English Chess Forum

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 11:58 pm

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 5:50 pm

Round 2 pairings kicking off at 7pm UK time:

Karjakin (½) 2750 - Ding (½) 2805
Mamedyarov (½) 2764 - Nakamura (½) 2743
Caruana (½) 2818 - Nepomniachtc. (0) 2774
Anand (1) 2756 - Carlsen, M. (½) 2882
Giri (½) 2779 - Aronian (½) 2765
Vachier-Lagr. (½) 2778 - So (½) 2776

All draws today.

A relatively interesting round with Giri close to a win and Mamedyarov seemingly having a decent advantage. MVL's exchange sac created some imbalance and Caruana-Nepo allegedly featuring a double blunder on move 28.

Caruana after 26 moves against Carlsen has the sort of position you don't want to have against Carlsen

Gotta love Caruana's f-pawns.

So - Giri Carlsbad alert. Send for Arkell, quickly. #29

Never mind Draw

...followed by another five draws.

More grist to the mill of those who think super tournaments aren't as good as tournaments with some relaticely weakers players

But for Nepo's brain fade, every game in the first three rounds would have been draws.

Round 4 pairings and despite the draws the chess is interesting and Seirawan's commentary is excellent. Five hours free chess tuition per evening in cutting edge theory using the games of the top players in the world. What more could you ask for? Well perhaps a few dangerous players Rapport, Yu and Jobava spring to mind who might shake things up. There are no tournament bunnies here, (Nakamura lowest rated at 2743!), so the strategy seems to be to play with a microscopic edge, take no chances and a draw is not a bad result against anyone. Totally understand that but it doesn't make for the greatest viewing at times. Anyway on to today and the intriguing match is Mamedyarov-Carlsen. Magnus is on an 80+ unbeaten streak in Classical chess and the last person to beat him was, well, you guessed it:

Nakamura (1½) 2743 - Ding (1½) 2805
Karjakin (1½) 2750 - Nepomniachtc. (1) 2774
Mamedyarov (1½) 2764 - GM Carlsen (1½) 2882
Caruana (1½) 2818 - Aronian (1½) 2765
Anand (2) 2756 - So (1½) 2776
Giri (1½) 2779 - Vachier-Lagr. (1½) 2778

I'm thinking that Anand has surely been round long enough to have been involved in all kinds of theoretical battles in the Petroff when it was last genuinely popular.

Though he does appear to have squandered an almost winning advantage now.

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:34 pm

So - Giri Carlsbad alert. Send for Arkell, quickly. #29

Never mind Draw

So - Giri final position 8/1q3pk1/1rp2np1/3p3p/3P3P/2Q1PBP1/2R2PK1/8 w - - 0 34

Arkell - Short final position ( 4NCL 2016) 5rk1/1p2np2/2P3p1/3p3p/3P4/q3PBP1/2Q2P1P/2R3K1 b - - 0 22

Arkell - Kiriakov ( Hastings 1999) after 29 moves: 2r3k1/3qnp2/2p3p1/2Qp3p/3P3P/4PBP1/5P2/R5K1 b - - 0 29

Three almost identical positions, except that White is more active in the third game:

[Event "Hastings Challengers"]
[Date "1999.01.06"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Arkell, K.."]
[Black "Kiriakov, Petr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E11"]
[WhiteElo "2475"]
[BlackElo "2545"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. g3 Nc6 6. Nc3 d5 7. cxd5 exd5 8.
Bg2 O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Re1 Bg4 11. a3 Bxc3 12. Bxc3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 Qd7 14. Qd3
Ne4 15. Bd2 Nxd2 16. Qxd2 Ne7 17. b4 c6 18. a4 a6 19. Reb1 Nc8 20. b5 axb5 21.
axb5 Nd6 22. bxc6 bxc6 23. e3 g6 24. Qc2 h5 25. Rxa8 Rxa8 26. Rc1 Rc8 27. h4
Nf5 28. Qc5 Ne7 29. Ra1 Kg7 30. Bg2 Rc7 31. Kh2 Qd8 32. Ra6 Qc8 33. Qa3 Qf5 34.
Qa5 Rd7 35. Qa2 Qd3 36. Rb6 Rc7 37. Rb8 Qf5 38. Bh3 Qf6 39. Kg1 Qd6 40. Qa8 c5
41. Rh8 cxd4 42. Qf8+ Kf6 43. Rg8 Ke5 44. Qxf7 Ke4 45. Rf8 dxe3 46. Qf3+ Kd3
47. Bf1+ 1-0

More free chess tuition, thanks Keith!

Round 4 turned into a Round 1 deja vu which looked like another 6 draws until Aronian blundered against Caruana, who now shares the lead with Anand on +1.

Round 5 features another replay of a World Championship match as Carlsen plays Karjakin.

Ding (2) 2805 - Giri (2) 2779
Vachier-Lagr. (2) 2778 - Anand (2½) 2756
So (2) 2776 - Caruana (2½) 2818
Aronian (1½) 2765 - Mamedyarov (2) 2764
Carlsen (2) 2882 - Karjakin (2) 2750
Nepomniachtc. (1½) 2774 - Nakamura (2) 2743

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:55 am

So - Giri final position 8/1q3pk1/1rp2np1/3p3p/3P3P/2Q1PBP1/2R2PK1/8 w - - 0 34

Arkell - Short final position ( 4NCL 2016) 5rk1/1p2np2/2P3p1/3p3p/3P4/q3PBP1/2Q2P1P/2R3K1 b - - 0 22

Arkell - Kiriakov ( Hastings 1999) after 29 moves: 2r3k1/3qnp2/2p3p1/2Qp3p/3P3P/4PBP1/5P2/R5K1 b - - 0 29

Three almost identical positions, except that White is more active in the third game:

[Event "Hastings Challengers"] [Date "1999.01.06"] [Round "9"] [White "Arkell, K.."] [Black "Kiriakov, Petr"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E11"] [WhiteElo "2475"] [BlackElo "2545"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. g3 Nc6 6. Nc3 d5 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bg2 O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Re1 Bg4 11. a3 Bxc3 12. Bxc3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 Qd7 14. Qd3 Ne4 15. Bd2 Nxd2 16. Qxd2 Ne7 17. b4 c6 18. a4 a6 19. Reb1 Nc8 20. b5 axb5 21. axb5 Nd6 22. bxc6 bxc6 23. e3 g6 24. Qc2 h5 25. Rxa8 Rxa8 26. Rc1 Rc8 27. h4 Nf5 28. Qc5 Ne7 29. Ra1 Kg7 30. Bg2 Rc7 31. Kh2 Qd8 32. Ra6 Qc8 33. Qa3 Qf5 34. Qa5 Rd7 35. Qa2 Qd3 36. Rb6 Rc7 37. Rb8 Qf5 38. Bh3 Qf6 39. Kg1 Qd6 40. Qa8 c5 41. Rh8 cxd4 42. Qf8+ Kf6 43. Rg8 Ke5 44. Qxf7 Ke4 45. Rf8 dxe3 46. Qf3+ Kd3 47. Bf1+ 1-0

Interesting to see where those Capablanca v NN positions with the pawns on c6 and d5 can be defended.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:01 pm

Round 4 pairings and despite the draws the chess is interesting and Seirawan's commentary is excellent. Five hours free chess tuition per evening in cutting edge theory using the games of the top players in the world. What more could you ask for?

I know that was rhetorical, but as I have said before the GCT commentary not to my taste, or in fairness intended for fans like me. Jon Speelman covering most of the rounds on https://www.twitch.tv/jonspeelman in a generally more chess analysis focused way, although as I write this the focus on his pasta verde!

Giri is struggling against Ding after missing a tactic a player of his class should probably see. Me, I asked the computer, and I'm also not quite competent to judge whether Nepo has any real chances of getting back to level pegging with his extra pawn against Naka (though I doubt it).