Chess thread

[Tal]

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8772

All games drawn in Wijk aan Zee and the big one was Carlsen getting out of jail against Aronian.

The link above has the games, with little videos of the players' interviews after their games.


Edit: it now includes Danny King's Play of the Day feature, which today is the Aronian-Carlsen game.

[Tal]

Express report today on the chess in Holland:

Carlsen beats van Wely
Anand beats Caruana
Karjakin beats Wang Hao
Everybody else draws.

Click to see full-size image.

Link below at time of posting has a few details and videos but it will update over the next few hours to something more substantive:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8775

[Tal]

One of the best-reviewed tournaments in the calendar is the Gibraltar Festival. Here is a much better preview than I could do:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8774

The tournament features some very big names like Ivanchuk, Shirov, Adams and Short, but is often praised for its relaxed and welcoming spirit, with what we would recognise as side events running in parallel with the main comp on one of the most historic islands in Her Majesty's Empire.

STOP PRESS!!!

Chess players in sense of humour shocker!

See the bottom of the linked page for two funnies, including a British Grandmaster who has the same name as me (but isn't me). Simon (aka "The Ginger GM") will be commentating on the event alongside US player Irina Krush.

[Tal]

The link above to the report on the latest round of the Wijk aan Zee tournament now has the games, the interviews, some photos, Danny King's game of the day and an annotated version of the Carlsen-van Wely game.

Carlsen ran him over, really, although it won't look like it. Carlsen played a response to van Wely's King's Indian Defence called the Averbakh system (you might remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Yuri Averbakh is the oldest living Grandmaster). Notice how Carlsen creates a weakness on f5 and this is how he wins the game.

The final position might surprise you because Black is level on material and it all looks blocked. However, Carlsen is about to play g4 and you'll see that, although Black is attacking that square twice with his own pawns, his pawn on f5 is pinned - unable to move - by the white bishop. This means White wins a pawn and, as the position will open up and Black has no compensation against a bishop pair, he didn't see any chance of saving the game against the best endgame player in the world.

It's a horrible position for Black but that only becomes apparent the more you play with it. Have a go if you get time. Try to make some progress against a computer. Then reverse the colours and try to beat the computer if you're feeling brave

[curnow]

 Published on 6 Jan 2013

In this video, chess FIDE Master Valeri Lilov is trying to find the truth behind one of the most recent scandals in the world of chess. He investigates all the important facts and evidence about the suspicious 2700 rating performance achieved by a 2200 rated player in a Grandmaster tournament last year.

[Tal]

Anand is back!!!

The World Champion delivered one of his very beat games today to beat Lev Aronian with Black.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8776

The finish was reminiscent (Anand said so himself) of one of Rubenstein's most famous wins, against Rotlewi (one of those players - I say this slightly harshly but with an element of fairness - famous for being beaten in a famous game). The games are in the java viewer in the link above.

The openings are different (Anand's is a Semi-Slav (the black pawns on the light squares against 1.d4) whereas Rubenstein played a Tarrasch (pawns on d4, d5, c4 and c5)) but see what happens to Black's bishops, his king's knight and the queen.

An off day for Lev but a game for the textbooks for Vishy.

Anand now shares the lead with Karjakin (who drew today) and Carlsen (who won).

[EvilPie]

Have any 2 recorded professional games ever ran out exactly the same?

Another question occurs to me after this first one:

Are all professional games recorded?

I don't mean on video obviously, just the moves.

[Tal]

Thank you for that curnow. I ummed and ahhed about posting this but as it's 70mins long I left it.

But it is fascinating stuff. Really is.

He makes a compelling case, although there is no material evidence of cheating.

[Tal]

Have any 2 recorded professional games ever ran out exactly the same?

Another question occurs to me after this first one.

Are all professional games recorded?

I don't mean on video obviously, just the moves.

AFAIK no two complete games (played to checkmate/stalemate) have been recorded as identical. The maths makes it hard for that to happen in any event, although there have been plenty of identical novelty games played (4 move checkmate, for example)

[EvilPie]

Have any 2 recorded professional games ever ran out exactly the same?

Another question occurs to me after this first one.

Are all professional games recorded?

I don't mean on video obviously, just the moves.

AFAIK no two complete games (played to checkmate/stalemate) have been recorded as identical. The maths makes it hard for that to happen in any event, although there have been plenty of identical novelty games played (4 move checkmate, for example)

Could that (or indeed has that) ever happen to anybody who's not a complete mushroom?

[Tal]

Have any 2 recorded professional games ever ran out exactly the same?

Another question occurs to me after this first one.

Are all professional games recorded?

I don't mean on video obviously, just the moves.

AFAIK no two complete games (played to checkmate/stalemate) have been recorded as identical. The maths makes it hard for that to happen in any event, although there have been plenty of identical novelty games played (4 move checkmate, for example)

Could that (or indeed has that) ever happen to anybody who's not a complete mushroom?

Honestly?

No.

Someone who isn't a complete mushroom would spot the threat on f7 and stop the checkmate.

[Tal]

Anand in his exit interview.

He refers to Aronian as his Angstgegner. Never heard this expression myself before, but my basic German suggests it's along the lines of worst opponent (most feared opponent).

[kinboshi]

Tal, Honeybadger will be bringing his chess set to DTD next time he's there.  We're going to have a game whilst we're playing poker, or have a game on the clock in between poker.  You need to get your chess-arse down there as well and me and Stu can play together to lose against you.

[TightEnd]

If it is an updated event, ie I am there, I would love to play too

If you could get to DTD earlier, midday say, will open the doors for you and we can play timed before the masses come in and make the place busy?

[Tal]

If it is an updated event, ie I am there, I would love to play too

If you could get to DTD earlier, midday say, will open the doors for you and we can play timed before the masses come in and make the place busy?

Or...we could test out the commentary booth while Honeybadger and Kinboshi are playing?