Grand Chess Tour events: Paris GCT and Leuven, Belgium

[Chris Rice]

Rd 6 pairings:

1 GM So, Wesley (8) 2789 — GM Anand, V. (5) 2775
2 GM Vachier-Lagr. (7) 2783 — GM Giri, Anish (6) 2764
3 GM Ivanchuk, V. (3) 2757 — GM Nepomniachtc. (7) 2766
4 GM Carlsen, M. (6) 2851 — GM Jobava, B. (0) 2703
5 GM Kramnik, V. (4) 2789 — GM Aronian, L. (4) 2780

Final round of the day and you have to feel for Jobava, still on zero after 5 rounds and then he gets Black against Carlsen.

[Roger de Coverly]

Looked a nice game once he managed to equalise.

It seemed to provoke a new idea by Kramnik.

1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O b5

I don't think b4 has been seen much if at all in the Leningrad, although Keith plays d4 and an early b4 without c4 in some lines.

[LawrenceCooper]

1 GM So, Wesley (8) 2789 1 - 0 GM Anand, V. (5) 2775
2 GM Vachier-Lagr. (7) 2783 ½ - ½ GM Giri, Anish (6) 2764
3 GM Ivanchuk, V. (3) 2757 1 - 0 GM Nepomniachtc. (7) 2766
4 GM Carlsen, M. (6) 2851 1 - 0 GM Jobava, B. (0) 2703
5 GM Kramnik, V. (4) 2789 0 - 1 GM Aronian, L. (4) 2780

[Chris Rice]

Standings after Day 2:

1 So 10/12
2= Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave 8
4= Nepomniachtchi, Giri 7
6 Aronian 6
7= Anand, Ivanchuk 5
9 Kramnik 4
10 Jobava 0

In the last round I watched Kramnik struggling to make a move with 1 second left. He made it and the clock went to 11 seconds but he immediately had to resign.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Ah, the reversed Speckled Egg.

[NickFaulks]

In the last round I watched Kramnik struggling to make a move with 1 second left. He made it and the clock went to 11 seconds

That isn't supposed to happen?

[Chris Rice]

In the last round I watched Kramnik struggling to make a move with 1 second left. He made it and the clock went to 11 seconds

That isn't supposed to happen?

What I was getting at is if Kramnik had not resigned and played another move with say 5 seconds to go would the clock have gone to 15 seconds or defaulted back to 11 seconds? I'm really being lazy though as I have a perfectly good DGT with an instruction booklet so will have a go today and see what its like. I have a feeling when you get down to fumes it will be a bit like Lightning chess used to be.

[Chris Rice]

Peter Doggers on Day 2 is an interesting read as always. What caught my eye yesterday (plus from the live commentary) was the Carlsen-Kramnik game where Magnus opened with Bird's Opening 1 f4. Apparently Kramnik had said previously that Russians never studied Bent Larsen's games as he was essentially a coffee house player. Carlsen and presumably the rest of Scandinavia were understandably upset about this and Magnus made him regret it. In a tweet later @MagnusCarlsen said afterwards that "while he did not consciously play 1.f4 because of Larsen, this conversation might have influenced him". However, I suspect his win had little to do with the outcome of the opening which looked fine for Kramnik.

The Bird ≥ the Word

Chessbase report

[Alex McFarlane]

I have a perfectly good DGT with an instruction booklet so will have a go today and see what its like.

It may depend on the model,

There is (American) delay and there is Bronstein (delay).

In the former there is a countdown of the extra time and then the clock resumes from the original time. In the latter the 'bonus' is added on up to the previous time and then that time counts down.

The DGT America does the former as can the 3000 (which I think can be set to do both). Other DGTs do the latter.

[Paul Dargan]

Yeah - I found it confusing in the Middle East - there wasn't actually a delay to the countdown - you just got the 10s (or whatever) added back after your move (or less if you didn;t use the full 10s delay). Of course in order for this to be OK the clocks actuslly started at 25 mins and 10s - so you've already had your delay added upfront - then get it added back again before each move.

weird - the USA mode sounds much more intuitive

Paul

[John McKenna]

On the clock question, Chris, my guess (since I haven't had time to put the batteries back in my DGT to experiment) is 11 seconds, and if he used up his last second of alloted time then 10 seconds, and counting - if it's his move. That would seem to me to indicate the second (i.e. Bronstein as opposed to American) of the two modes described by Alex M & Paul D, above.

SNIP ... you have to feel for Jobava, still on zero after 5 rounds and then he gets Black against Carlsen.

I do, and I don't feel for him. It must be depressing, but think he can handle it and dig himself out from under.

Yesterday, it seems that Jobava was not that far off drawing against So and MVL. Today, he plays Anand, Giri, Kramnik and statistically is likely to break his duck, if he can keep his head.
Even if he fails entirely in the rapids he may have some surprises in store for his opponents in the blitz games.

[Chris Rice]

I have a perfectly good DGT with an instruction booklet so will have a go today and see what its like.

It may depend on the model,

There is (American) delay and there is Bronstein (delay).

In the former there is a countdown of the extra time and then the clock resumes from the original time. In the latter the 'bonus' is added on up to the previous time and then that time counts down.

The DGT America does the former as can the 3000 (which I think can be set to do both). Other DGTs do the latter.

It's a DGT 2010 and the instruction booklet says the following:

Bronstein (Delay)

The oldest proposal from the chess world for a solution to the problem of limited thinking time came from David Bronstein. His method applied from the first move. Before this main thinking time starts counting down the player has a fixed amount of time to complete a move. It is not possible to increase the thinking time by playing more quickly as it is in the Bonus methods. This delay time is initially added to the main time.
The clock will not wait counting down until the delay time has been passed, but will add the used delay time back to the total as soon as the player has pushed the lever.

For example the clock is set to 5 seconds delay and shows 57 seconds left. The player uses 4 seconds to complete his move (less than the delay time) and the clock shows 53, then the clock will jump back to 57 as soon as the lever is pressed. The player did not lose any time during this move.
If he used 10 seconds however the clock will initially show 47 seconds but will add the 5 seconds delay time for the next move after pressing the lever, thus showing 52. The advantage of this method is that the players will always see the exact time left for the game or time control."

It will be interesting to see after the rapid is finished whether the players at Leuven like this time control (with a 10 second delay) or not. As its hardly ever used as far as I'm aware it will probably not get much traction as it will feel alien to most players I suspect though of course it may play right into the comfort zone of 1 or 2 players who will thrive on it.

[LawrenceCooper]

A couple of early missed opportunities today, So's 19...c4 appearing to hang a pawn to 2 Qxc4 and Anand allowing MVL the unlikely 34....Qh8 which would have turned the game. Giri-Carlsen was drawn.

[LawrenceCooper]

1 GM Nepomniachtc. (7) 2766 ½ - ½ GM So, Wesley (10) 2789
2 GM Giri, Anish (7) 2764 ½ - ½ GM Carlsen, M. (8) 2851
3 GM Anand, V. (5) 2775 0 - 1 GM Vachier-Lagr. (8) 2783
4 GM Aronian, L. (6) 2780 ½ - ½ GM Ivanchuk, V. (5) 2757
5 GM Jobava, B. (0) 2703 0 - 1 GM Kramnik, V. (4) 2789

[Chris Rice]

That Anand-MVL game was really draining just to watch, Anand must be gutted.

Rd 8 pairings:

1 GM Kramnik, V. (6) 2789 — GM Ivanchuk, V. (6) 2757
2 GM So, Wesley (11) 2789 — GM Aronian, L. (7) 2780
3 GM Vachier-Lagr. (10) 2783 — GM Nepomniachtc. (8) 2766
4 GM Carlsen, M. (9) 2851 — GM Anand, V. (5) 2775
5 GM Jobava, B. (0) 2703 — GM Giri, Anish (8) 2764