Gashimov Memorial 2019 Shamkir 30 Mar to 9 April

[Mick Norris]

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Carlsen, Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Giri, Anand, Grischuk, Karjakin, Radjabov, Topalov, Navara

[Steven DuCharme]

Go Grischuk!

[JustinHorton]

Sensational swindle in Anand v Navara

[Chris Rice]

Personally I prefer playing with an increment but Magnus makes a very good point about the time control at this tournament where you only get the 30 second increment from move 61: "I believe in classical chess it’s a good idea not to have increment because it gives an extra dimension to the game in that you have to spend your time well and ration it rather than just relying on the increment. It’s a very nice change of pace".

[NickFaulks]

Magnus makes a very good point about the time control at this tournament

He is absolutely right and I hope he and other top players will keep saying this.

The other question, which FIDE have so far managed to keep buried, is why the increment in the final period needs to be 30 seconds. Before anyone else says it, I know this suits the arbiters.

[David Sedgwick]

Magnus makes a very good point about the time control at this tournament

He is absolutely right and I hope he and other top players will keep saying this.

The other question, which FIDE have so far managed to keep buried, is why the increment in the final period needs to be 30 seconds. Before anyone else says it, I know this suits the arbiters.

The use of 30 second increments became almost universal after a survey found a majority of top players favoured it. Opinion may have changed since, of course.

As Chief Arbiter of the Grand Chess Tour, I have spent a lot of time dealing with the problem of players displacing pieces. This inevitably happens with a small increment or delay, which is of course a necessity in Rapid & Blitz events.

In Standardplay events a 30 second increment largely avoids such issues, to the benefit of arbiters and players alike.

However, 15 seconds might be a good compromise. Unlike Nick, I have no direct experience of the Central London League, but a time limit of 75 minutes plus 15 seconds increment seems to have worked well there.

[NickFaulks]

The use of 30 second increments became almost universal after a survey found a majority of top players favoured it.

Which survey was that?

[David Sedgwick]

The use of 30 second increments became almost universal after a survey found a majority of top players favoured it.

Which survey was that?

https://www.chessprofessionals.org/cont ... me-control

[NickFaulks]

The use of 30 second increments became almost universal after a survey found a majority of top players favoured it.

Which survey was that?

https://www.chessprofessionals.org/cont ... me-control

In which they were invited to choose between a 30" increment and a 30" increment!

[Roger de Coverly]

but a time limit of 75 minutes plus 15 seconds increment seems to have worked well there.

The potential problem with 15 second increments is that without a requirement to keep score or an electronic device such as a DGT Board hopefully doing so, validating disputed repetition or fifty move claims becomes problematic.

That would be a question for FIDE's Swiss world qualifier. If they didn't use 30 second increments, would they need an arbiter for each board?

[Matt Mackenzie]

Back to the chess - the first round was all draws and had the usual suspects proclaiming, yet again, the "death" of classical chess.

3 of the 5 games in round two were decisive

[David Sedgwick]

Which survey was that?

https://www.chessprofessionals.org/cont ... me-control

In which they were invited to choose between a 30" increment and a 30" increment!

I had intended my comments to refer to whether there should be increments before the first time control.

[David Sedgwick]

but a time limit of 75 minutes plus 15 seconds increment seems to have worked well there.

The potential problem with 15 second increments is that without a requirement to keep score or an electronic device such as a DGT Board hopefully doing so, validating disputed repetition or fifty move claims becomes problematic.

That would be a question for FIDE's Swiss world qualifier. If they didn't use 30 second increments, would they need an arbiter for each board?

I imagine that they will have DGT Boards for each game.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Carlsen wins again and pushes his "live" rating back above 2850.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Carlsen wins again and pushes his "live" rating back above 2850.

To avoid confusion: Carlsen won yesterday (against Navara in round 3) and has drawn today (in round 4) with Topalov (to add to his round 2 win over Anand and round 1 draw with Radjabov).

Carlsen's current live rating after four rounds of this tournament is 2851.4.