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A really excellent Chess.com report on Game 1 World Chess Championship Round 1: Caruana Struggles But Holds Draw Against Carlsen

ChessBase report World Championship Game 1: Caruana dodges a bullet

Its the first time in many years that I've given adjournments any thought but it did occur to me that back in the day the game would have been adjourned at some point after move 30 when both players would have had teams of analysts working furiously all night and maybe most of the chess world would have chipped in too.

Move 30? It’s not the Thames Valley League!

Chess Mind

I was interested to see that Shankland is no longer seconding Magnus; not sure why, and who he's been replaced by

As Caruana approached the first time control I bet he regretted taking back the first move Woody Harrelson made.

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 7:41 am

Its the first time in many years that I've given adjournments any thought but it did occur to me that back in the day the game would have been adjourned at some point after move 30...

The referenced Game 5 of the 1978 Korchnoi-Karpov match - the longest-lasting World Championship game at 124 moves - was adjourned first after White's 42nd move and then after Black's 91st. I wonder: which was the last World Championship match with a time control allowing adjournments?

Wikipedia:

The first World Chess Championship not to use adjournments was the Classical World Chess Championship 1995...while the last one to use adjournments was the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996.

I prefer chess with adjournments but times have moved on. The mental pressure over a significant length of time. Allowing two days ought to lead to better quality games (like a snooker world championship match). Not that it helps when many want it all over in a limited in one day.

The main event in the World Series of Poker is played over a couple of weeks but is a bit different.

Some are a bit paranoid about the evil FIDE & World Chess Championship getting rid of the possibility of unlimited play (like Karpov v Kasparov was evil) but the possibility of matches going on for multiple hours seems evil too). Many about computers having all the answers.

Quite reminiscent of the film Rollerball 1975 where the Evil Corporate Organisers that wanted their star player to retire eventually changed the rules to the killing all players.

I'm rooting for Magnus 'Jonathan E'. Magnus! Magnus! Magnus! to the music of Tocatta and Fugue D Minor.

Back to game 2 - appropriate warm up - England v the All Blacks at Twickenham - then catching up with the chess!

In game 2 11...Se4 appears to be a TN.

11...a6 was played in Mason - Tambini, British, 2014 which was drawn on move 20.

Another draw, quick by the standards of the first game.

And another Rook ending that was perhaps easier the for the "inferior" (in this case Magnus) side to hold than initially appeared.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 10, 2018 12:52 pm

Wikipedia:

The first World Chess Championship not to use adjournments was the Classical World Chess Championship 1995...while the last one to use adjournments was the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996.

Thank you. I'd looked on other pages but not found that one.

Paid £70 for a ticket for Game 2 to replace someone who couldn't go. At the ticket office got issued with a blue wrist band and a little ticket to say I could go into the main theatre for 30 minutes (from 3.50pm - 4.20pm). Lucky me. Apparently I could have got in again after 6pm but I wasn't informed of this. We were not allowed to have our mobiles on in the main theatre and were made to turn them off and put them in plastic bags before we got in there. After that were were chucked out and had to find somewhere else to watch it in the building.
The venue was cramped and there were huge queues of people for anything. The paying customers were continually jostled by media and camera people moving through the building with equipment. The commentary room only housed around 30 odd people who had to sit on wooden boxes.
Fortunately for me I was one of those 30 odd and got a boss wooden box right next to Judit Polgar and a very bubbly, Anna Rudolph and they did a great job on commentary. Danny King, the Press Officer for the event and Bennett Miller, the director of films such as Capote and Moneyball, came into the commentary room later.
It wasn't an epic game compared to Round 1 and the commentators and the various guests that came in were grateful for that. There seemed a general fear throughout the building that there might be another 100+ move game and searching for somewhere to eat at 11pm hadn't been much fun the night before.
At the press conference it seemed evident that both Carlsen and Caruana were tired by their efforts though Caruana looked less tired I have to say.

Agon have now been organising World Championships and Candidates Tournaments for five years.

They seem to have the ability to make each one worse than the previous one.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:04 am

Agon have now been organising World Championships and Candidates Tournaments for five years.

Ignoring the large hall where the Open takes place, how does the size of the venue compare to the Foyer, Theatre, VIP room and commentary room familiar to many of us from the London Classic?

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:20 am

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:04 am

Agon have now been organising World Championships and Candidates Tournaments for five years.

Ignoring the large hall where the Open takes place, how does the size of the venue compare to the Foyer, Theatre, VIP room and commentary room familiar to many of us from the London Classic?

You are aware of the vast number of people that attend the events at Olympia. Now try and imagine the same number of people going into a building a tenth of the size with no A/C and you should get a rough idea of what its like.