Chess thread

[McGlashan]

That's 7/7 now.

A win with white against Magnus tomorrow would be pretty damn epic.

[Tal]

He's starting to threaten the supply of superlatives.

He's even being talked in the same breath as Karpov at Linares. No one has won a tournament of this scale with a perfect score. There have been comps with elite players in it but there have also been very much beatable players in them (Alekhine 1920, Capablanca 1913 and Fischer in the US Champs in 1964, for example. This is as near as makes no difference the top six players in the world.

Kasparov went 15 elite tournaments only finishing first or joint first. There was a Victorian tournament won by a score of 34/34, which would have been played without clocks and taken weeks. Goodness knows how many pipes were puffed.

Mikhail Tal went 95 top level games without a loss: 46 wins and 49 draws. This was in a 51 week period, so it wasn't just a good spell. That's insane. He also holds the second longest streak of 86 games. Just in case you thought there was a fluke.

Caruana must be walking on air at the moment. Amazing.

[MintTrav]

Korchnoi won his first eight, drew the ninth and then won the next two to go 10.5/11 in 1968.

Do you know why there have been so many wins in this tournament? Only seven draws in twenty-one games.

[Tal]

Korchnoi won his first eight, drew the ninth and then won the next two to go 10.5/11 in 1968.

Do you know why there have been so many wins in this tournament? Only seven draws in twenty-one games.

The event is privately sponsored, rather than being for any particular reward at the end (like world championship qualification), and sometimes that makes a difference. It might be that the players are discouraged from bore draws.

I suspect that's not it, though.

The tournament has the most attacking players in the world in it (and by that I mean those who play the most attacking chess in elite fields - the likes of Grischuk are more inclined to do it against all but the top brass) and one bloke has run away with the comp, meaning the others have to play for wins.

It might calm down in the last couple of rounds. Caruana might well be happy with draws from here if he can't win this next one. The players will be tiring, too. It's been a very intense week.

[McGlashan]

I've just tuned into Chess24's coverage with Yasser Seirawan and Jen Shahade (Curtains sister) and Caruana's position looks great.

[Honeybadger]

I've just tuned into Chess24's coverage with Yasser Seirawan and Jen Shahade (Curtains sister) and Caruana's position looks great.

Yeah it is a cracking game. He had a complete positional bind on Carlsen and could have just slowly squeezed him with very little risk. Then all of a sudden he started pushing his kingside pawns forward and the game went nuts! So much respect going out to this guy, whatever the result of this game.

Also, is it just me or is there something special about Jennifer Shahade? A really classy and charismatic woman IMO. I have to admit that I have something of a crush on her

[Tal]

No idea of context. This just amused me.

[Honeybadger]

No idea of context. This just amused me.

Cute isn't she? But I think she's got a crush on him

No idea what she could possibly see in the young, handsome and successful best chess player in the world.

[Tal]

Literally never heard of her, but it turns out she plays poker, too:

http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/blog/interview-with-jennifer-shahade/

I don't do all the "she's pretty", "he's cute" stuff. I leave that to everyone else.

Haven't been able to watch the streams this week, so it's all rather passed me by. It's been a case instead of going through the games on chessbase, usually the next morning.

Must be odds on to draw it out now. Unbeaten, a title and a shedload of rating points.

[McGlashan]

Literally never heard of her, but it turns out she plays poker, too:

http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/blog/interview-with-jennifer-shahade/

I don't do all the "she's pretty", "he's cute" stuff. I leave that to everyone else.

Haven't been able to watch the streams this week, so it's all rather passed me by. It's been a case instead of going through the games on chessbase, usually the next morning.

Must be odds on to draw it out now. Unbeaten, a title and a shedload of rating points.

Some people on this forum may be more familiar with her brother Greg who is Curtains on poker forums, Pokerstars and made chess videos for Leggo poker. He is an IM himself if I recall correctly. In his videos he talked a bit about helping his sister learn poker, but his favourite subject was trash talking his old chess nemisis Hikaru Nakamura.

[McGlashan]

When Sol Campbell mentioned chess in a radio interview the Financial Times picked up on it and sent Nigel Short round for a chat http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0961fd7a-330e-11e4-93c6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CSPPva4y

"So, this is going to be like you playing me at football?”

“Er … yes.”

[Honeybadger]

Gonna bump this thread again, in the hope that Tal keeps it going. This time I'm going to bump it by showing one of my recent games. This was a blitz 5/5 game, meaning each player gets 5 minutes for all his moves plus an additional 5 second increment each move. I was down to zero time (i.e. playing on the 5 sec increment only each move) by about move 21. As Black, I built up a strong attack on my opponent's King, but was desperately short of time and missed the best moves several times. It was still a very fun and exciting game though... and I got there in the end!

1 e4 d5
2 exd5 Nf6
3 Nc3

Not a very testing line, especially when followed up with White's next move. More usual is 3 d4 when I like to reply with the sharp 3...Bg4. Players at my weak level often play another bad line here too: 3 c4 c6 4 dxc6 Nxc6 when Black is having all the fun in return for the sacrificed pawn.

3 ...  Nxd5
4 Nxd5 Qxd5
5 Nf3 Bg4
6 Be2 Nc6
7 0-0 0-0-0
8 d3 e5

White has played the opening insipidly, and I already have the better position IMO. With Kings castled on opposite sides the main strategy is to launch pawn storms and try to open lines against each others' Kings. This is what happens in the game, although White should now probably play something like 9 Be3 to complete his development first.

9 a3 f5
10 c4 Qd7
11 Bg5 Re8

Probably 11...Be7 was better, but I had the idea of gaining a tempo for my pawn storm by attacking the Bg5 with a later ...h6.

12 h3 Bh5
13 b4 h6
14 Bc1 g5
15 Bb2 g4

So my pawn storm has 'got there first', and Black is definitely better IMO.

16 Nh2 Rg8
17 b5 Nd4
18 Bxd4 Qxd4
19 a4

(See diagram at bottom)

Continuing the plan of getting his pawn storm going, but his attack has been too slow and meanwhile my pawns have already engaged. Thus, my position is now ripe to 'find something'. The move I played is just fine, simply building up the attack. But I could have gone for the more forcing move 19... gxh3. I was convinced there had to be something in this position and so I used up a ton of time calculating this move, which is why I ended up in desperate time trouble for the rest of the game. Looking at 19...gxh3 after the game it certainly seems like the variations stemming from 19...gxh3  20 Bxh5 Rxg2+ Kh1 Qf4 are good for me. However, I pussied out because I could not see a forced win even though my gut was telling me it was good. But anyway, my alternative is fine too - just wish I had not spent so much time on the 19...gxh3 line only to not play it!

19 ... Bc5
20 Kh1 Bf7

But now I definitely should have played 20...gxh3. However, I was about to run out of time and couldn't calculate anything at all. I'm still in a decent position after the move I played, but my advantage is much smaller.

21 hxg4 fxg4
22 Bxg4+ Kb8
23 Bf3 Qh4
24 Kg1

24 Qe2 would be a better way to defend the f2 pawn, although I'd still have slightly the better position.

24 ... Bd6

But I miss the best response which is 24...e4! Remember I had to make every move within 5 seconds now, and I did not even consider this move.

25 Be4 Bh5
26 Qe1 Ref8
27 f3

This is a mistake, exposing his King. I missed the immediate ...Bc5+ (but played it next move) and made a retreat with my Queen to a silly square. If I want to retreat my Queen then ...Qg5 is a much better square to go to since it is still threatening the White King.

27 ... Qe7?
28 a5 Bc5+
29 Kh1 Qg5

Back to where I should have gone originally

30 Qe2 Bd4

No idea why I played this. Clicking buttons lol.

31 Rab1 Be3
32 a6 b6

I think 32...Qg3 wins for me, simply ignoring the White pawn storm since it is not a threat. But in case I have not mentioned it... I was rather short on time!

33 Rb2 Bf4

And now White makes a huge blunder. He should try 34 Rd1 or 34 g4 when he is back in the game IMO.

34 Ng4? Qh4+
35 Kg1 Bxg4
36 fxg4 Bg3
37 Rxf8 Rxf8

0-1

White resigned as he cannot prevent mate.

Not a perfect game, but a fun game. I wish I'd had the balls to play 19...gxh3. These blitz games are always exciting and full of errors though.




Position after 19 a4. I should have played 19...gxh3!

[Tal]

Thanks for posting that, HB. Really would encourage people to post any games, problems, questions (however daft they might seem).

Thread is supposed to be more than just me posting when I can. My personal circumstances don't allow me to be here as often as I used to be. I know that will generate a few smiles, but I'm afraid it's true. I can't give this thread the love I used to, despite really believing it has a value on blonde.

It's lovely to see new people posting and getting involved. It's a fantastic game that has formed a significant portion of my life (he says, typing at a poker table...).



Personally, I'm very aggressive in blitz games. There's obviously merit in giving the villain a headache and the opportunity to make a costly mistake. Never valued any online rating, but then I've never taken online poker seriously either

[Honeybadger]

Here is a position from another of my blitz games. It is White (me) to play and win. Can you spot the little sequence that allows me to pick up Black's b7 pawn, his a7 pawn and also his Rook on a8? The first move is not especially difficult to spot, so I'm going to tell you it: I played 1 Bh6+. But try to visualise what happens after this move without moving any pieces, and how I win Black's Rook and two of his pawns by force.

[curnow]

nice if you could find it in blitz , not always easy in time trouble

I got 7.Rxh8 !!!