Chess thread

[Tal]

The crosstable so far looks like this:



Games and videos are here:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009221/candidates-r4--carlsen-joins-aronian-in-the-lead-190313.aspx

[Tal]

Thinking Caps On



Grischuk



Kramnik



Radjabov

[Tal]

Round 5 was all draws, although Calrsen survived a mild scare against a battling Ivanchuk. Carlsen said afterwards:

“It was a very difficult game. I tried to be creative in the opening. He responded well and I was worse, so I decided to sacrifice a pawn in order to get into an endgame which I thought I could hold,”

Fair to say it was a day of missed chances, as Kramnik should probably have converted his edge against Aronian.

Pictures, videos and in-depth analysis are here:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009237/candidates--postmortem-of-round-five-210313.aspx

[Tal]

Live games from Round 6 started about half an hour ago. Here is the live action:

http://london2013.fide.com/analysis/index.html

[Tal]

Today is a rest day, so let's just confirm what happened yesterday.

Carlsen and Aronian both managed to win from seemingly level positions through a combination of technique and pressure.

Carlsen's win against Svidler came from a standard opening called the Ruy Lopez. Carlsen is an outstanding player of the Black side of this opening and chose not to play the à la mode Berlin Defence, selecting instead his more familiar Classical lines. These positions are really all about technique and Carlsen showed us all again that he has this in spades. It was a skilfully executed win, as Svidler eventually wilted and a surgical finish was not far behind.

Aronian beat Radjabov in not dissimilar terms, except that Aronian was the aggressor for most of it and, eventually, the dual pressures of Armenian precision and the clock told on Radjabov and he blundered rather horribly.

Gelfand failed to capitalise on a pawn loss by Grischuk by not playing assertively enough and this allowed Grischuk to equalise.

Ivanchuk had to defend for his life against Kramnik, after the Russian made a sacrifice to open up the Ukrainian's King. He held on well, though, and deserved the draw. He is a funny one, Mr Ivanchuk. One day, he doesn't seem at the races; the next he shows all the guts and guile we like to see from the best in the business.

Here are all the details, pics and videos:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009243/candidates-r6--carlsen-aronian-win-lead-220313.aspx

[Tal]

Kramnik and Ivanchuk

[Tal]

There's a more in-depth discussion of the round six games here:

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009249/candidates--postmortem-of-round-six-220313.aspx

[EvilPie]

Played what I think was my best game to date the other day and forgot to save the bugger!!

I sacrificed 2 knights and 3 pawns but it really opened up shredders king and he just couldn't escape.

Thoroughly enjoyed chasing it round the board with all the space for my queen and rooks out in the open.

I knew that one mistake and it was curtains but managed to keep plugging away and got the win.

So much fun

[Tal]

Played what I think was my best game to date the other day and forgot to save the bugger!!

I sacrificed 2 knights and 3 pawns but it really opened up shredders king and he just couldn't escape.

Thoroughly enjoyed chasing it round the board with all the space for my queen and rooks out in the open.

I knew that one mistake and it was curtains but managed to keep plugging away and got the win.

So much fun

Awesome. Great to hear you're enoying crushing the engine


I'll be heading down to the Candidates today. If you go into the main room, they give you a Samsung tablet that has all the games and commentary on, so you can follow what the players are up to.

It is pretty niche, so I'd recommend saving your money unless you have a burning desire to go, as the online stuff is excellent.

[Tal]

Four draws today, but I can't tell you how that happened.

I had the pleasure of making the short trip over to watch events unfold. Thirty of my hard earned pound notes whistled past the cashier's nose and were gone before I could say "any chance of a blogger's discount?".

Carlsen started quietly against Radjabov, with the Azeri hell-bent on going for the throat, to mix a metaphor or two. He reached a position where he had to make this attack work or Carlsen's superior structure would lead him to victory when the pieces came off.

But he found an excellent resource, did Radjabov, and when I left just before 6pm, I was certain Carlsen was going to lose his first big game for a long time.

But no.

It seems Radjabov wasn't happy with the position or at least not as happy as the observers were. He took a draw by repetition and the Norwegian's bacon was saved. (I know it's Danish bacon, but you think of a better one)

Aronian sacrificed a pawn for the aggression against Gruschuk and, again, it seemed he had an edge that would likely be decisive. However, it was Grischuk who was the more resilient and he held out to share the point.

Svidler and Ivanchuk played a ferocious rather dull game and the draw came as no surprise to anyone.

Gelfand should have secured his first win and will be absolutely kicking himself tonight. Kramnik played a very odd move in Ne8 which was begging to be punished by Nfg5. I was in the commentary room at the time (just watching...) and the whole room was just waiting for Gelfand to play what seemed to be the obvious move.

And waited...

...and waited...

But he played Nd2 instead!!!

This is what happens when you're struggling for form, of course. We have all been there in our own way. You just can't get the obvious stuff to work in your head and you end up missing out.

So it was proved, as Kramnik recovered quickly and salvaged a draw.

[Tal]

http://en.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009253/candidates-r7--mercy-was-the-constant-230313.aspx

Report is via the link above.

Here is the crosstable at the halfway stage:



Carlsen v Aronian tomorrow.

Can't wait.

[Tal]

Carlsen was lucky to draw against Radjabov.


Kramnik will also be sleeping well tonight after Gelfand missed a golden opportunity to win.

[EvilPie]

We're always hearing about the Karpov variation of this or the Kasparov variation of that.

Do we have Carlsen variations or Aronian variations or is that something for the future?

At some point will they become exhausted? Obviously there's an infinite amount of moves but at some point in the future for a person to put his own stamp on a variation the game would have to be pretty much over.

[h]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21876120
 Chess and 18th Century artificial intelligence

thought this an interesting read

[Tal]

Thanks for this, h. The Turk was something completely different in its day. Even beat Napoleon!

Imagine seeing it do its thing 200 years ago!