English Chess Forum

Somebody played 3 e3 aganst me in Platja d'Aro last summer, a game I doubt Giri has studied

L'Ami brillianced Smirnov imo

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:28 pm

TWIC report

I glanced at Firoyzja - Kovalev at around move 16. I’m sure most forumites around my age will remember the line from Kasparov - Karpov games amongst others. I played it myself for a decade or so.

I was amusing myself with the thought that Kovalev had played ... c4 a move early by mistake whilst trying to work out what his new idea was and why he felt the need to change

It seems he really did just mix up his move order though and pretty much tossed in the game there and then.

Not a great way to start a tournament

Yes, there's more in the chess.com report

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:28 pm

TWIC report

A bit strange to label the Antón v Abdusattorov game "English counter King's Fianchetto": it's not clear to me whose "King's fianchetto" is referred to, but the king's bishops go to e2 and d6 respectively. The g7 pawn is still on its original square after move 74 when the draw is agreed: the g2 pawn does indeed go to g3, but only on move 42, by which time the bishop it might have liberated is on b1.

Anand seems to have hallucinated something and just dobbed So a piece

I recognise Duda - Firouzja - it's this game, Black varying with 9...Ng4

Some interesting games yesterday, reading Pete Doggers report

Magnus now 110 unbeaten, equalling the record; black against Van Foreest today

TWIC

This brings Carlsen to 110 games undefeated, tying the accepted record by Sergei Tiviakov. It is 531 days since his loss to Shakriyar Mamedyarov in Round 9 of Biel on 31st July 2018. Since then he's scored +36 =74 -0 (stats Tarjei J. Svensen on twitter)

Still no Black wins......

I see that Carlsen gets 7 games as White, 6 as Black. Giri the other way round. Is this a significant advantage - especially given the lack of Black wins to date? I assume it isn't or they would choose to avoid it.

Harry Duff wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:59 pm

I see that Carlsen gets 7 games as White, 6 as Black. Giri the other way round. Is this a significant advantage - especially given the lack of Black wins to date? I assume it isn't or they would choose to avoid it.

It's probably somewhere on the order of about 0.2 points or so. It's essentially irrelevant over the course of 13 rounds with a field like this.

(There are tournaments where the field is so spread out that the distribution of whites and blacks does matter, and in those, I'd recommend assigning PINs in such a way as to minimize the effect.)

Carlsen makes it 111 unbeaten, as some likely expected he has drawn his way to the (totally undisputed) record.

(though the last two games were at least interesting)

The record broken was Tiviakov's? No-one else has claimed anything beyond 110 games have they? I saw a mention somewhere that Carlsen doesn't think that two Norwegian League games he (Carlsen) played should be counted. Can anyone confirm that?

Tiviakov's supposed record has had a fair bit of scrutiny recently, lets just say not everybody is totally convinced of its complete veracity.