Chess thread

[Tal]

The World Cup has been about as dramatic as chess tournaments get. The format favours upsets because there is so little room to manoeuvre for the higher rated players in matches: just two games and then, if tied, quickplay games, blitz games and so on. It is like playing a football match over one neutral leg and then going to extra time and pens.

Top seed, Lev Aronian fell to a much lower ranked opponent but he's not the only one to go. With four rounds nearly done (just the playoffs to be done today), the remaining SuperGMs are:

Vladmir Kramnik
Fabiano Caruana
Gata Kamsky


Gelfand, Karjakin, Morozevich and Svidler all have tough opponents in the playoffs but few would have put Anton Korobov as the winner of his section. At 2720, he is a very strong player, but he isn't a household name and Nakamura will be disappointed not to have progressed.

So many games have featured surprising mistakes and the commentators have had their work cut out, no doubt, trying to make sense of what was going on. Caruana has been rather fortunate to progress this far but you can only focus on the next game and he enjoys a day off today in preparation for his quarter final.



Kamsky eliminated my last hope, Shak Mamedyarov

[Tal]

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4010869/world-cup-42-caruana-kramnik-kamsky-through-210813.aspx

Latest report above.

Few would argue that the player of the tournament thus far has been Kramnik. He has rarely looked in any danger. But sometimes it is about riding your luck early on and capitalising when you have that momentum.

Who's your money on? (I've run out)



Kramnik, right, beat the erstwhile footnotputwrongable Vassily Ivanchuk

[Tal]

Wowzers!

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4010880/world-cup-43-unparalleled-drama-in-troms-230813.aspx

A day for the underdogs as the playoffs proved tough for the seeds. Karjakin, Morozevich and Gelfand all fell to lower rated opponents. Only Svidler survived.

Reports of the games (and the epic battles in two cases) are linked above. Easy to forget that these are all excellent players; there are no mugs.

Quarter finals next...

[MintTrav]

Agree a draw when you have mate in one?

I could do that.

[Redsgirl]

Hope you don't mind me posting on here, but it did seem appropriate...

My girls have been playing with an old set they found in the shed for the last week or so, and when I went to wake them up this morning they were already mid game.
Problem was, the youngest one seemed to have almost all her pieces, while Alisha just had a solitary rook.
'I dont think that's how you play it, ladies' I told them. 'But Mam' says Leonie, 'I keep winning 'lisha's
king straight away, and it's boring having to start all over, so now I just carry on!'

[tikay]

Hope you don't mind me posting on here, but it did seem appropriate...

My girls have been playing with an old set they found in the shed for the last week or so, and when I went to wake them up this morning they were already mid game.
Problem was, the youngest one seemed to have almost all her pieces, while Alisha just had a solitary rook.
'I dont think that's how you play it, ladies' I told them. 'But Mam' says Leonie, 'I keep winning 'lisha's
king straight away, and it's boring having to start all over, so now I just carry on!'

Superb.

If Posh Tal will allow me a slight thread diversion, a similar matter arose last night.

You see, I had a house guest, of the female variety, you know how it is. Unfortunately, I was committed to playing a few poker Tournaments, Online, as part of my job. It was not by choice, I HAD to play. 

Bit awkward really. She has no interest or knowledge of poker whatsoever. She lives in the real world, & poker is not on her radar.

So I'm sitting there, the tables are binging & bonging when it was me to act, I'm terrible multi-tabling at the best of times, & she wants to show interest in what I'm doing, be supportive.

Are you winning? she poilitely asks. Not that easy to answer, really, to someone with zero knowledge of poker.

I try to explain, using short words.

Well there were 300 players, 127 are left, & I'm 45th at the moment

300 players?

Yes, 300.

You play on a poker table, right?

Yes, poker is played on tables

Crikey, must be a big table.

[tikay]

Apologies Tal.

Back to the chess.

Here's a chess notation thing.

 ‽

[Tal]

I'm all for such fab stories. Keep 'em coming

[Tal]

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4010901/world-cup-53-caruana-svidler-out-250813.aspx

We now have the semifinalists and only one would have been predicted by most of the pinstickers: Vladmir Kramnik. He has been brilliant all tournament and calmness personified, while all around him have been trading blunders. I've almost certainly bokked him good and proper now, but there we are.

Caruana has ridden his luck somewhat in this comp but the well ran dry today. Svidler also couldn't carry on his run and we are left with Andreikin, Tomaschevsky, Vachier-Lagrave and Kramnik to fight it out for the title and a place in the next Candidates' Tournament.

[Tal]

Andreikin (right) beat Svidler, as Susan Polgàr (one of the commentators) looks on

[Tal]

As is so frequently the way, the semi finals have lined up with one strong looking semi and one weaker.

Kramnik held Vachier-Legrave to a draw with total comfort, giving him the chance today to attack with the White pieces.



I hope this picture was taken after their game finished, else it's all far too relaxed and comfortable for my liking!





In the other semi, Tomashevsky had white but chose not to use his extra move to his advantage, instead settling for a quick draw. He has come to this tournament with a clear tactic: a skilled blitz player, he stands the best chance of beating higher rated opponents in the shorter forms of the game, so he will try to draw all the games he can, leaving his luck to the tie breaks.

Grischuk did the same in the Candidates tournament before last, when it was a knockout along similar lines. He fell just short of the hotseat, after losing to Gelfand.

We shall have to wait and see whether Tomaschevsky fares any better.

[The Baron]

From Kasparov:

A minor miracle for Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave today in his semifinal game against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. He was down a whole knight plus a pawn but the position was drawn after Kramnik missed a very difficult winning trick. (So difficult that apparently both players also missed it when they were analyzing after the game.) I have not seen anyone mention that Kramnik had this same endgame against me in game four of our world championship match in London in 2000! There, too, after a blunder on my part Kramnik had one perfect move to make to seal victory, but missed his chance. These positions look simple, with so few pieces on the board, but they are often very hard even for the strongest players.

Against Vachier-Lagrave, in the left diagram, White has to find a very tricky maneuver to avoid being checked forever by the black rook or losing his pawn. In the game, Kramnik had to give up the pawn and try for a while to win with R+N vs R, which should always be drawn and was. Against me in 2000, in the right diagram, there is also only one move to win. (Answers below.*)

With both semifinal matches in Tromso tied 1-1, tomorrow will bring another day of rapid tiebreak matches and possibly blitz. Kramnik is obviously the heavyweight remaining, but there are no more favorites at this point, especially after a missed chance like this one. These semifinals are in a way more important than the final match. Both finalists become candidates for the world championship, moving on to the next stage. So the winners of the tiebreaks tomorrow already have a major success, regardless of the result of the final World Cup match. [** We believe Kramnik will qualify as a candidate by rating regardless, but his rating spot will pass to a different player if he wins tomorrow, namely to his compatriot Sergey Karjakin. So tomorrow Karjakin is probably Kramnik's biggest fan! -Mig **]

* Against Vachier-Lagrave, Kramnik had to play 62.Nd7 Rf5 63.Rf8+ Kg6 64.Rg8+ Kf7 and now the stunning zwischenzug 65.Ke4! and Black is lost. Against me in 2000, Kramnik needed to block my rook's access to the 8th rank, but he played 59.Kb2 and I was saved after 59..Rh8! and White cannot hold the pawn. (60.Kb3 Rc8) But had he played 59.Rg8! Black cannot defend. In both games the threat of a lethal skewer winning the black rook is the decisive tactic.

[Tal]

That's brilliant, Baron. Thank you for posting it. I read about the Kramnik mistake but haven't posted it as I didn't have anything as glorious as that comparison.

[The Baron]

NP. Fascinating stuff!

Could lose hours playing through these end games!

[Tal]

NP. Fascinating stuff!

Could lose hours playing through these end games!

The technique is mindboggling.

It is a common thing for novices to swap everything off quickly and agree draws because the pieces are level. Try telling that to these guys!

Kramnik is absolutely crushing this tournament, that misstep aside. He win the first game of the final today against Andreikin.

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4010977/world-cup-final-g1-kramnik-draws-first-blood-300813.aspx