Zurich Chess Challenge 13-19 February 2015

[Matt Mackenzie]

Nakamura has won. Looks like Anand may beat Caruana and Aronian may beat Kramnik

In the event, both drawn.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I'd be surprised if the top players of today weren't significantly better than the top players of the past. We are talking about professional players who spend most of their days playing or studying chess, and who have access to huge numbers of games - including those played by the top players of the past.

[Chris Rice]

I'd be surprised if the top players of today weren't significantly better than the top players of the past. We are talking about professional players who spend most of their days playing or studying chess, and who have access to huge numbers of games - including those played by the top players of the past.

Wouldn't disagree with that. The top players play each other a lot more than in the past and in so doing must be improving their performances and consequently distancing themselves from the peleton. Tiredness and forgetting your computer prepped lines are the modern ways of losing these days and so it was with Karjakin yesterday. Alejandro Ramirez noted on his ChessBase report that Karjakin went into a complicated variation but forgot the drawing variation which was a series of computer moves that don't make that much sense. White's king is in the middle of nowhere, getting mated in several instances, but White is up a massive amount of material. A specific sequence forces a perpetual and it is the only way for both sides to survive. Here's the link with anaysis if you want to take a look: http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-rd3 ... amura-2800

Round 3 results:

Aronian ½-½ Kramnik
Caruana ½-½ Anand
Nakamura 1-0 Karjakin

Round 3 Standings (2 points for a win 1 for a draw):

1 Nakamura 5
2 Anand 4
3 Kramnik 3
4= Caruana, Aronian, Karjakin 2

Round 4:

Kramnik-Karjakin
Anand-Nakamura
Aronian-Caruana.

PS Another win apiece in the Korchnoi-Uhlmann match left the final result 2-2, four wins and no draws for these old warriors. Afterwards Petra Korchnoi told her husband "you were both playing too fast"

http://www.chess.com/news/zurich-nakamu ... n-2-2-3201

[Chris Rice]

Great win for Anand. Completely outplayed Nakamura or at least I thought so at the time. Is it just me or did anyone else find Nakamura's choice of opening a bit odd? The line was the same as the one from the Sochi match which produced Anand's only win. I mean ok 7...Nh5 is supposed to be ok for Black but Anand clearly like this line so its seems odd to play to your opponent's strengths. I guess a lot of bluff and double bluff goes on at the top level because it appeared Anand mixed up his opening preparation a bit, as on move 18 his knight manoeuvre to e2 allowed Black to swap on b4 and a1. “In what I looked at, this worked for White,” said Anand. However, Nakamura only noticed this possibility right after he had played 18...g6: “As soon as I played the move ...g6 I realized I had completely blundered it.”

The loss brings Nakamura back to sub-2800 and down to 6th on the live list.

Round 4

Kramnik ½-½ Karjakin
Anand 1-0 Nakamura
Aronian ½-½ Caruana

Round 4 standings (2 points for a win 1 for a draw):

1 Anand 6
2 Nakamura 5
3 Kramnik 4
4= Caruana, Aronian, Karjakin 3

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-rd4 ... mura-leads

http://www.chess.com/news/anand-beats-n ... urich-8531

Round 5 - this is the last round of the classical games and tomorrow we're going to get some rapids, they'll only count 1 for a win and 1/2 for a draw.

Caruana - Kramnik
Nakamura - Aronian
Karjakin - Anand

[Carl Hibbard]

Nice reporting as always thanks Chris.

[Chris Rice]

Nice reporting as always thanks Chris.

Thx Carl much appreciated. Wish I could bring you some exciting news on the last round but not untypically all three games were drawn leaving the classical part standings as:

Round 5 standings (2 points for a win 1 for a draw):

1 Anand 7
2 Nakamura 6
3 Kramnik 5
4= Caruana, Aronian, Karjakin 4

Guess the only notable incident was in the Caruana - Kramnik game according to the chess.com report. For the first time in the tournament a game ended in a draw before move 30 without a move repetition. "According to the regulations, the players were supposed to play a rapid game as the sponsor doesn't like quick draws, but they were “dismissed.” The game took about three hours and 45 minutes — much longer than Nakamura-Aronian, which counted 44 moves. And it was definitely an interesting draw, especially if you take into account the variations that did not appear on the board."

Now we go into the rapids. Wonder if this kind of format is the future of super tournaments? If it is then it appears to be running on the same structure as women's cricket:

Classical = test match
Rapid = One dayers
Blitz = 20/20

Then you add the results together to get a result. Like it? Not sure I do. I don't mind having three tournaments but I'd rather they be kept seperate (as in men's cricket for instance). Still at least its a bit different perhaps it'll grow on me.

Today we'll have 5 rounds of rapid with reversed colors compared to the classical games. Play starts two hours earlier, so 12pm GMT. The scoring system will be back to normal: a win doesn't earn two points anymore but one, and a draw half a point. This means that Nakamura can catch Anand by winning their mutual game, for example. They meet in the penultimate round.

Anand: “I'll just try and play some good chess tomorrow.” Nakamura: “Last year, I think I was on minus two or minus one, I had nothing to play for so... I didn't care. It will be a bit more interesting this time since I have a chance to play for something. I did quite well in London in the rapid so I'm looking forward also. Hopefully I get to play some interesting games.”

Rapid Round 1

Kramnik - Anand
Karjakin - Aronian
Nakamura - Caruana

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-rd5 ... -classical

http://www.chess.com/news/anand-wins-cl ... orrow-2003

[MJMcCready]

I don't think we've seen a farce as big as the blitz tie break for some time have we? Nakamura at the board whilst Anand has gone to eat!

[Barry Sandercock]

Nakamura wins Zurich Chess Challenge. However, I don't think mixing Rapidplay and Classical in the same tournament is really satisfactory.

[LawrenceCooper]

So Aronian won the blitz, Anand the standard and Kramnik the rapid but Nakamura is overall winner via an armageddon blitz game.

[MJMcCready]

They shouldn't change the rules. It looked like Anand wasn't very happy about it, perhaps this explains why he tried to wipe Naka off the board in the opening. Pity for the chess24 commentators too who clearly had no idea of what was going on.

[Chris Rice]

Completely unsatisfactory ending to what was a pretty good tournament. Anand won that tournament on tie-break fair and square and would have been completely within his rights if he had refused to play the Armageddon game. Presumably some sort of pressure was put on him ie maybe he wouldn't get invited next year? What annoyed me even more was Nakamura's support for this last minute change of rules. OK his argument that a mixed tournament needs a play off might well be supportable but the way to go about it would be to introduce it in the rules for 2016. You can imagine how Kasparov would have reacted if they had tried to pull that crap on him.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/zurich-rap ... a-clinches

http://www.chess.com/news/nakamura-beat ... lenge-8546

[MJMcCready]

Yes, there are times when being a gentleman doesn't help.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Well, you can kind of understand Naka not looking a gift horse in the mouth - any blame should firmly lie with the organisers IMO.

[MJMcCready]

I can understand it but I think he should have stood firm. The organizers are the ones to blame as you mention. I suspect that is the end of Anand's interest in the tournament.