Tips for Tikay

[TightEnd]

Click to see full-size image.

What a great picture!

Would that have been after a Derby for the papers or just a professional shot? Any idea of year?

Cecil didn't win a Derby until Slip Anchor 1985/Steve Cauthen

The picture looks to be early 80s to me going by age of Cecil, vintage of car and the fact that Piggott left Sangster/O'Brien in 80 to be stable jockey to Cecil between1980-84. In 85 Cauthen took over

[TightEnd]

New Zealand now 11/2, best price 6/1.

Think we are on at 12/1.


http://www.oddschecker.com/cricket/champions-trophy/winner

wait and see what happens with England tomorrow I think

13/2 NZ best, thought they might be a bit shorter and was looking for 5/1, but this all reflects that all four teams can still qualify

India look seriously good in the other group. Quite a feat to replace tendulkar, dravid, laxman, gambhir and zaheer in the same year and a bi-product of that is a fielding side of ageing donkeys has become the best fielding group in the tournament.

So with India likely to win that group, and the second team in England's group having to face them in the semis, this limits the extent to which the NZ price can fall. Unless they win the group

A few days of solid rain would do the job.

[Tal]

Sir Tight of End, I am again humbled to be in your presence, if only digitally.

It's a photo that keeps on giving, that. Sir Henry's smile almost looks like a shyness, like he's uncomfortable with the posed photo.

Apologies if this is a bit arty for Fred.

[tikay]

Click to see full-size image.

What a great picture!

Would that have been after a Derby for the papers or just a professional shot? Any idea of year?

Why would it be after a Derby, necessarily?

Lets work through this.

The Sporting Life (as a newspaper) ceased publication in about 1995.

Piggott retired as a jockey in 1985.

He rode "Fairy Footsteps" (1,000 Guineas winner) for Cecil in 1981.

If the photo is "Classic winner" related, I'm going for 1981.

I adore the photo, it reminds me of so many wonderful memories, they were both great sporting heroes, & I followed both their careers avidly, & got so much pleasure from them, & so many memories.

[TightEnd]

I am going for Mid May 1981, after the Guineas meet and possibly work for Derby possibilities

the leaves are on the trees, so its not earlier than April

He's wearing a coat. Admittedly this would be early morning, but still perhaps not July-August height of summer

Mid May 1981

[Tal]

Love the way you're working this out.

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected.

Would not have known that was the Sporting Life and only said Derby because of it being the best-known race.

All we know is it was before I was born.

[MereNovice]

How about 1977?

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/racehorse-trainer-henry-cecil-leaning-on-a-car-with-lester-news-photo/73160515

[Tal]

How about 1977?

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/racehorse-trainer-henry-cecil-leaning-on-a-car-with-lester-news-photo/73160515

Roll on Midnight!

[BigAdz]

How about 1977?

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/racehorse-trainer-henry-cecil-leaning-on-a-car-with-lester-news-photo/73160515

CSI Novice!

[Tal]

Elementary, my MereNovice.

[tikay]

How about 1977?

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/racehorse-trainer-henry-cecil-leaning-on-a-car-with-lester-news-photo/73160515

What month?

PS - brilliant! Beat that, Tighty.

[TightEnd]

How about 1977?

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/racehorse-trainer-henry-cecil-leaning-on-a-car-with-lester-news-photo/73160515

What month?

PS - brilliant! Beat that, Tighty.

I can't, he's done me

I was four years out, absolutely mortified

thought I had the killer stat that he was stable jockey from 1980 so it had to be after that.

[horseplayer]

reminds me of the old des walker song thing it went something like this

"YOULL NEVER BEAT MERE NOVICE"

[Karabiner]

Did you know that before Bobby Jones won the old Grand Slam of golf in 1930, which was comprised of the US Amateur and British Amateur championships and both the US Open and the Open Championship it was known as "The Impregnable Quadrilateral".

[tikay]

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I'm told.

The eighth Tal Memorial starts on Thursday and I think it's fair to say it is already regarded as a Major in the chess calendar. This year's competition is as strong as ever:

No. Player                      Country Rating w-rank
1    Magnus Carlsen          Norway 2864      1
2    Vladimir Kramnik         Russia 2803        3
3    Viswanathan Anand     India 2786        4
4    Hikaru Nakamura         USA   2784        5
5    Sergey Karjakin           Russia 2782       7
6    Fabiano Caruana          Italy 2774         9
7    Alexander Morozevich  Russia 2760       10
8    Boris Gelfand              Israel 2755         12
9    Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Azerbaidjan 2753 14
10 Dmitry Andreikin            Russia 2713       29

Special rules

•Participants are required to follow the tournament schedule strictly – in case a player is one hour or more late for the game he is forfeited (i.e. no "zero tolerance" rule!).
•It is forbidden to offer a draw before and including move 40.
•Participants are required to comment on their games in the press center after each round unless, they have lost.
•It is forbidden for participants to have their mobile devices working in the playing zone. All electronic devices should be handled to the chief arbiter during the game.

Scoring system

The scoring is one point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss. In case if the number of points is equal the following additional coefficients are used for places in the final table:

•Maximum number of games played with black pieces;
•Maximum number of wins;
•Direct encounter;
•Koja coefficient;
•Sonneborn-Berger score.

If all that's clear, we'll move on to the prices:

http://www.marathonbet.com/en/betting/Chess/

Carlsen has shortened from 6/5 since the market opened the other day to as good as even money. The big drifter from that is his rival for the world title in November, Vishy Anand. 15/1 is a heeeowge price, considering he has recently been showing signs of a return to form. He hasn't won a comp of this calibre for a good while, though and that is a consideration. He draws too many games and probably doesn't win often enough with Black to advocate a bet. The field has a number of players who like to push for wins and take risks, which suggests the more solid types like Anand might fall short of the winning post, even if they do pick up some rating points. A lot of people would love him to put in a big performance in this comp and it would give him some much-needed confidence, heading into November.

Carlsen hasn't played for a little while, since he got pipped to the post by Karjakin in Norway last month. He's had a few off-board issues, because there has been a lot of controversy over where the World Title match is going to be played. The governing body - not unlike FIFA - has made a decision seemingly not entirely for pure sporting reasons and it means that Anand will have home field advantage for the match in November. Carlsen and his people are furious and sought to appeal to get a vote in place, as Paris had submitted a proposal. But no.

Karjakin is the second favourite and he is in good form. He was arguably a little fortunate in Norway (that's harsh, but he got so far in the lead early that it was difficult for him to be caught. He was and then both he and Carlsen lost their last game, ensuring that he was able to cling on for the win) and won a blitz tournament the other day (he is very good at those), but deserves to be a high in the market. I'd just never put him above Kramnik.

Kramnik has had a break, unlike a few of the players in this comp (Nakamura for example looks completely burned out - I would expect him to finish this comp and head straight to Vegas to play in the WSOP, as he's known to be a keen poker player) and was recently spotted in the crowd at Roland Garros, cheering on Mr Djokovic against Nadal. He's loved in Russia and is playing with a new lease of life in the last 10 months. He's also good with the Black pieces, which, in a close tournament such as this is likely to be, might well be decisive. His opening knowledge should serve him well against a few of the lower seeds and he will likely pick up a few points against those struggling for form, owing to his patience and strong positional understanding. I think he is an excellent price.

Even money can't represent value when Carlsen isn't playing at the absolute top of his game and there are a few just beneath him who are starting to find their range. He's still the man to beat. It would be like taking MvG out of a darts comp and Taylor being even money; you can't say 'don't bet on him' but you know you aren't getting much bang for your buck when you do.

If you want my view on who I think represents the Next Best, it would be Kramnik without hesitation at 6.8. Fred fancy a score?

Thanks Tal.

I've done this, so as to assist Mere by getting him off to a winning start to his tenure. No pressure.

And I know how much Adzy loves your chess reports & photos. You won't disappoint.

We have £20 @ 29/5, Marathon Bet, Kramnik Bloke to win the Mikhail Tal Memorial Thing.


ON

#4
Bet Source: Web

Single @ £20.00 (£20.00)
Total Price: 29/5
13 Jun 12:00 Chess / Super Tournament / Mikhail Tal Memorial. Moscow / Men / Outright / Mikhail Tal Memorial. Moscow / Outright - Kramnik, Wladimir @ 29/5