First thread on LCC 2012 ?

[Nick Ivell]

Watching the commentary on Naka v Carlsen got me thinking. Are we losing our objectivity over Magnus?

The best player in the world? Almost certainly. But that ending he reached yesterday was unclear. The commentators seemed to assume he was winning, entirely because it was Magnus!

I do not think it fair to say that Magnus is playing chess 'on a different planet'. Mickey, for example, imploded against him. To win with Black, like most of us, he often needs a slice of luck.

This is not a criticism. I firmly expect this young man to inherit the mantle of Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov.

[John Moore]

Hmm - am I missing something. When I click on Live Classic Games on the Official site, nothing happens. I can get the live games from the FIDE Open but not from the Classic.

[Jonathan Rogers]

The hype around Carlsen's play also seems to extend to analysis of his tournament standings! Chessbase reports that he has won the event already, which is simply nonsense. If Kramnik wins his last two (and he is White v Jones today; admittedly winning as Black v Adams tomorrow would be very hard to achieve "on demand") then Carlsen will need to win his last round v Anand to stay ahead. If Carlsen v Anand is a draw, then Carlsen and Kramnik would be tied on numbers of wins and even numbers of Black wins. Presumably Kramnik would actually nick it on S-B since he beat Naka while Carlsen "only" beat Aronian?

[Leonard Barden]

The hype around Carlsen's play also seems to extend to analysis of his tournament standings! Chessbase reports that he has won the event already, which is simply nonsense. If Kramnik wins his last two (and he is White v Jones today; admittedly winning as Black v Adams tomorrow would be very hard to achieve "on demand") then Carlsen will need to win his last round v Anand to stay ahead. If Carlsen v Anand is a draw, then Carlsen and Kramnik would be tied on numbers of wins and even numbers of Black wins. Presumably Kramnik would actually nick it on S-B since he beat Naka while Carlsen "only" beat Aronian?

If wins, black wins, and the individual game don't break the tie, it's straight to Armageddon (6+2 v 5+2, draw odds for Black).

[Nick Ivell]

Magnus is starting to exert an 'aura'. In this he reminds me of Fischer, my first hero. People are beaten before they sit down. Think of Taimanov in 1971, who messed up several positions in the Candidate's match. He even lost a dead drawn ending in that match. I was reminded of that ending by the recent Naka - Adams game.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Adams v Carlsen in this event could certainly have come straight from Taimanov v Fischer. If Adams draws with Kramnik tomorrow, it could well turn out to be the deciding game of the event (ie the one which separates Carlsen from Kramnik).

Kramnik already sure of a win today, Gawain could be forgiven if he were looking for an excuse to resign very soon. But how to play to beat Adams with Black, Vlad will soon be pondering ... is 1.e4 e5 really appropriate?

[JustinHorton]

What's with the change of format on the live games?

[Carl Hibbard]

What's with the change of format on the live games?

Which bit?

[Jonathan Rogers]

For my part, I would say the fact that one cannot play through the previous moves (or can you?)

[Jonathan Rogers]

Disaster for Luke (and now Gawain will be the only player not to win a game). 1 e4, for Luke, is surely normally best. Probably some child tried to play it for him at the start of the game - well, they always seem to guess White's first move wrongly, judging by Chessbase reports - and if so, Luke should have listened ...

[Carl Hibbard]

For my part, I would say the fact that one cannot play through the previous moves (or can you?)

Press the H8 square then read the help

[JustinHorton]

What's with the change of format on the live games?

Which bit?

Instead of having four games listed, it lists one and you have to select from a drop-down menu. Also the moves run horizontally rather than vertically.

(I don't know if they used this format yesterday or Friday, or indeed Thursday because I wasn't watching online those days. But it wasn't the format earlier on.)

You can play through the moves, though.

[Carl Hibbard]

Only the FIDE Open is on one of my servers so I cannot really comment on the format of the rest

[benedgell]

Bit of a shame Adams couldn't convert against McShane yesterday. That coupled with (hopefully) a win today against Aronian, and his last round game against Kramnik would've been mighty interesting. All the same its great to see him leading the charge for the Brits.

[Nick Ivell]

Short was commentating with Carlsen earlier. I read a tweet which suggested that Nigel had a cheek discussing chess with Magnus on equal terms.

I seem to remember that Nigel beat Karpov in a match. That pedigree gives him the right to discuss chess with anyone on more or less equal terms.