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Tal
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« Reply #945 on: March 03, 2013, 10:22:39 PM »

Here is the website for the Candidates Tournament, which starts on 14 March with the opening ceremony and round one starts on 15 March.

http://www.worldchess.com/candidates/index.html

Tickets will be £30 a day (£11.25 for students).
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Skippy
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« Reply #946 on: March 03, 2013, 11:02:11 PM »

Tickets will be £30 a day

Yikes!
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Tal
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« Reply #947 on: March 04, 2013, 08:12:02 AM »

Tickets will be £30 a day

Yikes!

I just checked and it's £25 in the week, £30 at weekends.

I would expect there to be other things included in that beyond entry, like access to the commentary room, but it would essentially be an all day ticket (doors open 12.30, matches start 14.00, matches finish between 16.00 and 21.00).

I pay at least that to go and watch spurs for 1½ hours and it's in line with the London Chess Classic (OK a fiver more for both sets of tickets).

No idea when the next chance to see such a strong field will be.
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Tal
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« Reply #948 on: March 05, 2013, 08:18:29 AM »

Something a wee bit different, if I may...

I was perusing some of the articles on chess.com and came across something quite fun.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/quotsecrets-of-grandmaster-playquot-by-john-nunn-and-peter-griffiths

Here, the author explains why this book, Secrets of Grandmaster Play, helped him in his development as a player.

It interested me for three reasons: firstly, it is a well-written article with some nice diagrams and explanations; secondly, it is an excellent book; but thirdly, one of the co-authors of the book, Peter Griffiths, is a good friend of mine and my former coach.

Enjoy
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Skippy
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« Reply #949 on: March 05, 2013, 06:11:01 PM »

Tickets will be £30 a day

Yikes!

I just checked and it's £25 in the week, £30 at weekends.

I would expect there to be other things included in that beyond entry, like access to the commentary room, but it would essentially be an all day ticket (doors open 12.30, matches start 14.00, matches finish between 16.00 and 21.00).

I pay at least that to go and watch spurs for 1½ hours and it's in line with the London Chess Classic (OK a fiver more for both sets of tickets).

No idea when the next chance to see such a strong field will be.

So if they made the time controls 40 moves in 10 hours, you'd pay £100 per ticket? Just because it lasts longer, doesn't make it worth more.

London Chess Classic field was stronger too, plus I get the impression that there was more outside stuff to do there.  Trouble with chess is that there appears to be little advantage whatsoever to actually going, rather than just watching it on the internet, which isn't true of live sport.
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Tal
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« Reply #950 on: March 05, 2013, 06:32:47 PM »

Tickets will be £30 a day

Yikes!

I just checked and it's £25 in the week, £30 at weekends.

I would expect there to be other things included in that beyond entry, like access to the commentary room, but it would essentially be an all day ticket (doors open 12.30, matches start 14.00, matches finish between 16.00 and 21.00).

I pay at least that to go and watch spurs for 1½ hours and it's in line with the London Chess Classic (OK a fiver more for both sets of tickets).

No idea when the next chance to see such a strong field will be.

So if they made the time controls 40 moves in 10 hours, you'd pay £100 per ticket? Just because it lasts longer, doesn't make it worth more.

London Chess Classic field was stronger too, plus I get the impression that there was more outside stuff to do there.  Trouble with chess is that there appears to be little advantage whatsoever to actually going, rather than just watching it on the internet, which isn't true of live sport.

You make some good points, Skippy. An all day pass for £25-30 for me I'm OK with. However, I'd expect there to be things on beyond the main event, there to be a seat available to rail the commentary (at the London Classic, there were two sets of concurrent commentary: a main one that was streamed and a second one for more in depth analysis) and access to the press conferences afterwards.

What I will say is this field is considerably stronger than the Classic. There are the same few at the top (minus Anand) but the weaker players are a lot stronger and reverse results are much more plausible in these games.

I have to say, on a purely personal level, there is a bit of an "I was there" thing with going to the Candidates this time. Not only is it in London, but, if Carlsen were to win this and go on to beat Anand, it would mean I was there at the start of something special.
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Tal
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« Reply #951 on: March 05, 2013, 11:27:20 PM »

A few of the strongest players in the British Isles went to Bunratty to play a comp last weekend (27th-3rd).

It was won by Michael Adams, who we saw in the London Chess Classic and has recently regained his British Number 1 status, after briefly conceding it to Luke McShane.

Here is a nice review of the tournament and some links to the most interesting games:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8895



Have a look at this game by Adams against the solid International Master Thomas Rendle:

http://www.icu.ie/games/display.php?id=30733&align=left

Adams plays a sharp variation against the Ruy Lopez and you can see the centre opens up quickly. Once that happens, Black has equalised and the advantage White gets from the first move is effectively neutralised.

Adams then sets about attacking the pawn structure Rendle has set up, undermining the chains of connected pawns and creating weaknesses.

Chess players have their own styles and something I have noticed in Adams's games is how he seems to have an incredible knack (and he more than anyone else in even the elite) for having his pieces in exactly the right spot, as if purely by chance when the position changes.

By way of example, have a look at the light squared bishop and his dark-squared brother. They don't do much moving in the entire game and yet they are enormously powerful, more and more as the game goes on. He doesn't have to manoeuvre and fiddle at all. It is all there and nothing Rendle does seems to help.

As the report indicates, Rendle recognised he was on the wrong end of a rough one. It was a beaut of a game for me and a demonstration of Adams at his glorious best.
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MintTrav
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« Reply #952 on: March 06, 2013, 12:41:53 AM »

Tickets will be £30 a day

Yikes!

I just checked and it's £25 in the week, £30 at weekends.

I would expect there to be other things included in that beyond entry, like access to the commentary room, but it would essentially be an all day ticket (doors open 12.30, matches start 14.00, matches finish between 16.00 and 21.00).

I pay at least that to go and watch spurs for 1½ hours and it's in line with the London Chess Classic (OK a fiver more for both sets of tickets).

No idea when the next chance to see such a strong field will be.

So if they made the time controls 40 moves in 10 hours, you'd pay £100 per ticket? Just because it lasts longer, doesn't make it worth more.

London Chess Classic field was stronger too, plus I get the impression that there was more outside stuff to do there.  Trouble with chess is that there appears to be little advantage whatsoever to actually going, rather than just watching it on the internet, which isn't true of live sport.

You make some good points, Skippy. An all day pass for £25-30 for me I'm OK with. However, I'd expect there to be things on beyond the main event, there to be a seat available to rail the commentary (at the London Classic, there were two sets of concurrent commentary: a main one that was streamed and a second one for more in depth analysis) and access to the press conferences afterwards.

What I will say is this field is considerably stronger than the Classic. There are the same few at the top (minus Anand) but the weaker players are a lot stronger and reverse results are much more plausible in these games.

I have to say, on a purely personal level, there is a bit of an "I was there" thing with going to the Candidates this time. Not only is it in London, but, if Carlsen were to win this and go on to beat Anand, it would mean I was there at the start of something special.

I was there at the Kasparov-Kramnik match in 2000 (one day anyway). From what I remember, the players were on a stage with the board shown on a giant display to one side. There was a separate room where some GMs were discussing the match for a smaller crowd, though you could listen to the commentary on headphones in either room. Don't remember what it cost, though.
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Tal
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« Reply #953 on: March 06, 2013, 06:01:25 AM »

That is interesting. I've never been to a World final or to a Candidates. The London Classic is the only time I've seen these people in the flesh (apart from the Brits, obv), though I've been 3 times to that.

It's the first Candidates Tournament since 1962 (since then, it has been a knock-out format of matches). Petrosian won that year and went on to beat the 1961 champion, Botvinnik.
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Tal
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« Reply #954 on: March 06, 2013, 08:28:40 AM »

Tigran Petrosian was born in modern day Georgia to Armenian parents in 1929. He learned chess at the age of 8 but was orphaned during the war and found himself sweeping the streets to stay alive. He began to suffer health-wise and his hearing in particular, but muddled through.

When he could, he bought and studied chess books, particularly the most famous of the time like My System by Nimzowitsch.

He developed his playing style as a profoundly positional player, learning quiet openings like the Caro Kann and playing them beautifully.

By the 1940s, he was competitive in the USSR and and by the early 1950s, he was among the elite, playing in the 1953 Candidates' Tournament

At this point, Petrosian seemed happy to draw rather than to play for wins and he was broadly criticised for his negative playing style. By 1957, he had added an extra dimension to his game and was winning more against the top brass.

His ability to avoid defeat served him very well against the much older Mikhail Botvinnik, when they played their 24 game match for the 1963 World Championship and Petrosian won with 5 wins to 2.

He defended his title against Spassky, only to lose it in 1969 to the same fellow.

Petrosian died in 1984 of stomach cancer but his legacy will be his almost unbeatable style, with it having famously being said that you had to beat him three times in a single game to win (opening, middlegame and endgame). Tal found him enormously frustrating and over the board they were polar opposites.

He was nevertheless capable of brilliancies and most of these were around his ability to sacrifice material for a small, intangible advantage. Slowly, the power of his remaining pieces would start to show, even though he was materially behind. This is common practice now but was almost revolutionary at the time, with (as is often the way) everyone assuming that there was little more to discover to move the game forward. Positional sacrifices weren't new but he made them more common and more sophisticated.

Chess is a game by its form, an art by its content and a science by the difficulty of gaining mastery in it. Chess can convey as much happiness as a good book or work of music can. However, it is necessary to learn to play well and only afterwards will one experience real delight.

I'm absolutely convinced that in chess – although it remains a game – there is nothing accidental. And this is my credo. I like only those chess games, in which I have played in accordance with the position requirements... I believe only in logical and right game.
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Tal
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« Reply #955 on: March 06, 2013, 08:32:24 AM »





 Click to see full-size image.


Above, playing Bobby Fischer
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« Reply #956 on: March 06, 2013, 10:47:30 PM »

wish Adams was playing the match in London , no british players at all

he played at our club several times even as a master in County Club matches , played his dad Bill & won but never played him
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Tal
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« Reply #957 on: March 07, 2013, 12:13:28 AM »

wish Adams was playing the match in London , no british players at all

he played at our club several times even as a master in County Club matches , played his dad Bill & won but never played him

If there had been a host venue pick, he might have made it. He's playing pretty well recently as well, but being 25th in the world (or thereabouts) just doesn't get you a seat on merit.

You'll likely know that a lot of international GM tourneys (even as high as the Grand Prix) have host nation players as standard. For the Candidates, because it's a World Championship cycle, the rules on who is in and who is out are strict, complicated and - being FIDE - suboptimal.
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Tal
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« Reply #958 on: March 07, 2013, 12:14:43 AM »

Also, Mickey is a spurs fan and is therefore an auto-ledge.

Wink
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« Reply #959 on: March 07, 2013, 12:41:38 AM »

wish Adams was playing the match in London , no british players at all

he played at our club several times even as a master in County Club matches , played his dad Bill & won but never played him

If there had been a host venue pick, he might have made it. He's playing pretty well recently as well, but being 25th in the world (or thereabouts) just doesn't get you a seat on merit.

You'll likely know that a lot of international GM tourneys (even as high as the Grand Prix) have host nation players as standard. For the Candidates, because it's a World Championship cycle, the rules on who is in and who is out are strict, complicated and - being FIDE - suboptimal.

That's one word for them. Crap is another.
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