Chess thread

[Tal]

"White: World Champion
Black: Who cares?"

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-01-carlsen-aronian-start-strong

[McGlashan]

"White: World Champion
Black: Who cares?"

[Tal]

A tale of two Hikarus

Rounds two and three in Zurich were the Hikaru Nakamura Show. He started with a nice win against Vishy Anand...

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-02-nakamura-with-the-leaders



...and he looked like he was going to run over Carlsen in round three with a brilliant performance. He's never beaten Magnus in a "classical" (normal/longplay) game but then blundered horribly to give the game away.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-03-freak-occurrence



It is interesting just how much more aggressive the game is nowadays. Compare the side defending (Carlsen in this case) to a game that someone like Fischer, Tal or Smyslov would have been playing against; it's so much more active and that's what gives the modern players the chance of winning a game against the odds.



The table tells only half the story, but it's the only half that matters.

[Tal]

Another double rounder post, I'm afraid.

Round four of Zurich saw some fabulous chess:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-04-musical-inspiration

The Aronian and Carlsen wins were especially good but all three are worth your time.



Any idea who the fellow on the right is? Clue: a singer (not Miley Cyrus)

[Tal]

Round five saw Carlsen ease to a draw with Anand, while Aronian tried to force a win against Caruana and fell by his own sword.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-05-caruana-strikes

The result is that Carlsen finishes a point clear, which doubles to two points for the rapidplay section. The players reverse colours for a rapidplay comp, now, and the overall winner will duly be crowned. Carlsen must be long odds on, but stranger things have happened.





"How's Magnus doing?"

[Tal]

The rapidplay rounds were all completed today and the two players this format favours most - Caruana and Nakamura - finished first and second. Carlsen and Aronian had some spectacular wins and some equally impressive losses. Anand and Gelfand continued to look like they were getting paid by the substandard game.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/caruana-wins-rapid-carlsen-tops-zurich



Three well annotated games there, which are all worth a flick through.



The end result, with the classical games (double points) combined with the rapidplay games, meant that Carlsen lifted the trophy.




Part of you wonders about the selection process for the candidates tournament, when we have two badly out of form players in Anand and Gelfand playing, but Nakamura and Caruana missing out, who are both competitive and have aggressive styles. That's without considering Mamedyarov and Andreikin, who have no chance of winning. Headscratcher.

[Tal]

Something a little more hands-on for you.

I've come across a nice article to demonstrate a nice little trick in bishop and pawn against bishop endgames. People think that, when it gets to the endgame, because there aren't many pieces left, there aren't many tactics. Not a bit of it.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/pandolfinis-puzzler-27---zig-zag-zwang

[The Baron]

Where's VK?

Starting to like him for the candidates.

[Tal]

Where's VK?

Starting to like him for the candidates.

I'm not sure where he is, although it's likely he's been having a break before preparing for the candidates. Aronian's favourite for a reason, but I wouldn't put anyone off a bet on Kramnik

[Tal]

You like mad games?

You like really mad games?



You'll struggle to find madder:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/joys-of-chess-my-favourite

[Tal]

You might well the seen this video already, where Carlsen delivers the action hero line "Too weak, too slow!":

http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-s-secrets-how-does-he-do-it-1

I hadn't realised the context of the game and the article above is really very good. The game was actually played in August last year and the opponent is Laurent Fressinet, who is rated 2709 and the world number 40, the same as Kamsky, ahead of Vallejo-Pons, Judit Polgàr and Luke McShane. Fressinet was one of Carlsen's seconds (assistants) at this point and this all adds up to how brilliant the video is.

Fressinet gets a pawn advantage and he would win the game in a classical time control without too much difficulty, even really against Carlsen. But the Norwegian's instincts and speed of thought enable him to create problems . Note how aggressive he is with his king and, when he wins the pawn back, he is in the ascendancy. The game is still very tough to win from the position after, say, move 45, but Magnus spots a brutal tactic.

The line "What? You want to play on?" is Alan Rickman-esque in its villainy. Fressinet momentarily hadn't realised he'd been checkmated!




I've played two games in the last couple of weeks myself, where I've deliberately tried to keep the pressure in a position, rather than committing, essentially trying to give my opponent as many chances as possible to make a mistake. I beat a much higher rated opponent a couple of weeks ago with exactly that style - I'll post it here at some point - and it's amazing how powerful it is. It's also tremendously hard work because you cannot afford to miss your chance to make progress by dilly-dallying and that's why Carlsen is world champion and I'm playing a game in the clubhouse of Boldmere Football Club, just outside Sutton Coldfield on a wet and cold Monday night after work.

[titaniumbean]

it's good to see enjoyment/piss taking going on rather than such solemn old man chessy stuff.


enjoyed this vid

[McGlashan]

For me, that video is what club chess is all about.

[McGlashan]

Another double rounder post, I'm afraid.

Round four of Zurich saw some fabulous chess:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-04-musical-inspiration

The Aronian and Carlsen wins were especially good but all three are worth your time.



Any idea who the fellow on the right is? Clue: a singer (not Miley Cyrus)

Bump, who is the singer?

[Tal]

it's good to see enjoyment/piss taking going on rather than such solemn old man chessy stuff.


enjoyed this vid

There's a game - well, there was at least when I was of the age -juniors play at tournaments for a bit of fun between games called Exchange

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess

We never used to play with clocks. We would say "stalling one, two, three, four..." and, if we got to ten, we would take the lowest ranked piece (Obv usually a pawn) off our opponent.

Hilariously chaotic and often led to hugely raised voices that annoyed everyone within fifty paces.

I sound old.