English Chess Forum

Are there any adjudications in Cumbria? I thought it was a much more advanced county than it's southern neighbour

Anyway, back to the chess; round 2 report Chess Mind

Certainly not, and haven't been since the 1980s I think!

A Magnus grind is now in progress. R and 4 v R and 3, pawns all on the same side. I thought the best defensive set up was h4, not g4 - am I missing something?

Kramnik is these days not just Giri's bunny but Nepo's, it would appear. He needs to stop playing kamikaze chess against these people.

Draw. A 'grind' becomes frankly boring when no serious winning chances are generated. At one point Magnus just seemed to be going round in circles.

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:14 pm

Draw. A 'grind' becomes frankly boring when no serious winning chances are generated. At one point Magnus just seemed to be going round in circles.

He has of course beaten some surprisingly strong players in this way in the past - in fact, you could say it was his trademark. Nonetheless, we were told about the many places where this game was being streamed live, including Norwegian TV, and I doubt that it will have created many new chess players.

Computers are unreliable for this sort of ending btw, as they frequently give a "plus" to the pawn up player where none really exists.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:46 pm

Computers are unreliable for this sort of ending btw, as they frequently give a "plus" to the pawn up player where none really exists.

Of course they do, because they are not addressing the question to which you wish to know the answer. If they are a solid pawn up, they will assess the position as +1 because they have an extra pawn. They will demonstrate a long and meaningless line, at the end of which they still have an extra pawn, validating their +1.

This is where AlphaZero is so good. It asks the question to which we do wish to know the answer - if I (AZ) were playing this position against myself, what would be the expectation of the outcome? I am confident that Carlsen's position would have been flatlining at 50% for a very long time.

Chess Mind on round 3 with light notes

Carlsen's 21st consecutive draw in classical chess, held with White by the tournament bunny

I believe that breaks the record held by Giri and Ding

TWIC report

Round 4 Standings: 1 Nepomniachtchi 3pts 2 Vidit 2½pts 3 Ding 2½pts 4 Anand 2½pts 5 Giri 2½pts 6 Mamedyarov 2pts 7 Carlsen 2pts 8 Shankland 2pts 9 Duda 2pts 10 Radjabov 2pts 11 Fedoseev 1½pts 12 Rapport 1½pts 13 Kramnik 1pt 14 Van Foreest 1pt

Round 5 is in Alkmaar 16th Jan 2019 starting half an hour later at 2pm UK time.

Van Foreest-Carlsen, Fedoseev-Vidit, Shankland-Ding Liren, Radjabov-Duda, Giri-Anand, Nepomniachtchi-Rapport, Kramnik-Mamedyarov,

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:14 pm

Carlsen's 21st consecutive draw in classical chess

Looks a good bet to end that run tomorrow, particular if his young opponent perseveres with his party trick of playing all of his moves on less than the increment.

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 15, 2019 8:49 pm

I believe that breaks the record held by Giri and Ding

Something else where Caruana is not far behind, though.......

Magnus wins, so his draw streak finishes at 21

Ding wins too, and overtakes Shak to go 3rd on the live ratings

So when is Fab's next tournament, I know he isn't playing Gibraltar unlike some other top players who have given this a miss?

I'm sure we're all agog to see if he can "beat" Carlsen's new record