Chess thread

[MintTrav]

Carlsen - "I didn't have any idea what was happening next, so just happy to survive".

[The Baron]

Jesus. Carlsen is a worse interview than Rafa.

[Tal]

Chess players, tho...

[AndrewT]

At the risk of being unkind, didn't they pick the wrong girl to only have one letter on her back?

[theprawnidentity]

At the risk of being unkind, didn't they pick the wrong girl to only have one letter on her back?

Was just thinking this.  CARL S E N would seem logical.....

[The Baron]

Anand seemed to be in control but then made a mistake at 37. Rxd3 Rd8

He had plenty of time when the mistake was made.

Bd4 ftw, the fish.  Rd8 was a confirmed #terripunt

Can someone better than me walk me through this please?

[curnow]

Anand seemed to be in control but then made a mistake at 37. Rxd3 Rd8

He had plenty of time when the mistake was made.

Bd4 ftw, the fish.  Rd8 was a confirmed #terripunt

Can someone better than me walk me through this please?

(37... Bd4 38. Qe2 Rf8 39. Rf3 Rxf3 40. Bxf3 Qd6 41. Kg2 b4) fritz 12 has black a pawn ahead
can only see a draw here , the b pawn promotes on a white square , think the game was drawn for some time

think those girls in photo would have worked a lot better if they was facing the camera

[Tal]

They made national news, those young ladies. Norwegian, of course. Some people will do anything to get on the telly.

[Tal]

In other news, some chess thing happened yesterday.

Anand was certainly the closest to winning, after Carlsen played a questionable move to break open the centre, when his pieces were less prominently placed. He ceded a positional advantage and lost his pawn on b2 to boot. It seemed hard to understand why he played it.

http://www.chessbase.com/post/chennai-g3-a-thrilling-battle-as-anand-close-to-win

Commentators and analysts seem to think Carlsen was making it up as he went along after a few moves and that he made a few suboptimal moves in the process, meaning he had little chance of keeping the advantage bestowed in the White pieces. It's very hard to know, as taking Anand out of theory would seem simultaneously impossible and essential.

The game ended in a draw, as Anand couldn't find the decisive continuation under the pressure of the approaching 40 move time control.

Mr K has his thoughts, too:

Click to see full-size image.

An almost Gordon Strachan-esque quipped response to an interview question:

Journalist: What do you think of Carlsen's preparation so far?
Anand: I'm flattered you think I'll answer that.

If Carlsen hasn't spent a lot of time preparing openings and doesn't win the match, he can expect a lot of questions for the years to come.

[McGlashan]

Journalist: Kasparov is here. In the building. Are you intimidated?
Anand: Is he now like Elvis? (laughter) No, it is good that he is here to watch.

The post match press conference's aren't fantastic but you can make them fun by setting the line on how far in we'll get till the words 'intimidated', 'regret' or 'Gary Kasparov' will come up. Considering the players can give away little to no information mid match and the lack of chess journalists there, the players are doing an okay job in my opinion.

 

[curnow]

game 4 starts 9.20

[MintTrav]

WTF?! Is this speed chess? 10 moves in a minute each.

[MintTrav]

Already a drawn game, by common consent.

[Tal]

WTF?! Is this speed chess? 10 moves in a minute each.

Anand was prepping 1.e4 and would have expected Carlsen to revert to his normal response of 1...e5. Carlsen played a Berlin Defence in 3...Nf6 and the next few moves are well known theory. Anand played 11.Bg5, when it is more common to see g4 or even Ng5 (usually both). This would definitely have been part of Anand's preparation.

[Tal]

Jakovenko played a game on essentially this exact variation in the World Cup and won in 105 moves. A grind is possible. This is what Carlsen is trying to do.