Chess thread

[kinboshi]

Didn't come across the Benko Gambit too often when I played.  Something which I'm quite thankful for, as it's a tricky and dangerous path for white if he's not very careful.

[Tal]

Looks like he's borrowed one of tikay's jackets for that photo.

It is my longstanding belief that chess players should avoid check jackets.

[Tal]

Didn't come across the Benko Gambit too often when I played.  Something which I'm quite thankful for, as it's a tricky and dangerous path for white if he's not very careful.

There's a nice line I play against it, which is to take on b5 and then to push the pawn to b6. It is important to get the knights to the queenside quickly, fix pawns on white and attack on the dark squares.

Here's an instructive game, where Cheparinov beats Ivanchuk:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1378224

[kinboshi]

It's still a bloody tricky option taking b5, and until later in that game I was liking the look on black's position down black's queen-side and was only expecting white to win because you'd told me that's what happened!

[Tal]

It's still a bloody tricky option taking b5, and until later in that game I was liking the look on black's position down black's queen-side and was only expecting white to win because you'd told me that's what happened!

1.d4 often ends up with delicate, closed, positional games and modern games like this are always going to give chances for both sides (the modern master would sooner lose quickly and have a shot at glory than sit on the rough end of a stodgy loss).White had a solid position and Black had left weaknesses on the dark squares on the kingside plus with his pieces all on the queenside. This made for an attack by White with a clever tactic.

[Tal]

The Chess World Cup has been a recent fixture on the chess calendar. Actually, that's not strictly true; it is every two years.

The draw has been made. A straight knockout, with two games. If the players are still tied, they play rapidplay games, getting shorter on time each pair of games until a winner is decided.

Here is the draw:

Click to see full-size image.

Feast your eyes on this little beauty!

[Tal]

Starts 10 August. If you like your betting, this is Marathonbet's book:

Chess. 2013 World Cup. Norway. Outright
2013 World Cup. Norway. Outright.  10 Aug 11:00

Name        Price
Aronian, Levon  3.95   
Karjakin, Sergey  4.60   
Grishchuk, Alexander  5.10   
Caruana, Fabiano  6.00   
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  7.00   
Kramnik, Wladimir  7.50   
Nakamura, Hikaru  9.00   
Svidler, Peter  10.50   
Morozevich, Alexander  18.00   
Leko, Peter  21.00   
Ivanchuk, Vassily  26.00   
Wang, Hao  26.00   
Ponomariov, Ruslan  29.00   
Nepomniachtchi, Ian  31.00   
Gelfand, Boris  36.00   
Kamsky, Gata  41.00   
Le, Quang Liem  46.00   
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime  46.00   
Andreikin, Dmitry  46.00   
Radjabov, Teimour  51.00   
Shirov, Alexei  51.00   
Adams, Michael  56.00   
Bacrot, Etienne  61.00   
Jakovenko, Dmitry  71.00   
Domínguez, Lenier  81.00   
Moiseenko, Alexander  101.00   
Korobov, Anton  101.00   
Giri, Anish  126.00   
Polgar, Judit  126.00   
Wojtaszek, Radosław  151.00   
Tomashevsky, Evgeny  151.00   
Fressinet, Laurent  151.00   
Navara, David  201.00   
Shimanov, Aleksandr  251.00   
Khismatullin, Denis  251.00   
Wei, Yi  301.00   
Safarli, Eltaj  301.00   
Malakhov, Vladimir  301.00   
Iturrizaga, Eduardo  351.00   
Bologan, Viktor  351.00   
Durarbayli, Vasif  501.00   
Hou, Yifan  751.00   
Ushenina, Anna  1501.00   
Any Other  67.00 
 

[Tal]

Aronian is a standout, but I can't see any value in 3-1, so have looked elsewhere for those who do well in the tie-breaks. Karjakin is a master of blitz games, but he's no price, either.

Mamedyarov is playing good chess at the moment and could be the one to come through his quarter.
Nakamura is back in form and loves the quicker format. His attacking play is likely to buy him a quick win or two against some of the weaker players.

Further afield, I like England's Michael Adams's draw and I think Anish Giri could be the breakout player he has threatened to be so frequently of late.

£5 on each. We'll see how I get on, starting in a month's time.

[The Camel]

Starts 10 August. If you like your betting, this is Marathonbet's book:

Chess. 2013 World Cup. Norway. Outright
2013 World Cup. Norway. Outright.  10 Aug 11:00

Name        Price
Aronian, Levon  3.95   
Karjakin, Sergey  4.60   
Grishchuk, Alexander  5.10   
Caruana, Fabiano  6.00   
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  7.00   
Kramnik, Wladimir  7.50   
Nakamura, Hikaru  9.00   
Svidler, Peter  10.50   
Morozevich, Alexander  18.00   
Leko, Peter  21.00   
Ivanchuk, Vassily  26.00   
Wang, Hao  26.00   
Ponomariov, Ruslan  29.00   
Nepomniachtchi, Ian  31.00   
Gelfand, Boris  36.00   
Kamsky, Gata  41.00   
Le, Quang Liem  46.00   
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime  46.00   
Andreikin, Dmitry  46.00   
Radjabov, Teimour  51.00   
Shirov, Alexei  51.00   
Adams, Michael  56.00   
Bacrot, Etienne  61.00   
Jakovenko, Dmitry  71.00   
Domínguez, Lenier  81.00   
Moiseenko, Alexander  101.00   
Korobov, Anton  101.00   
Giri, Anish  126.00   
Polgar, Judit  126.00   
Wojtaszek, Radosław  151.00   
Tomashevsky, Evgeny  151.00   
Fressinet, Laurent  151.00   
Navara, David  201.00   
Shimanov, Aleksandr  251.00   
Khismatullin, Denis  251.00   
Wei, Yi  301.00   
Safarli, Eltaj  301.00   
Malakhov, Vladimir  301.00   
Iturrizaga, Eduardo  351.00   
Bologan, Viktor  351.00   
Durarbayli, Vasif  501.00   
Hou, Yifan  751.00   
Ushenina, Anna  1501.00   
Any Other  67.00 
 

Are you sure this isn't a Skybet book?

They are betting to about 200%.

Hard pressed to find a bet here young Tal.

[Tal]

Yeah, it is a pretty savage book. A lot of absolute no-hopers being priced up farcically. The four I've picked are all better value in my eyes, though. The shorter two are probably only their money but Karjakin hasn't had a good couple of weeks, Kramnik is short of form, Svidler won this two years ago but hasn't looked competitive for a year, players like Le Quang Lien could be double the price comfortably.

[MintTrav]

Three months ago, that price for Radjabov could only be a misprint. Now, it's probably right. I just find the drop in his results bizarre. If he recovers his form, it would be a super price, but who would bet on him at the moment? The strange thing is, from what I have read of his games, he doesn't actually seem to have been playing badly. A lot of the reports of his games say that both players have played amazingly well, but Radjabov keeps coming out on the wrong side. Maybe he brings the best out of the other guy.

[Tal]

Three months ago, that price for Radjabov could only be a misprint. Now, it's probably right. I just find the drop in his results bizarre. If he recovers his form, it would be a super price, but who would bet on him at the moment? The strange thing is, from what I have read of his games, he doesn't actually seem to have been playing badly. A lot of the reports of his games say that both players have played amazingly well, but Radjabov keeps coming out on the wrong side. Maybe he brings the best out of the other guy.

He's an odd character.

World number 4 but never won an open major, for example.

He's a very talented player but draws so many games he's been nicknamed Radrawbov.

You can argue he's underachieved, but you could equally find people who would argue he's overachieved.

In the Candidates, he went into it having not played top flight chess for a while, got tired and his ringrustiness found him out. He got bullied by the field and that continued into the Grand Prix. He had other things going on, apparently, and hasn't appeared much of late.

Who knows which one will show up?

I wouldn't touch him inside 100/1 now tbh, although he's only a couple of really good results away from getting back into the top echelons of the game.

[titaniumbean]

been playing a friend recently battleship style on the laptop, what's the best way to do this, we've been trying to use chess.com but the vs games are v slow.

the site my mate plays on has the worst pictures for the pieces such that I cant even understand them so looking for another alternative.


Any tips on how to stop feeling buggered from the off when he moves his Queen pawn at the start rather than the king. neither of us play particularly regularly (him alot more so than me but not to any competitive standard) and I feel like neither of us has any real strategy more just reacting to the other. when he plays that opening move I seem to just freeze up and be awful (not necessarily a bad description of my chess skillz).

[Tal]

I'll happily field the second question.

Moving the Queen pawn first (in chess notation 1.d4 or PQ4) is a quieter way of developing the pieces in general than the king's pawn openings. The idea is still the same, though:

1. Get some control over the centre
2. Get your bits out
3. Castle
4. Start attacking, either through the centre or on one of the flanks.

Against it, the principles are again the same:

1. Don't let villain get exclusive control over the centre
2. Get your bits out
3. Castle
4. Be ready for an attack and have your own plan in case nothing comes at you.

So, there are a few ways of responding to 1.d4 and the easiest to follow is to mirror with the first move by moving your own queen pawn up two (1...d5 or PQ4). Support it with your king pawn (moving it up one - e6 or PK3) and get your knights out.

What you need to work towards is a pawn break, as this will be the way you undermine Villain's attack on the centre. You will do this either with the Queen's Bishop pawn (c5 or PQB4 - this is more common) or the king's pawn (don't worry about moving it twice, as long as you are ready to do so with your other pieces). Whichever way you break, remember to support the queen pawn with another pawn first.

Develop as quickly as you can and castle king side unless he starts launching pawns that way. If he does that, castle the other way and then try to open the centre quickly, because he wont be prepared for that.

Remember that, as Black, white has a slight advantage early doors because he has the first move, so your first job is to equalise. The only way you can do that effectively is to follow the checklist above.

Make sure every time he moves, you ask yourself why he has done that. There's no difference at all in that respect to when I c/r you on a   flop when you c-bet. You ask yourself what I'm up to, satisfy yourself either way and react accordingly. Have a last look around right before you move, just to be sure you haven't missed anything.

Experiment with it, but know that you're fundamentally doing the right thing if you follow this. A bit like raising rather than limping pre, you've got to finesse it with bet sizing, stack sizes and position, but you will win more pots/games by being aggressive and the best way to do that in chess is to develop properly and to have an involvement in the centre.

Hope this helps.

[titaniumbean]

I'm sorry I got this far and then burst out laughing, I will refocus and read again


2. Get your bits out