Grand Chess Tour - Sinquefield Cup 2019

[LawrenceCooper]

Carlsen-Ding play-off now underway.

[David Robertson]

And the 1st round was.....

TA-RAN-TARA......

a draw

[Christopher Kreuzer]

*gets in time machine*

So was the second one.

[JustinHorton]

Now then

[Alex Holowczak]

In the first blitz game, which Magnus lost, the position was the same after black's 67th, 69th, 71st and 73rd move. So Magnus had two chances to claim a draw and didn't, but apparently no five-fold repetition.

[David Robertson]

DING

Impressive. Blew Carlsen away, twice

[NickFaulks]

In the first blitz game, which Magnus lost, the position was the same after black's 67th, 69th, 71st and 73rd move. So Magnus had two chances to claim a draw and didn't, but apparently no five-fold repetition.

Remind me, if you want to claim a draw when into your last second, what are you supposed to do? I would shout "draw" and bang the clock, but I have a feeling that is wrong

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Afterthought; maybe we can enhance Alex's thinking on chess as a spectator sport by having a game of table tennis as the final tiebreaker?"

Having seen Magnus play table-tennis, I think he would be quite happy with that!

[Matt Mackenzie]

Remind me, when was the previous time Carlsen failed to win a play off?

[Alex Holowczak]

In the first blitz game, which Magnus lost, the position was the same after black's 67th, 69th, 71st and 73rd move. So Magnus had two chances to claim a draw and didn't, but apparently no five-fold repetition.

Remind me, if you want to claim a draw when into your last second, what are you supposed to do? I would shout "draw" and bang the clock, but I have a feeling that is wrong

Well, you have to claim when it's your turn to move, so if you shout draw and bang the clock, you've successfully made an illegal move because you've pressed the clock without moving. If you've made a move, shouted draw, and banged the clock, the arbiter will inform you that you can't claim a draw because it isn't your turn to move.

(Edit: This assumes your shout of "draw" is a an attempt to claim a draw with the arbiter, and not offering your opponent a draw!)

Given Carlsen needs to claim that the position after Re1 is a draw, rather than the position before he has moved, he'd normally be obliged to write the move down and then pause the clock, before claiming. Given it's blitz, it's generally accepted - but not written in the Laws - that he could pause the clock and tell the arbiter the move given you can't write it down. The arbiter can then investigate with anything he or she likes, but the three most likely routes are:
1. His or her own observation, which with a normal plastic set is the best you can hope for
2. The DGT board transmission
3. The video camera

The claim is also a draw offer, so the opponent might accept it before you get around to doing any investigating.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Remind me, when was the previous time Carlsen failed to win a play off?

Against Aronian in 2007, in a match which was a qualifier for the World Chs in Mexico that year. (I think. Some people seem to believe - never at all).

[Mick Norris]

According to Tarjei

Shahade and Ashley wrongly says Carlsen *never* lost a playoff. That's not correct. He lost against Aronian in the Candidates in 2007, Agdestein in the Norwegian Championship in 2005, against Bareev in World Cup 2005 and against Aronian in 2004 again.

tweet

[Alex Holowczak]

According to Tarjei

Shahade and Ashley wrongly says Carlsen *never* lost a playoff. That's not correct. He lost against Aronian in the Candidates in 2007, Agdestein in the Norwegian Championship in 2005, against Bareev in World Cup 2005 and against Aronian in 2004 again.

tweet

It wouldn't be the first time that commentary team have made factual errors like that.

[Geoff Chandler]

Seeing Carlsen was getting himself involved in another play-off some very keen
person took the time to gather together Carlsen's unbeaten run of 10 play-off's.

2007: 3-2 vs Onischuk
2011: 1,5-0,5 vs Ivanchuk
2012: 2-0 vs Caruana
2015: 3-2 vs Naiditsch
2015: 1,5-0,5 vs MVL
2015: 2-0 vs Yu
2016: 3-1 vs Karjakin
2017: 1,5-0,5 vs MVL
2018: 1,5-0,5 vs Giri
2018: 3-0 vs Caruana

It has been copied by various cut 'n' paste posters (as I am doing)
No doubt somewhere along the line; '... never lost a play off since 2007'' has either been turned into '....never lost a play off.'
or people have not read the entire post and thought this was Carlsen's complete play-off record.

Now Shahade and Ashley have broadcast this to thousands...millions if you believe the hype,
this mistake will become another chess fact for future generations to mull over and copy 'n' paste.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

As Mick and I linked here and here, the 'keen' person is Norwegian chess journalist Tarjei J. Svensen. Well worth following his tweets.

Anyone want to go out on a limb and predict Ding Liren might be a difficult challenger for Carlsen to face?