Chess thread

[Tal]

Click to see full-size image.

The final crosstable. Note that Kramnik would have won under normal tournament rules under the chess equivalent of the Duckworth-Lewis method. However, this tournament had a tie breaker of the number of wins and Carlsen had one more of those than the Russian.

I mentioned at the start of this tournament that the last time there was a tournament rather than a series of matches to decide who would play the World Champ was in 1962. In that tournament, Bobby Fischer said that the USSR players conspired against him and colluded to ensure he couldn't win.

Carlsen often gets compared to Fischer - unkindly in my view: they are different players and very different people - so it is funny to see the next Candidates Tournament, fifty-one years on, is won by the only person in it who was not born in the former USSR.

[Honeybadger]

Yep that is me in the photo. Sigh at being so easily recognisable merely from my balding head

It was an incredible day of chess and the last hour leading up to the time control was ridiculously tense and exciting. I don't think anyone expected such a thrilling climax to this tournament.

[Tal]

Yep that is me in the photo. Sigh at being so easily recognisable merely from my balding head

It was an incredible day of chess and the last hour leading up to the time control was ridiculously tense and exciting. I don't think anyone expected such a thrilling climax to this tournament.

Glad you enjoyed it.

And, naturally, I recognised the jumper and glasses...

[Tal]

Grandmaster Danny King's ever-fabulous explanation of what was going on in the key games yesterday:




A couple more videos from the press conference (check out Carlsen's face and body language, as by that point the Kramnik game was still going on), as well as some other comments and pictures:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009350/candidates-recap-press-conferences-postmortems-020413.aspx

[Tal]

The prizegiving ceremony took place in none other than 10 Downing Street, where Magnus met George. A nice little piece and a few pics:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009373/carlsen-interview-and-visit-to-downing-street-040413.aspx

There's also a Q&A interview with the main man.



Carlsen, Osborne, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (President of FIDE, the international chess federation) and Andrew Paulson (the man who has been responsible for promoting and organising the event)

[Tal]

And what of Magnus's opponent?

World Champion Vishwanathan Anand (the M Bison of Chess, he has admittedly never been called) was interviewed by an Indian newspaper in the wake of the events in London:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009375/anand-carlsen-ridiculously-difficult-to-play-against-030413.aspx

More sound bites than the headline writers could have hoped for:

I have to say that most people who look at the two of us will conclude that Magnus is the outright favourite. I'm cool with that. It doesn't really worry me. I'm fully aware of the magnitude of the task facing me, and Magnus' rank and rating speak for themselves. Having said that I don't feel any obligation to follow the predictions. That's what we are playing the match for. To have a chance to write our own script.

[Tal]

Chessbase's April fools' pranks have become a bit of a chess institution. They always put up a few incredible but true stories on the day to disguise which one the cock-and-bull story is. Here, they fess up:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009383/the-april-fools-prank-that-was-and-wasnt-040413.aspx

2010 was a fun year:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4008051/the-chessbase-april-fool-s-prank.aspx

[The Baron]

Does Carlsen being "very tired" after a long candidates have an effect on the WC match? Can/will Anand use this to his advantage somehow? How does a drawn out match over many games differ from a standard round robin type tournament?

[Tal]

Does Carlsen being "very tired" after a long candidates have an effect on the WC match? Can/will Anand use this to his advantage somehow? How does a drawn out match over many games differ from a standard round robin type tournament?

Imagine Liverpool playing Man United fourteen times over the course of a month. You'd objectively make United favourites but you've no idea whether league form is relevant. The repetition of playing against the same opponent again and again, whether you win or lose, however badly you're getting beaten.

The mental stress showed on all the players in the Candidates and by the last few rounds it became a complete lottery.

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009395/hes-not-a-machine-hes-a-man-060413.aspx

Here's an interesting article from a British Grandmaster Jon Rowson, where he raises exactly that question.

[Tal]

One of my rare photo specials for you:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009398/sixth-ogd-prinsenstad-tournament-in-delft-070413.aspx

Some of you might like to read a brief report about a decent standard tournament in Holland with a few grandmasters in it.

Some of you might enjoy the pictures. Two examples:



Very little by way of exclusion zones in anything but the very biggest comps.



Holland's answer to the Boris Bikes?

[MintTrav]

Is that Gelfand watching? His name is not on the lists, but I guess the field is a bit soft for him.

Do you know whether Smaranda is entered in any upcoming events in the UK?

[Tal]

It looks like the venue of this winter's World Championship match has been decided:



Anand's home town, Chennai.

290 million rupees have been put up for the event, reportedly, which is about $3.5m. It is traditionally the case that prize money is split 60/40 between winner and loser, BTW.

Chennai, chessbase cheekily notes, is a better venue than Tromsø (Carlsen's home town):

While we really love Tromsø and would give anything to spend three weeks there, we see a small problem with the 2013 World Championship being held in the Arctic Circle. On November 6th there will be five hours and 41 minutes of daylight (sunrise to sunset), on November 16 three hours and 49 minutes, and on November 26 the sun will rise at 11:04 a.m. and set at 11:58 a.m. On November 27, the day of departure, it will not rise above the horizon at all. The next time the people of Tromsø will see the sun is January 15, 2014, when it will make a first 30-minute appearance.

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009418/breaking-world-championship-2013-in-chennai-080413.aspx

[Tal]

Is that Gelfand watching? His name is not on the lists, but I guess the field is a bit soft for him.

Do you know whether Smaranda is entered in any upcoming events in the UK?

Yeah that's not Gelfand! That chap is a little more portly.

Never seen Smaranda before. Can see a 'Women of Chess' derail being threatened. We are all above that, though, thankfully.

[Tal]

A really thought-provoking article on how well the players in the candidates played objectively, in the sense of how they performed in finding consistently close to the best move every time:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009400/the-quality-of-play-at-the-candidates-080413.aspx

It also compares the modern players with their predecessors.

Interestingly, it also considers the complexity of the positions the players preferred. Note how Aronian favoured positions far more complex than everyone else. He is a bit of a mentalist when it comes to that.

[Tal]

Something more practical seems appropriate.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/extra-queen-how-to-win

This is one for those who play a little bit - say online - and have a rating < 1400.

When you win a queen early on for a bishop or a knight, it seems obvious that you should win. But there aren't many books on the subject and these positions are rare, so how do you go about winning them?

A few games are selected between players of your level and the author then shows one of her own.

Very instructive stuff. Hope it's of use.