English Chess Forum

Official report has an interview with Ana in Spanish if anyone wants a look

I see Firouzja is out, as is Dominguez & Maghsoodloo

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:06 am

And what makes it even worse is that the pieces are too light, they should not fall over so easily.

They should play with one of these sets. It would solve that problem and add to the farcical nature of the whole procedure.

More seriously, you could make an argument for playing Armageddon games on a computer. It wouldn't detract from the "whoever can move fastest wins" nature of the game, but it would ensure that players only moved after their opponent had made their move, pieces were properly put on squares and there were no illegal moves completed.

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:19 pm

More seriously, you could make an argument for playing Armageddon games on a computer.

Only the same case you can make for all blitz games being played on a computer. The reason that Armageddon games have no increment from move 1 is the hope that they will live up to their sensational name by ending in chaos.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:34 pm

Only the same case you can make for all blitz games being played on a computer.

As a means of settling ties in an event which is a qualifier for the world championships, the case is moderately high. Rules for hybrid events could apply notwithstanding the point that the players are likely to be in the same room.

But you do run the risk of a mouse slip ruining the game.

Swings and roundabouts?

Caruana is out; I wonder how much he was disturbed by what happened in the previous round

It can't have helped. But arguably he had Topalov syndrome, taking excessive risks to avoid the rapid tiebreak

More of the top seeds have fallen, Giri and Mamedayrov also. Giri's loss seemed a bit unusual. For someone of his strength he should surely have known the ending was completely lost.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:36 pm

Turnaround

You can see why he might have thought that the clever Nxb6 would be crushing, but it wasn't.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 4:05 pm

More of the top seeds have fallen, Giri and Mamedayrov also. Giri's loss seemed a bit unusual. For someone of his strength he should surely have known the ending was completely lost.

Which game/ending?

The game that Giri lost which got him knocked out.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:54 pm

Which game/ending?

I can't work it out either.

The last game of their match. He went into a rook versus knight and bishop ending but then targeted the isolated h-pawn with his rook and must have surely known he would lose his own e-pawn in doing that and give his opponent a passed pawn. As soon as that happened there was no way he could stop it from queening, it seemed like the sort of mistake a player of his strength wouldn't make to me.

Sure, but he needed to win to stay in the match, and that was the only thing left to try that might have given him any winning chances.