PRO Chess League

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Chris Rice
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Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

PRO Chess League

Post by Chris Rice » Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:59 am

This is a new competition that kicks off today on chess.com, well sort of. It used to be the US League and now it will be a global league of 48 teams in four divisions. Most of the top GMS including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Wesley So are signed up for a $50,000 event. Divisions are designed to be be grouped roughly by time zone to minimise scheduling conflicts. That means they won't all be playing at the same time. After the Group stages, which will be predominantly played on Wednesdays, there will be a knockout phase.

Each match will be teams of 4 playing each other in a Scheveningen format of 15 minute online games. There are rules about the make up of the teams and a link for that is given below. I found the various links not so user friendly and quite confusing at times but I guess that will be work in progress. If I've got it right the London Lions (James Adair, Yang-Fan Zhou, Justin Tan & Ravi Haria) will be playing tonight at 7.30pm GMT vs Abuja Rock Stars (Kikigha Borno, Oladapu Adu, Ademola Sorungbe & John Fawole). Also I think at the same time and clearly an even more enticing prospect are the London Towers (Gawain Jones, Keith Arkell, Thomas Rendle and Simon Ansell) who will be playing the Marseilles Migraines (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Etienne Bacrot, Jean-Marc Degraeve & Rémy Degraeve).

https://www.chess.com/news/48-teams-ove ... eague-7020

https://www.chess.com/article/view/pro- ... cial-rules

https://www.chess.com/article/view/2017 ... e-schedule

https://www.chess.com/news/it-s-happeni ... esday-7664

Roger de Coverly
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:06 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Each match will be teams of 4 playing each other in a Scheveningen format of 15 minute online games.
The full line up of the squads is shown here
https://www.chess.com/article/view/2017 ... ague-teams

London Lions squad
Title Player Elo Status
GM Luke McShane 2671 Local
GM Nigel Short 2666 Local
GM David Smerdon 2531 Free Agent
IM James Adair 2488 Local
IM Yang-Fan Zhou 2473 Local
IM Justin Tan 2456 Local
IM Daniel Fernandez 2450 Local
IM Jovanka Houska 2386 Local
FM Ravi Haria 2383 Local
FM Peter Batchelor 2361 Local

London Towers squad

Title Player Elo Status
GM Gawain Jones 2635 Local
GM Nick Pert 2566 Local
GM Keith Arkell 2452 Local
IM Richard Pert 2432 Local
IM Thomas Rendle 2360 Local
IM Simon Ansell 2349 Local
Blair Connell 2263 Local
WIM Sue Maroroa 2128 Local


It's rating restricted so the total rating in any match cannot exceed 10000,

John Moore
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by John Moore » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:19 pm

The Marseilles Migraines - I wonder what genius thought that one up.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by LawrenceCooper » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:22 pm

John Moore wrote:The Marseilles Migraines - I wonder what genius thought that one up.
Probably someone with experience of captaincy :oops:

John Moore
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by John Moore » Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:25 pm

I stupidly clicked on the first of the links in Chris's original e-mail and now I see all the team's names in their full glory. Maybe the names don't matter (it looks like a 11 year old American let his younger sibling pick them) and maybe it's good for chess. Maybe this is the way forward rather than playing in a library (very good venue since you ask) as I did on Monday.

Chris Rice
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Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Chris Rice » Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:44 pm

Lawrence T and Anna Rudolf doing the commentating. We've done Round 1 though I don't know the results exactly but London Towers lost, currently Rd 2 going on with MVL giving Keith Arkell a right tonking at the moment, Gawain has won. 24 games going on simultaneously.

https://www.chess.com/tv

Joshua Gibbs

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Joshua Gibbs » Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:22 pm

My friend JusticeBot will be playing for Portland Rain later on in the season.

He has beaten Super GMs online so it should be interesting!

Chris Rice
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Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Chris Rice » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:37 pm

London Towers lost 9.5-6.5 but Gawain was happy with his 3/4. London Lions beat Abuja 12-4 though its Dublin who lead the division with a 14-2 win over Lagos. Tragic moment in the Gnomes-Magicians match where Neiksans had auto-promote to Queen on and didn't have time to find how to remove it to go d1=N mate.


NickFaulks
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by NickFaulks » Thu Jan 12, 2017 1:23 am

Chris Rice wrote: Tragic moment in the Gnomes-Magicians match where Neiksans had auto-promote to Queen on and didn't have time to find how to remove it to go d1=N mate.
Kd2
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Keith Arkell
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Keith Arkell » Thu Jan 12, 2017 4:36 am

That was fun! I mean, what a wonderful experience to sit at home ( well, my brother's home actually) turn on your laptop and first play Bacrot and then Vachier-lagrave, in a serious competition!

In case the games disappear down a black hole, and anyone is interested, here are my 4: ( edit - Mick Norris has kindly presented them in a better format).

And yes, hands up, all 4 games were R+P endgames!

Well played team-mate Gawain Jones, for scoring 3/4 against that lot.

I very much hope that there is a bright future for this kind of event, and for this one in particular.

PS Please don't take any notice of the ratings( and after Hastings it gets even worse!) I've had a virus for 4 months, which has crippled my chess after about 2 and a half hours of play into any game, and wrecked my chess completely towards the end of long, tiring events. However, I am pleased to say it seems to be going away at last, so things should soon revert to normal...
Last edited by Keith Arkell on Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

Mick Norris
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Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:50 am

Any postings on here represent my personal views

Mick Norris
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:50 am

Any postings on here represent my personal views

Mick Norris
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Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:51 am

Any postings on here represent my personal views

Mick Norris
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Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Mick Norris » Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:51 am

Any postings on here represent my personal views

Chris Rice
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Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:17 am

Re: PRO Chess League

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:19 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Chris Rice wrote: Tragic moment in the Gnomes-Magicians match where Neiksans had auto-promote to Queen on and didn't have time to find how to remove it to go d1=N mate.
Kd2
Apologies R was on b2:


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