Tata Steel 2017

[Mick Norris]

TWIC round 7 report

[Nick Burrows]

R,B and 2P against Q is normally a win for the former I would have thought.

White having a RP and "wrong" colour B is what stymied Carlsen here. He will be quite annoyed I suspect.

Has anyone got access to the Lomonosov tables to check?

Tablebase draw

[Joshua Gibbs]

R,B and 2P against Q is normally a win for the former I would have thought.

White having a RP and "wrong" colour B is what stymied Carlsen here. He will be quite annoyed I suspect.

Has anyone got access to the Lomonosov tables to check?

Tablebase draw

thanks

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Magnus missed a win at move 56. Now they are on move 95 and it looks like being a very long endgame with Magnus trying to grind out a win, but will probably be a draw unless someone blunders.

Some moves for his ego late on but rather unprofessional from Magnus I feel.

Agree with Carl here. Magnus should never have missed 56.Rc8+, an absolutely trivial win, and it does look very much like he was trying to salvage pride here by playing on. Should also have agreed a draw immediately after the Black king took the right White pawn after the exchange of queen for rook.

Can anyone with access to the Lomonosov tablebases say what difference it tends to make which files you have two connected passed pawns on, and if the pawns had been on the a and b files (i.e. not the wrong corner), would that have been a win?

[Joshua Gibbs]

Incredible - Aronian blunders a piece on move 10, and Karjakin missed it!

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. h3 d5 7. exd5 Nxd5 8. Re1 Be6 9. c3 Bb6 10. Bb3 f6

A slightly unusual idea. It's always possible that he saw it and also saw apparent counterplay. Lev presumably missed it entirely. .. f6 is a move I expect he wants to play, but not if it fails tactically.

Karjakin tweeted: "It is always fantastic to play one good game in a row, but sometimes it is more effective to play one good move in a row Smiley smiley smiley#11.c4!!!"

I think he just missed it!

[Nick Burrows]

Can anyone with access to the Lomonosov tablebases say what difference it tends to make which files you have two connected passed pawns on, and if the pawns had been on the a and b files (i.e. not the wrong corner), would that have been a win?

It's a draw on all files

[Mick Norris]

Magnus missed a win at move 56. Now they are on move 95 and it looks like being a very long endgame with Magnus trying to grind out a win, but will probably be a draw unless someone blunders.

Some moves for his ego late on but rather unprofessional from Magnus I feel.

Agree with Carl here. Magnus should never have missed 56.Rc8+, an absolutely trivial win, and it does look very much like he was trying to salvage pride here by playing on. Should also have agreed a draw immediately after the Black king took the right White pawn after the exchange of queen for rook

The game has been annotated Chess Mind with a few comments

[Roger de Coverly]

I think he just missed it!

Curiously the chessbase report doesn't mention the double oversight.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/2017-tata- ... -draw-some

It looks like a tactical trick worth remembering if you play those types of Italian position.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The game has been annotated Chess Mind with a few comments

I have a theory. If the World Champion had been looking for a mate, he would have found it easily. Ergo he wasn't looking for a mate. I think what he had been analysing was the move 51...Kf8, when White no longer has the check with the bishop on h5 and then with the rook on f5 as in the game. In this line, White ends up playing something like:

51...Kf8 52.Rxc7 e2 53.Rf5+ Kg8 54.Bd5 e1=Q 55.Rxc6 when there is no perpetual and White is about to win the pinned rook on e6. So when Giri played 51...Ke8 instead, Carlsen was in the mindset to look to win the rook and the game, and so missed the mate completely.

Did Carlsen say anything in interviews after the game? This is the only reasonable explanation I can think of as to why he missed the mate. He was too focused on the 51...Kf8 line and had tried (and failed) to find a mate there (there doesn't appear to be one), so didn't look for one in the 51...Ke8 line.

Does that sound plausible?

[Mick Norris]

Curiously the chessbase report doesn't mention the double oversight.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/2017-tata- ... -draw-some

It looks like a tactical trick worth remembering if you play those types of Italian position.

Neither does the chess.com report, although it does feature Gawain's game

[Mick Norris]

The game has been annotated Chess Mind with a few comments

I have a theory. If the World Champion had been looking for a mate, he would have found it easily. Ergo he wasn't looking for a mate. I think what he had been analysing was the move 51...Kf8, when White no longer has the check with the bishop on h5 and then with the rook on f5 as in the game. In this line, White ends up playing something like:

51...Kf8 52.Rxc7 e2 53.Rf5+ Kg8 54.Bd5 e1=Q 55.Rxc6 when there is no perpetual and White is about to win the pinned rook on e6. So when Giri played 51...Ke8 instead, Carlsen was in the mindset to look to win the rook and the game, and so missed the mate completely.

Did Carlsen say anything in interviews after the game? This is the only reasonable explanation I can think of as to why he missed the mate. He was too focused on the 51...Kf8 line and had tried (and failed) to find a mate there (there doesn't appear to be one), so didn't look for one in the 51...Ke8 line.

Does that sound plausible?

Yes

[NickFaulks]

Can anyone with access to the Lomonosov tablebases

I know that tablebases now extend to some seven man groups, but this one?

[NickFaulks]

The latest refutation of the Najdorf is on view in Lu - Xiong. It's 6.a3 and 7.h3, who knew?

[Roger de Coverly]

The latest refutation of the Najdorf is on view in Lu - Xiong. It's 6.a3 and 7.h3, who knew?

I suppose not everyone likes to play with a hole on d5, but surely the principled reply to all the "time waster" moves is ..e5?

Lu-Xiong has become a Dragon of sorts, so perhaps that's why 7. h3 was played.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Can anyone with access to the Lomonosov tablebases say what difference it tends to make which files you have two connected passed pawns on, and if the pawns had been on the a and b files (i.e. not the wrong corner), would that have been a win?

It's a draw on all files

Really? That is slightly surprising tbh.

I'm willing to bet the side with the lone Q quite often loses in practice......