playing against a weak field.

Anyway, man. Great ideas all around.

I'm looking forward to taking this to Fide - if they persist with their unfair competitions, perhaps we can sue them at CAS (court for arbitration of sports) in Switzerland. We have a great case.  

I've always found it interesting that Carlsen ignores the advice to play players stronger than you. (Yes, I've read why he doesn't play against engines.)

It wasn't Steinitz who claimed he had a great advantage over his rivals in tourneys because he was the only one who didn't had to face Steinitz?

That did not occur to me at all, and it absolutely would eliminate the unfairness. I'll get started on an online petition to present to FIDE.

All good suggestions, but pfren's idea of having each player play themself once seems like the simplest solution. I will keep your ideas in mind though in case my online petition for pfren's idea doesn't get enough support.

I hereby grant you a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use my patent-pending argument about Magnus Carlsen's unfair advantage for the purpose of arguing that Vishy Anand did not get a fair chance in both the World Championship matches, because the average rating of the opponent was much higher for him than it was for Carlsen.

This limited grant is non-transferable and will expire after one week, so I encourage you to contact FIDE and make them aware of this injustice.