Chess thread

[tikay]

Dear Chess Blokes.

Scandal!

I was researching something else, & spotted this comment in Wikipidea, in an article about contributors to The Spectator......


Raymond Keene, the chess Grandmaster, has been the chess columnist since 1977, retaining the role despite the unauthorised copying of a piece by Edward Winter[44] for his column[45] of 7 June 2008. (The matter was reported in Private Eye.[46]) Keene has since been accused of large-scale plagiarism in The Spectator and The Times. It is also alleged that he has frequently engaged in recycling of his own work and that he has done so at The Spectator since at least 1995.

Anyone have the backstory on that?

[tikay]

Oh my oh my, quite a story, it seems.

Is this man chess's answer to football's Harry Redknapp?

Jeez, have a read of this, the man is a complete wrong 'un.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Keene

Wrong 'uns in chess, who'd have thought?

Think we need to have some Raymond Keene stories itt.

[Tal]

Yes, it's a pretty unpleasant affair.

Edward Winter writes some fantastic pieces on chess history. His Chess Notes website is a fabulous read.

I met Mr Keane once at the Varsity Chess match. In the speech I had to give at the dinner, I made a point of thanking him for labelling us underdogs in his Times column. He didn't seem overwhelmed by mirth.

[kinboshi]

When I was 7, I beat Demis Hassabis in what was effectively the English Championships (for under 8's).

He went on to co-author Theme Park, win the Mind Olympiad a record number of times, and generally be a bit of a genius.  Google have just bought his most recent company for $400 million: http://recode.net/2014/01/26/exclusive-google-to-buy-artificial-intelligence-startup-deepmind-for-400m/

Yeah, but I beat him back then.  Who's laughing now?

[tikay]

When I was 7, I beat Demis Hassabis in what was effectively the English Championships (for under 8's).

He went on to co-author Theme Park, win the Mind Olympiad a record number of times, and generally be a bit of a genius.  Google have just bought his most recent company for $400 million: http://recode.net/2014/01/26/exclusive-google-to-buy-artificial-intelligence-startup-deepmind-for-400m/

Yeah, but I beat him back then.  Who's laughing now?

I was reading about this guy this morning, very nice, wp Sir.

The Timed described him as a "chess prodigy".

Any cliffs from Posh Bloke?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis

[Tal]

When I was 7, I beat Demis Hassabis in what was effectively the English Championships (for under 8's).

He went on to co-author Theme Park, win the Mind Olympiad a record number of times, and generally be a bit of a genius.  Google have just bought his most recent company for $400 million: http://recode.net/2014/01/26/exclusive-google-to-buy-artificial-intelligence-startup-deepmind-for-400m/

Yeah, but I beat him back then.  Who's laughing now?

I was reading about this guy this morning, very nice, wp Sir.

The Timed described him as a "chess prodigy".

Any cliffs from Posh Bloke?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis

I seem to remember his brother, George  more than him. I think George was a year older than me, or around the same age anyway. They were both very strong players at the junior level. I was a latecomer at 10 and these guys were already club standard players by that point.

Luke McShane was top dog in my age group. Etienne Bacrot (now world top 20) the top world junior for our age.

[Tal]

Remiss of me not to have posted the final results for the Tata Wijk aan Zee tournament:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/tata-11-giri-and-timman-take-silver

Click to see full-size image.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a very impressive performance by Aronian, against a seriously strong field. His timing could scarcely be better, as the Candidates is only six weeks away.

A few years ago, this seemed an unlikely photo, as Kasparov and Nakamura had what was widely reported to be a nasty falling out, supposedly after Nakamura declined the offer of a stay with Kasparov to work on opening theory to head off to Vegas to play poker.

But here they are, pally as you could imagine.

[Tal]

No rest for the wicked, as what will be the highest average rated comp in history starts tomorrow:

http://www.zurich-cc.com/

Carlsen, Aronian, Anand, Caruana, Nakamura and Gelfand will play each other once and apportion any forthcoming bragging rights accordingly. Expect draws, would be the usual advice; no one wants to show off the openings they're working on and no one wants to try something fancy and lose. With these guys, you never quite know, though.

Slightly odd rule - I use the word slightly ironically - if the game is drawn inside 40 moves, the players will thrash out a rapidplay game for the spectators that won't count to the overall result. I suppose the organisers expect a few draws and the players won't mind knocking out a rapidplay game for the crowd.

It should be fairly full on, as they play every day. I would expect they will all take it seriously but with varying motivations.

[tikay]

No rest for the wicked, as what will be the highest average rated comp in history starts tomorrow:

http://www.zurich-cc.com/

Carlsen, Aronian, Anand, Caruana, Nakamura and Gelfand will play each other once and apportion any forthcoming bragging rights accordingly. Expect draws, would be the usual advice; no one wants to show off the openings they're working on and no one wants to try something fancy and lose. With these guys, you never quite know, though.

Slightly odd rule - I use the word slightly ironically - if the game is drawn inside 40 moves, the players will thrash out a rapidplay game for the spectators that won't count to the overall result. I suppose the organisers expect a few draws and the players won't mind knocking out a rapidplay game for the crowd.

It should be fairly full on, as they play every day. I would expect they will all take it seriously but with varying motivations.

Please don't tell me they are going down the route taken by Cricket & Darts, with the players wearing pyjamas, silly walk-on music, crowd heckling, & accompanied by young ladies with thrusted cleavage?

[Tal]

No rest for the wicked, as what will be the highest average rated comp in history starts tomorrow:

http://www.zurich-cc.com/

Carlsen, Aronian, Anand, Caruana, Nakamura and Gelfand will play each other once and apportion any forthcoming bragging rights accordingly. Expect draws, would be the usual advice; no one wants to show off the openings they're working on and no one wants to try something fancy and lose. With these guys, you never quite know, though.

Slightly odd rule - I use the word slightly ironically - if the game is drawn inside 40 moves, the players will thrash out a rapidplay game for the spectators that won't count to the overall result. I suppose the organisers expect a few draws and the players won't mind knocking out a rapidplay game for the crowd.

It should be fairly full on, as they play every day. I would expect they will all take it seriously but with varying motivations.

Please don't tell me they are going down the route taken by Cricket & Darts, with the players wearing pyjamas, silly walk-on music, crowd heckling, & accompanied by young ladies with thrusted cleavage?

I won't tell you that.

It costs a fortune to get these players to play in your city. The sponsors want to get their money's worth and bore draws don't appeal. If the first three rounds had seven draws, people wouldn't bother watching the last two rounds and the organisers understandably want an exciting contest.

For Aronian, Gelfand and Anand, this isn't easy because they have much greater ambitions. All three would like to beat Carlsen, but I expect each would be content with a draw. This naturally creates a bit of a headache, so the organisers want to ensure the punters can see some fun chess.

It isn't a hideous idea and the players won't mind. For all we know, there might well be a lot of decisive results and, in reality, there might also be a few 40 move draws. At least that's a four hour game, though.

[tikay]

Whilst looking for something else, I stumbled across this photograph. What a wonderful example of the nuances of body language, it says so very much, & 3 or 4 messages jump off the image. 



 

[Tal]

Yes, it's a belter, that.

[MintTrav]

What happened to Nakamura? That was a horrific performance, causing him to drop from 3rd to 7th in the world, though his performance was actually much worse than that. Gelfand too.

[McGlashan]

In absence of a Zurich day 1 report from poshboy here's a little something for you. The Norwegian media do a great job of reporting on Magnus Carlsen, @TarjeiJS is a great source for those on twitter.

Click to see full-size image.

The players have to walk through spectators to get to the toilet. "I'm not going to say I'm very happy about it. Strange that anyone with a computer can talk to me.", says Magnus.


Magnus showed his brilliance by producing a head turning pawn sack that no-one saw coming, it's examined in detail by the great Daniel King:

[Tal]

Poshboy indeed

The first round at Zurich was as boring as the wisest commentators suggested. Only two out of the three games were very interesting wins...

Carlsen did what Carlsen does: keep a small glimmer of life in the position and grind like Mickey Wernick. The precision in his play really was very impressive and Gelfand - off the back of a somewhat mediocre Wijk - didn't really get close to troubling the scorers, as double-edged as the position does look towards the end.

Aronian outmuscled Anand, whose odds of winning the Candidates must be getting longer by the hour. Perhaps a little early to suggest the fat lady has sung, but she's at least arrived at the venue with her sheet music.

Interesting the piece on the toilets. You would think they would be kept away from any of that. Mind you, there's little to stop someone shouting out "FRITZ SAYS PLAY BISHOP C5, VISHY!" from the audience. Maybe it is the same sense of occasion that stops people from doing the same at the urinals.