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The end of the Anand-Gelfand championship match means this is probably the right time for a new chess megathread. The Ask/Tell thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3453132 The nascent Games thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3490241 And now, The Players  Viswanathan Anand, World Champion 2780, 6th in the world A famous game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1338514 It may have been ugly, and not against the best opposition, but Anand defeated Boris Gelfand to retain the world championship he won in 2008. A historic talent, Anand was once renowned for his creative and aggressive play. He has become an ‘old’ player these past few years, however, and is now more noted for solid, defensive play. Between fatherhood and title defences, he doesn’t play tournaments very much anymore, and is somewhat regarded now as a bit of a placeholder until the next cycle of candidates resolves itself. This brings us to…  Magnus Carlsen, The Prodigy 2836, 1st in the world A representative game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1669693 The highest rated player in the world, and possibly the future highest-rated player ever. He is, by consensus, one of the two clearly strongest players in the world. Over the past year and a half he has refined his game to one of technical precision and constant aggression. His signature is his willingness to play drawn endgames almost indefinitely, with the idea that his opponent will slip up before he will. He has spent the last few years locked neck-and-neck with…  Levon Aronian, The 2813, 2nd in the world A cool game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1654443 The second highest player in the world, he is the anti-Carlsen. While Carlsen is the aloof child prodigy, Aronian came late to the game and is noted for his approachable, friendly demeanor. He is somewhat similar to Veselin Topalov in that he will play wild and creative openings that can lead to quick and spectacular wins. Right now, the Tal Memorial is ongoing in Russia. Through five rounds, Alexander Morozevich is in first with a score of +3 -0 =2, with Carlsen, Kramnik, and Radjabov close behind. The tournament games can be followed at http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/ and live commentary as always can be found at chess.fm. Chat can be had at the IRC channel: #chess at irc.synirc.net
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| # ? Jun 13, 2012 19:54 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 08:14 |
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Is there a good place to look for players' head-to-head records and win percentages? Like if I want to find out how Carlsen-Aronian matches have gone or which players draw most games.
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| # ? Jun 13, 2012 20:56 |
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BIGFOOT PEE BED posted:Is there a good place to look for players' head-to-head records and win percentages? Like if I want to find out how Carlsen-Aronian matches have gone or which players draw most games. There's chessgames.com, but you may but you may have to pay for the feature.
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| # ? Jun 13, 2012 21:55 |
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Hand Knit posted:There's chessgames.com, but you may but you may have to pay for the feature. I'm pretty sure it's part of their free info, so that's a good place to go for that sort of thing. If you have a huge and constantly updated database, that works too, but it's less convenient and has the disadvantage of potentially being incomplete.
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| # ? Jun 13, 2012 21:58 |
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Thanks! Turns out Kramnik does indeed draw a lot of games
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| # ? Jun 13, 2012 22:11 |
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I really like the Caro Khan, but I think I only like it because people i've been playing against don't see it enough so I get the hope chess element of surprise.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 11:00 |
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lemonslol posted:I really like the Caro Khan, but I think I only like it because people i've been playing against don't see it enough so I get the hope chess element of surprise. Just play the Sicilian!
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 14:11 |
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Real element of surprise there.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 14:14 |
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The Moro-Naka game is interesting.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 14:20 |
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lemonslol posted:I really like the Caro Khan, but I think I only like it because people i've been playing against don't see it enough so I get the hope chess element of surprise. Come post in the Games thread you asked for! gret posted:The Moro-Naka game is interesting. Moro's play reminds me of a blitz game where I'm pissed off and my approach is "gently caress it, I'm going deep." There are a few points where I've thought he must have sacrificed too much and run out of gas, but he's still going. And now, Naka has 5 minutes for 10 moves of difficult defence.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 14:31 |
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Hand Knit posted:Moro's play reminds me of a blitz game where I'm pissed off and my approach is "gently caress it, I'm going deep." There are a few points where I've thought he must have sacrificed too much and run out of gas, but he's still going. And now, Naka has 5 minutes for 10 moves of difficult defence. Looks like Naka's turned the tables on Moro. Looks like a win unless Moro finds a way to escape.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 15:28 |
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gret posted:Looks like Naka's turned the tables on Moro. Looks like a win unless Moro finds a way to escape. Which he didn't. For as fun as it was to watch, that was certainly more of a 'second-last mistake' win than a brilliancy.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 15:41 |
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Hand Knit posted:Which he didn't. For as fun as it was to watch, that was certainly more of a 'second-last mistake' win than a brilliancy. Yeah, but entertaining nonetheless.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 15:45 |
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Caruana-McShane is a hell of a fight, with McShane trying to hold a NBPP v BPPP endgame. It looks like McShane may have missed his shot, taking his king in the wrong direction. I wouldn't mind him shamelessly making Caruana prove he knows the BN mate.
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 16:43 |
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Hand Knit posted:Come post in the Games thread you asked for! I always thought moro is basically king of making theoretically unsound plays work OTB. But you can't win them all...
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| # ? Jun 14, 2012 16:56 |
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totalnewbie posted:I always thought moro is basically king of making theoretically unsound plays work OTB. But you can't win them all... Also Tomashevsky just played a brilliancy in the endgame that may or may not have drawn the position.  Black to move and draw: 61...Nf6!! 62.Rd8 Kg4! e: And after all that, Tomashevsky blunders in time pressure 
Hand Knit fucked around with this message at Jun 14, 2012 around 17:34 |
| # ? Jun 14, 2012 17:01 |
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"What the Hell? This is too complicated." - Luke McShane, during today's endgame. That was an absolutely wild extended endgame. It started as a position where I thought McShane would be looking for perps since Kramnik had a massive centre. However, the position turned around with McShane's outside passer proving critical. The h-pawn could have been decisive, but McShane couldn't find the win in time trouble. There's also a fun spot in there where the computer found some wild wins that were essentially human non-factors. Eventually McShane manages to promote his pawn for a QQ v QR endgame, loses his queen, and still manages to win the QPP v QP endgame. Awesome. e: There is also now a 5-way tie for first place at +1. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at Jun 16, 2012 around 18:12 |
| # ? Jun 16, 2012 18:04 |
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Hand Knit posted:"What the Hell? This is too complicated." Wow, that was an amazingly fun game to pore over.
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| # ? Jun 16, 2012 18:22 |
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From Morozevich-McShane today: Black to move and give mate. McShane is playing certainly the most fun chess this tournament, and it's showing because just about everyone other than Caruana is playing below par.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2012 21:19 |
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Hand Knit posted:From Morozevich-McShane today: Well. Qh6 Kg3 Nf5 ... ... Kf3 Qf4+ Kg2 Qg3+ and whichever way the king goes it's mate on g1 ... Kg4 Qf4+ (Kh5 Qh4#) Kh3 Qh4+ is the same as above ... Kg2 Qg5+ (Kh3 as in line 2, Kf3 as in line 1, and all other spaces Qg1# or then mate on g3) I think that's everything?
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 01:41 |
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You can create more lines by throwing the queen away, but that's basically it, yeah. Unrelatedly, I just watched Bobby Fischer Against the World and found it quite disappointing. Is it a 'you have to be American' thing?
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 02:12 |
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Hand Knit posted:You can create more lines by throwing the queen away, but that's basically it, yeah. Yeah I figured I didn't need to add those, since they effectively were a win anyway without any further thought.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 04:33 |
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Hand Knit posted:Unrelatedly, I just watched Bobby Fischer Against the World and found it quite disappointing. Is it a 'you have to be American' thing? I didn't see it, and I've heard people both say they loved it and thought it was disappointing, as you did. On the other hand, I have seen Bobby Fischer Live; if you ever want to watch a really, really bad movie about Bobby Fischer, I highly recommend it.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 04:36 |
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For me, there wasn't a whole ton of new content in Bobby Fischer Against the World. Frank Brady's Endgame book is really good though.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 10:51 |
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Zugzwang posted:For me, there wasn't a whole ton of new content in Bobby Fischer Against the World. Yeah, I ended up feeling the same way. I had heard everything before and actually felt that they left out important information (like his ban from the Manhattan(?) Chess Club for spraypainting swastikas on the trash bins, or how he kept a suitcase of antitoxins and antivenins on him during the Spassky rematch because he thought that the KGB had secretly reassembled and the match was a ruse). Hand Knit fucked around with this message at Jun 18, 2012 around 12:28 |
| # ? Jun 18, 2012 12:09 |
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I hadn't heard either of those things before, but sadly, neither is remotely surprising.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 12:16 |
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And, through all this mess, Carlsen wins again. Yawn.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 12:35 |
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Hand Knit posted:And, through all this mess, Carlsen wins again. Yawn. Yeah he does seem to win a lot of tournaments very quietly with steady play after early leaders flame out.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 15:15 |
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Zugzwang posted:Frank Brady's Endgame book is really good though. I had really enjoyed that book, but after Hand Knit's little tidbits of trivia now I feel like I got ripped off.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 15:21 |
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And Carlsen picks up a whopping 2.1 ELO after getting clear first in what was very nearly a category XXII tournament  Shows how amazing Kasparov's 2851 was.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 15:31 |
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Now that it's over, any opinions on A) most exciting game and B) most instructional game?
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 15:32 |
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gret posted:Yeah he does seem to win a lot of tournaments very quietly with steady play after early leaders flame out. He all lucked into the right McShane in round 9. As Yermolinsky said in the commentary: it's unfortunate that the tournament was primarily decided by which side of the bed McShane (and, to a lesser degree, Morozevich) woke up on. Apsyrtes posted:Now that it's over, any opinions on A) most exciting game and B) most instructional game? Instructive and exciting. Although, due to the nature of the play this tournament, there are a lot of candidates for the 'exciting' game while even the 'instructive' one isn't all that instructive.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 16:43 |
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Hand Knit posted:Yeah, I ended up feeling the same way. I had heard everything before and actually felt that they left out important information (like his ban from the Manhattan(?) Chess Club for spraypainting swastikas on the trash bins, or how he kept a suitcase of antitoxins and antivenins on him during the Spassky rematch because he thought that the KGB had secretly reassembled and the match was a ruse). I'd actually never heard either of those stories either (though I think I'd run into the swastika one in passing before, and the other doesn't surprise me). Really, though, if you like bad movies: Bobby Fischer Live. You get to watch him talk to hallucinations of his dead father!
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 16:58 |
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Now I'm starting to doubt the veracity of both those anecdotes, although I remember getting them from reputable sources.
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| # ? Jun 18, 2012 17:00 |
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That McShane/Kramnik game - what a clever and spectacular end. I can't figure out why so much flirting with threefold repetition, would that be McShane just hoping for a mistake leading to a draw - or maybe needed to get some more time on the clock? I also don't understand why he waited so long to push h7, there were plenty of opportunities - and then again with the waiting on h8=Q. EDIT: nm I see you commented on this game already in the thread, and there was some time trouble. Apsyrtes fucked around with this message at Jun 18, 2012 around 23:49 |
| # ? Jun 18, 2012 23:29 |
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That instructive game, definitely not so instructive to me...  I can't even figure out why it ended when it did. I see different lines that will result in the white pawns on the b- and g-file and the black pawn on the c-file get taken in good time, but nothing definitively beyond that to say Black is winning and White should resign. Perhaps there is some well known endgame technique that is unknown to me from that position. Or I suppose those time-looking figures under "site" are indicating white had 33 seconds to black's 55 minutes in which case... yeah, I get it.
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| # ? Jun 19, 2012 00:19 |
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The reason he resigned at Rf1 is that it was the end of a forced line, and it became clear that he was going into a trivially lost (at that level) line. After white plays Rc5, black will play Re1+ => Re2+ => Rxg2 and cash in his connected passers.
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| # ? Jun 19, 2012 00:30 |
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This gives me hope for playing official ranked chess and it's also entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvzw21_3Hs4
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| # ? Jun 20, 2012 14:43 |
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I like the big long inspirational speech followed by a move that is still horrifically losing. Although I guess Nxc2 is still 'bad,' since Rhg8 is mating. I would guess the two players' ratings at around 1200 and 1500.
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| # ? Jun 20, 2012 15:25 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 08:14 |
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From Alekseev-Dubov: White to move. I think this one is a keeper for teaching purposes. 1.Rd7+ Rxd7 2.Qxd7+ Kxd7 3.Nxf6+
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| # ? Jun 27, 2012 14:13 |
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