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Author Topic: Chess thread  (Read 340716 times)
RED-DOG
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« Reply #720 on: December 28, 2012, 05:51:14 PM »

Thanks for those examples of jammy chess Mr Tal. Very informative and entertaining.

I read every post in this thread. Most of it is beyond my meagre mental capacity, but even if I don't understand the message, I enjoy the eloquence of it's delivery.

My favourite story so far is:

Nigel Short turning up slightly late to a tournament, shaking his opponent's hand, writing his name on his score sheet, his 'phone going off and him writing 1-0 on the score sheet without barely a lift of his pen, leaving the playing hall without even taking his coat off!   

What a wonderful image that conjures up, and what a great example of Mr Short's integrity. 
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kinboshi
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« Reply #721 on: December 28, 2012, 05:57:37 PM »

What's most incredible is that chess isn't a sport!

It is in some countries, I believe.

They can call it a fruit if they want.  It still isn't Wink
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« Reply #722 on: December 28, 2012, 08:17:20 PM »

I’ve had a bit of time today to answer a question RedDog posed me a couple of weeks ago (sorry for the delay, sir). This will be honeybadgeresque, albeit with less elegance and much less intellectual content.

The subject is luck in chess. There is more than you might immediately think. As with any tournament, you can be lucky because an opponent is late or a queer result happens on another board that directly affects your chances of winning the tournament, or someone’s ‘phone goes off and you win by default, or your opponent runs out of time when he was just about to checkmate you. For every one of these, rightly or wrongly, you would describe yourself as having been “lucky”.

But what about an individual game?

The first thing is where playing styles fit. Imagine a graph with an x- and y-axis. A dot on the x-axis but all the way along is someone who is very tactical and looks for sharp combinations, sacrifices everything he can and prefers a sledgehammer to a precision instrument every day of the week. A dot on the y-axis but all the way up is a positional player, who understands the power of the pieces in a more long-term sense, as they look to create holes in the opponent’s position, swap off their bad bishop for the villain’s good one and create little edges that add up when the endgame comes.

Say I’m a really aggressive, tactical player. If I play someone whose strength is tactics, but they aren’t quite as good as me, I’ll do very well against them over a long period, perhaps (to be crude) because I can see one move further than they. If the villain is instead as strong in positional sense, their rating might not be as high as mine, but I will leave weaknesses in my position which they will naturally exploit and it could be much more likely that they will get a result against me. The luck is both in us being drawn to play each other (say we were the second best players in our respective teams or say we had the same number of points in a tournament and were drawn against each other) and in the match/mismatch of our playing styles. To get better as a player, you need to have ability in both, but even the greats aren’t (100,100); everybody is more one than the other.

Would you say Carlsen is more positional? Kasparov more tactical? Although obv both are great at both.
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« Reply #723 on: December 28, 2012, 09:57:49 PM »

Carlsen is inherently positional.

Kasparov was a little less defined but on balance more tactical than positional. He made sacrifices to create fatal, longterm weaknesses in an opponent's position, so that kind of thing is hard to pin down.

All of the top players are brilliant at both sides of the game tho. They are complete players. It is more a question of style. Tal if faced with a tough position or a quiet won endgame with Knight against Bad Bishop would choose the endgame 100% of the time.

Rubenstein, Fischer and Carlsen have all played devastating and incredible combinations.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2012, 10:01:00 PM by Tal » Logged

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« Reply #724 on: December 30, 2012, 02:55:34 PM »

Here's a Rubinstein game where you would be forgiven for thinking it was Tal playing.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1119679

It was a wonderful finish.

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« Reply #725 on: December 30, 2012, 03:07:15 PM »

Thanks for those examples of jammy chess Mr Tal. Very informative and entertaining.

I read every post in this thread. Most of it is beyond my meagre mental capacity, but even if I don't understand the message, I enjoy the eloquence of it's delivery.

My favourite story so far is:

Nigel Short turning up slightly late to a tournament, shaking his opponent's hand, writing his name on his score sheet, his 'phone going off and him writing 1-0 on the score sheet without barely a lift of his pen, leaving the playing hall without even taking his coat off!   

What a wonderful image that conjures up, and what a great example of Mr Short's integrity. 

Nigel is a funny old sort. He specialises in out-of-fashion openings (the sort that would have been played in Victorian times) and plays the very well. It is a way of getting people out of their comfort zone, as most players work on keeping up to speed on the latest developments and the à la mode lines.
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« Reply #726 on: December 31, 2012, 01:53:53 PM »

http://www.hastingschess.com/?page_id=1206

Hastings International Chess Congress which opens on Friday 28th December 2012 and continues until 6th January 2013.
they got Live Commentary but not sure what time they start
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« Reply #727 on: December 31, 2012, 02:01:07 PM »

Good reminder Curnow, thank you.

It is a tournament rich in history and, although the Premier isn't as strong as it once was, it still packs a sizeable punch.
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« Reply #728 on: December 31, 2012, 03:16:38 PM »

http://www.hastingschess.com/?page_id=1206

Hastings International Chess Congress which opens on Friday 28th December 2012 and continues until 6th January 2013.
they got Live Commentary but not sure what time they start

Was thinking about playing the weekend tournament again but then remembered I'm not very good.

Also considered providing some colour commentary - but it's raining and doesn't look like it's going to stop - and it's quite a long walk to the venue - so that's out.
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« Reply #729 on: December 31, 2012, 05:11:01 PM »

Fair enough Jon. If you want to get us some photos in better weather in the next few days, feel free Wink

The above link from curnow is the website for the tournament. There are brief reviews of each of the three rounds so far and these are written by man some of you (particularly the more experienced poker players) may know: Stewart Rueben. He's one of the old British poker players and has written a few books on the game.

Just as an FYI - and Jon will likely know this - there is a player in the main tourney with the same name as me. He's a Grandmaster no less. He isn't me tho.
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« Reply #730 on: December 31, 2012, 07:35:24 PM »

Here's Stewart Reuben



Seen him before anywhere?

 Click to see full-size image.


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« Reply #731 on: January 02, 2013, 09:38:47 AM »

Last week, the North American Open took place...

...at Bally's in Vegas. Report and pictures here:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8745

You'll recognise one of the faces from his poker exploits (and no it's not Howard Lederer)
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« Reply #732 on: January 02, 2013, 05:50:45 PM »

...and here's the latest from Hastings:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8747



We saw Gawain Jones in the London Chess Classic. He's currently in second place.



Ezra Duff beat Grandmaster Mark Hebden in this comp and looks set to add a fair few rating points this week to his rating.



This is John Upham, who apparently took the above snaps.
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« Reply #733 on: January 02, 2013, 05:55:50 PM »

Who took the snap of John Upham?
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« Reply #734 on: January 02, 2013, 06:07:05 PM »

Who took the snap of John Upham?

Apparently his camera is that good.
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