English Chess Forum

Today was the only game in the match I've really watched much of live, but have all of the games been of a similar quality to this one, or was this of a lower standard then a lot of the others? I don't want to sound too harsh (I know its easy to be critical when you're sat at home with a computer providing evaluations, rather then being in the midst of a tight World Championship match), but in today's game some of the moves I would've found largely inexplicable even without having an engine to confirm it.

It was a strange match.

benedgell wrote: ↑

Fri May 18, 2018 1:00 pm

Today was the only game in the match I've really watched much of live, but have all of the games been of a similar quality to this one, or was this of a lower standard then a lot of the others? I don't want to sound too harsh (I know its easy to be critical when you're sat at home with a computer providing evaluations, rather then being in the midst of a tight World Championship match), but in today's game some of the moves I would've found largely inexplicable even without having an engine to confirm it.

The games have all been hard fought but with Ju seemingly the one getting positions where she was the one with the opportunity to play to win. Today's game was all about the result. Black's strategy to unbalance and provoke left her with a position where she was worse and devoid of play. White declined several advantages and wins just to keep the position safe, even though she could have been two or three pawns up and almost certainly winning. A cynic might say that white had to work hard not to win it but, aside from five rating points, white got everything that she wanted from the game. I'm fairly sure that nerves played a big part in a lot of the games and the weight of expectation towards the end did contribute to Ju slightly stumbling over the finishing line.

There's been a few examples of Black-has-to-win games in world championship events and I seem to recall they've tended to go much the same way.

And also the "de facto" WC decider that was the final Karpov-Korchnoi game in 1974.

Or for instance Kramnik having to play for a win (or so he thought) in the last round of the London Candidates. (And against Anand in their title match, I think.)

I had a partial list of these once, from world title or world-title-qualification events, preparing a blog piece I never actually wrote. (I think I also had a game from the last women's qualification cycle and I stretched my definitions as far as to include the last game of Short v Karpov.)

Anyway the only conclusions I can recall were that the Sicilian might seem the obvious choice but it doesn't seem to work very well, but nor does anything else.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri May 18, 2018 4:45 pm

Or for instance Kramnik having to play for a win (or so he thought) in the last round of the London Candidates. (And against Anand in their title match, I think.)

Vlad was 2 down with 2 to play against Vishy and failed to win as black; when he beat Leko to retain his title he was white in the final game

There seem to have been a few Candidates with someone needing a win with black in the last round

I think the interesting thing in the Ju - Tan match was that wins with black exceeded wins with white by 3-2, but the last 4 games were draws, so I guess it gets harder to win with black the nearer the finish?

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Fri May 18, 2018 5:30 pm

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri May 18, 2018 4:45 pm

Or for instance Kramnik having to play for a win (or so he thought) in the last round of the London Candidates. (And against Anand in their title match, I think.)

There seem to have been a few Candidates with someone needing a win with black in the last round

Eg Karpov v Short at Linares in their Candidates’ semi final.

And of course would never had got to play Karpov had he not beaten Gurevich with Black in the last round