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Author Topic: Chess thread  (Read 340666 times)
Tal
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« Reply #525 on: November 08, 2012, 10:33:41 PM »

Thinking of a Christmas present?

London game-maker Jaques has a 3for2 sale on. I have a nice Jaques chess set but it makes all sorts of games.

If you live in London, it has a section in Hamley's.

http://www.jaqueslondon.co.uk/gift-ideas-1/christmas.html
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Tal
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« Reply #526 on: November 09, 2012, 08:40:42 AM »

The London Chess Classic is just 3 weeks away now and, in a change from previous schedules, the draw has already been done.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8618

Round 1's standout tie is Luke McShane v Magnus Carlsen. Luke beat Magnus a couple of years ago and has a markedly different style to everyone else in the competition, making him dangerous.

I cannot recommend highly enough that you pop to the Kensington Olympia for a day to see the event. Take your children as well if you like, as there are loads of events on for the youngsters.

You will see not only the main event in an auditorium (you can take pictures in the first 5 mins of the match so get there for the start) but also the side events that are running in parallel, with players of all levels competing.

Because the main event has an odd number of players, the one left over each day will be assisting the commentary, which you can sit and watch. You can ask questions, suggest moves, even steer the analysis Smiley

I go every year for a day (overground train from Watford Junction, if you're coming from the Midlands/the North) and never regret it.
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Tal
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« Reply #527 on: November 09, 2012, 05:37:59 PM »

 Click to see full-size image.


A helpful "who's who?"

Tickets are available here http://www.londonchessclassic.com/tickets.htm or at the door. Children (1997 or later) get free entry; adults £15/£20 for weekday/weekend.

For that, you get access to the auditorium where the main games are held...

 Click to see full-size image.


...plus the commentary room...



And access to see the side events and plenty more besides




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Tal
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« Reply #528 on: November 10, 2012, 01:23:30 AM »

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8619

The second round of the Kings Tournament saw two draws, although Caruana missed a straightforward win, having completely miscalculated in his analysis of the position.



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Tal
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« Reply #529 on: November 10, 2012, 01:33:03 AM »

Tal - the real one - would have been 76 today.

Chessbase has published a lovely story about his desire to play with Mikhail Botvinnik, who Tal would go on to beat in 1960 and who would take the title back off him a year later.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8621

12 year old Tal had instead to settle for Botvinnik's assistant (called a "second") but boy did he play a game against him!
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« Reply #530 on: November 10, 2012, 01:43:24 PM »

anyone use chessclub.com , not been on there for years & mostly play on chessworld.net but thinking of changing but at $70 a year is bit much

they used to do great coverage of the big tournaments but not sure how good they are now
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Tal
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« Reply #531 on: November 10, 2012, 01:45:15 PM »

anyone use chessclub.com , not been on there for years & mostly play on chessworld.net but thinking of changing but at $70 a year is bit much

they used to do great coverage of the big tournaments but not sure how good they are now

Never used it myself.

Playchess is the one I use. That is subscription for the tournament commentary etc. But free for software to play other people live.
 
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Tal
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« Reply #532 on: November 10, 2012, 06:24:36 PM »

Round 3 of the Kings tournament saw two draws, so as you were and Ivanchuk leads at the halfway point. Games with excellent analysis are here:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8623



Nisipeanu has a look at the Ivanchuk-Caruana game.
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« Reply #533 on: November 10, 2012, 07:48:32 PM »

anyone use chessclub.com , not been on there for years & mostly play on chessworld.net but thinking of changing but at $70 a year is bit much

they used to do great coverage of the big tournaments but not sure how good they are now

Never used it myself.

Playchess is the one I use. That is subscription for the tournament commentary etc. But free for software to play other people live.
 

You can be my PlayChess technical support, then. (please)

So, I bought Fritz, and I got a years "membership" with it. What does that get me? If I can play for free, what's the difference?

If I want to watch live coverage of say the London Chess Classic, or the past olympiad, with the commentary, do I have to pay more on top? What are Ducats?
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Tal
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« Reply #534 on: November 10, 2012, 08:37:13 PM »

anyone use chessclub.com , not been on there for years & mostly play on chessworld.net but thinking of changing but at $70 a year is bit much

they used to do great coverage of the big tournaments but not sure how good they are now

Never used it myself.

Playchess is the one I use. That is subscription for the tournament commentary etc. But free for software to play other people live.
 

You can be my PlayChess technical support, then. (please)

So, I bought Fritz, and I got a years "membership" with it. What does that get me? If I can play for free, what's the difference?

If I want to watch live coverage of say the London Chess Classic, or the past olympiad, with the commentary, do I have to pay more on top? What are Ducats?

I have the basic package (I assume like you), as it happens (on laptop and on Android). If you want access to the commentary and the higher level stuff, that is an extra subscription. The Ducats are, I think, like tokens you can buy and then spend on 1-1 coaching from the GMs that use the site or access to presentations, talks and game commenataries.

Personally, I'm happy to have the software to play other people online and to do everything else either myself or elsewhere on the internet.

The games from big comps are streamed live on the tournament website and sites like Chessbase will give you the games within a day or so, often with commentary. You can plug those moves into Fritz if you like!

I am not sure of your standard. If you are a sub 1600 player or relatively new to the game, I would advise against spending money on analysis of recent Super GM games, as you can get the essentials much more easily from games from 50 years ago or more. 
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Tal
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« Reply #535 on: November 11, 2012, 11:16:37 PM »

In 1889 (yes, 1889), two of the best players around, Weiss and Chigorin finished joint first in a big tournament in the US. Like golf, they played a playoff game, then another when that was drawn...then another...another...and another. All four were drawn.

The chess historian, Edward Winter, has found a truly magnificent letter from a disgruntled chess follower of the day. I copy below Edward Winter's article:



Criticism of draws (New York, 1889 play-off)


John Blackstone (Las Vegas, NV, USA) points out this item on page 14 of the New York Sun, 26 May 1889:

‘The two drawn games which Messrs. Weiss and Chigorin performed, we will not say played, on Thursday and Friday of last week, while in the effort to break their tie for first place, added no glory to the history of chess. Under such deliberate attempts at a draw, chess is put behind the game that ranks next to it, checkers, in which drawn games are the rule and not the exception. The pusillanimous resignation to rivalry with which each of these two leaders of a great intellectual diversion
shrank from the attack, hoping that his adversary would make a mistake, is but another phase of the famous meeting in Canada between Mace and Coburn. Those eminent prize-fighters quartered about the ring for hours because neither was willing to lead for the other, and the affair ended in the same sort of fiasco as these concluding encounters of the chess tournament.

Masters Chigorin and Weiss should gird up their loins and be men when they meet tomorrow. Let them abandon their imitation of Mace and Coburn and think of how Chateaubriand used to say, in a language they both can read, “Ce n’est pas la victoire [qui] fait le bonheur des nobles coeurs – c’est le combat.” [This quote is commonly ascribed to Montalembert, with la joie rather than le bonheur.] Not victory, but battle, delights the noble heart. One blow for the honor of chess rather than none for victory. Play for all you are worth.

Notwithstanding the newspaper’s exhortations, the fourth and final game in the play-off was drawn in 28 moves the next day.
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Tal
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« Reply #536 on: November 11, 2012, 11:29:26 PM »

Here is a picture from the very tournament:



The game is Weiss on the left and Chigorin on the right.

And here are the details of the tournament, including a link to all the 46 games

http://www.endgame.nl/newyork.htm

The games are much simpler than the ones we see today. However, we mustn't underestimate the players' ability to calcluate.

I would suggest that the winning games are worth a look if you fancy doing so (don't bother with draws; most of the fun in looking at games is the win).
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Tal
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« Reply #537 on: November 12, 2012, 09:10:00 PM »

Two draws in the Kings Tournament, so it is as you were:



Games are annotated here:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8628

Ivanchuk's astonishing knowledge of opening theory (there really is no one out there with as wide a knowledge as him) came into play and it is helpfully explained.



It is common practice now in these comps for the players to go through their game straight afterwards with the commentator and a computer.
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« Reply #538 on: November 12, 2012, 09:15:00 PM »

That last lines quite a turn on.

do they see if the computer can find better moves etc and discuss it? is it all really that open?

also cant understand half of the write up as so many references to openings etc that I have no comprehension of. Like clicking through the match quite quick on the visual board though!

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Tal
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« Reply #539 on: November 12, 2012, 09:24:38 PM »

That last lines quite a turn on.

do they see if the computer can find better moves etc and discuss it? is it all really that open?

also cant understand half of the write up as so many references to openings etc that I have no comprehension of. Like clicking through the match quite quick on the visual board though!



What happens is that a commentator will have been going through the game (usually with the assistance of an engine or two) live with an audience. When the players come in, there will be lines and moves the commentator could have spotted that the players missed and this can come up in discussion.

Don't worry too much about the opening theory as such. The core ideas are the same but they are different ways of reaching positions the players are comfortable with.

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