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Will Anand Win a Game?
This poll is closed.
Yes 11 22.45%
No 4 8.16%
Hell No 1 2.04%
Hahaha No 11 22.45%
Putin has managed to become a threat to both Russia and World Peace because Obama is not a strong leader like Ronald Reagan 22 44.90%
Total: 49 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
This thread is for professional chess play. If you would like to play yourself, which is a very good thing to want, we have a lovely thread in Traditional Games just on the other side of this link.
We also have an infrequently used IRC channel, #chess on irc.synirc.net

2014 World Chess Championship Match

Official, yet very underwhelming site

Other and better places to get coverage are, in no particular order:
Other places to get games and follow commentary will be:
Official twitter, which is retweeting various top players: @AnandCarlsen14
Polgar’s twitter: @SusanPolgar
Natalia Pogonina’s twitter: @pogonina
Chessdom
Internet Chess Club
The very new chess24
(ICC is currently offering a free one month membership, which would cover the duration of the match.)

Of those sites, I have been very impressed with chess24 lately.

The 2014 World Chess Championship will be held in Sochi, Russia, because nobody else really wanted it. The opening ceremony is this Friday, the 7th of November, and the play starts the next day. The match is, surprisingly, a rematch of last year. Magnus Carlsen, then the challenger and winner, now plays the role of the defending champion. Vishy Anand, who everyone thought was pretty much cooked, was the surprise winner of this year's candidates tournament, cruising to a +3 result.

The Participants

The Champion - Magnus Carlsen



Magnus, in the spirit of many WWE wrestlers, celebrated his championship winning by claiming that he would be a fighting champion, and keep up an active schedule. For the first part of the year, everything looked to be in order as he pushed his already-record rating to a high of 2889. From that point, however, things started to slip. He was very unimpressive in the Olympiad, dropping games to C-listers Ivan Saric and Arkadij Naiditsch. From there he went to play in St Louis, where he was overshone by a historic performance by Fabiano Caruana. Betweem Caruana's burst and Carlsen's swoon, Magnus' lead on the rating list fell to the lowest it had been in years. He enters this match facing the most doubt his form has seen in the better part of a decade.

The Challenger - Viswanathan Anand



The once and probably not future great. Anand was dispatched fairly easily by Carlsen last time around and, sadly, I expect much the same to happen again. He won a candidates tournament that was characterized by generally poor play all around, and despite winning Bilbao with a +2 score, simply hasn't looked inspiring this year at all. Hell, he hasn't looked like much of a top player since his match against Topalov in 2010. One of the greatest players of all time, for sure, but that's an increasingly long time ago.

Analysis

If there is one thing the last few months have taught us, it's that Magnus actually does have holes in his game. Granted, "semi-open positions with sharp strategic posiibilities" is a fairly narrow category, but that does seem to get at both his losses in the Olympiad, as well as two games where he looked quite bad against Caruana (he lost won, but won the other after Caruana mishandled a very strong position in time pressure). Once upon a time, back in the halcyon days of the 90s and the Age of Kasparov, that sort of game was Anand's bread and butter. But those days are long gone and now, just as Kasparov shares his hot takes on twitter, Anand plays a very tame game where he plays openings for small advantages to carry into the endgame. This is not how to beat Carlsen. This is not even how to not lose to Carlsen. Luckily, Anand seemed to recognize that towards the end of last years match and went down in a blaze of... something.

Prediction: Carlsen mishandles a win into a draw, but Anand still never gets close to taking a full point. 6.5-3.5 yet again.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Nov 8, 2014

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Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
Here is the match schedule. I will edit in links to the posted games after they finish, as well as the pgns posted in the thread.

All games start 3PM Moscow time, which is 7AM Eastern Standard Time.

Draw NOVEMBER 08 ROUND 1 PGN Chessgames
Carlsen Wins NOVEMBER 09 ROUND 2 PGN Chessgames

NOVEMBER 10 REST DAY

Anand Wins NOVEMBER 11 ROUND 3 PGN Chessgames
Draw NOVEMBER 12 ROUND 4 PGN Chessgames

NOVEMBER 13 REST DAY

Draw NOVEMBER 14 ROUND 5 PGN Chessgames
Carlsen Wins NOVEMBER 15 ROUND 6 PGN Chessgames

NOVEMBER 16 REST DAY

122 Move Draw NOVEMBER 17 ROUND 7 PGN Chessgames
Draw NOVEMBER 18 ROUND 8 PGN Chessgames

NOVEMBER 19 REST DAY

DRAW NOVEMBER 20 ROUND 9 PGN Chessgames
DRAW NOVEMBER 21 ROUND 10 PGN Chessgames

NOVEMBER 22 REST DAY

Magnus WinsNOVEMBER 23 ROUND 11 PGN Chessgames

Carlsen wins 6.5-4.5 with one game left.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Nov 26, 2014

OrangeKing
Dec 5, 2002

They do play in October!
Our fifth poll option brought to you by Garry Kasparov and Mig Greengard!

I'm really not sure what to predict for this match, other than a rather decisive win for Carlsen. It wouldn't shock me if Anand manages a win this time around...but I still picked no in the poll. I think my money would be on a 6.5-3.5 win for Carlsen once again as well. I mean, it's important to remember that while all of the doubts about Carlsen's recent form are legitimate, it's also true that he's still the top-rated player in the world by a fair margin and hasn't had a truly "bad" tournament pretty much since he was a teenager. There's a reason he's the big betting favorite here.

OrangeKing fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Nov 7, 2014

gret
Dec 12, 2005

goggle-eyed freak


I hope that Vishy at least wins a game this time.

Grimble
Jul 7, 2002

He will build a castle with garden on an island called Cheshire, and he is permitted to breed.
Magnus Carlsen will be playing chess against Donald Duck as well, under the name of Madmoves Calmson



Good for him

gret
Dec 12, 2005

goggle-eyed freak


"Playing a bit like Quack-amura" LOL.

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Holy poo poo that is hysterical.

OrangeKing
Dec 5, 2002

They do play in October!

gret posted:

"Playing a bit like Quack-amura" LOL.

Finally, Hikaru's legacy is secured!

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

gret posted:

"Playing a bit like Quack-amura" LOL.

This is an ever greater chess-artifact than that weird Skyfall video.

Xtanstic
Nov 23, 2007

What's the schedule for the games? Is it a game every day as of Saturday? I know nothing about competitive chess but I watched last year's championship on a commented twitch stream and it was interesting as hell.

OrangeKing
Dec 5, 2002

They do play in October!

Xtanstic posted:

What's the schedule for the games? Is it a game every day as of Saturday? I know nothing about competitive chess but I watched last year's championship on a commented twitch stream and it was interesting as hell.

They'll play two days in a row, then have a rest day, then two more days -- rinse and repeat (until the very end: there's an added rest day in between Games 11 + 12 if it gets that far). Games start around 3 pm Sochi time, or 7 am Eastern Standard Time.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
Anand with white in game 1, and we get a Gruenfeld. These sorts of openings, unless mishandled by black, tend to lend themselves to draws. Part of what's interesting is that Anand went with 5.Bd2 here, after he got some quite good games against Gruenfeld-specialist Gelfand in the 2012 match by playing 3.f3.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Peter Svidler is doing the commentary for chess24.

e: Magnus spends 16 minutes to find 9...Bg4. A long time to spend on a move so early, suggesting that either Anand played outside Magnus' preparation, or, less likely, Magnus found a new possibility/worry over the board. Anand is playing the sort of opening that may allow him to play h4-h5 and attack the kingside very aggressively, which is sort of what I talked about in the OP as the sort of game that Anand has to play, although I don't think the position is quite tactical enough.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Nov 8, 2014

i am paul newman
Mar 31, 2010
Svidler on the livestream for all matches.

King Pawn
Apr 24, 2010
Svidler owns :allears:

e: Please tell me they have more than one filler piece. I fear I may get a little tired of hearing about the Chess Museum on Gogolevsky Boulevard.

King Pawn fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Nov 8, 2014

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
I have a very tough time believing that Anand missed 13...c6 in his prep, so what the hell?

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
Also Radjabov (@Rajachess) and Giri (@AnishGiri) are kibitzing the game on twitter.

e: I really don't like this endgame for Anand. It's not losing in any objective sense, but I feel like major piece endgames are one area where he's outclassed and it's not like his pawn structure is doing him any favours. It's worth remembering that last match Carlsen won a game with black in an objectively drawable rook endgame.

e2: 28. d6 and Vishy is going for it.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Nov 8, 2014

CountingCrows
Apr 17, 2001
Last year they had live video feed and a panel of commentators for each match, they don't have that this year?

Grimble
Jul 7, 2002

He will build a castle with garden on an island called Cheshire, and he is permitted to breed.

CountingCrows posted:

Last year they had live video feed and a panel of commentators for each match, they don't have that this year?

I think we have 3 different live broadcasts of every second with 3 different panels here in Norway. It's a bit much at times.

TheRat
Aug 30, 2006

Grimble posted:

I think we have 3 different live broadcasts of every second with 3 different panels here in Norway. It's a bit much at times.

I feel its obligatory to watch VGTV since they have Lahlum.

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



QR endgames are so hard.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
PGN:
White: Anand
Black: Carlsen

1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bd2 Bg7 6. e4 Nxc3 7. Bxc3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Nf3 Bg4 10. d5 Bxf3 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. gxf3 Ne5 13. O-O-O c6 14. Qc3 f6 15. Bh3 cxd5 16. exd5 Nf7 17. f4 Qd6 18. Qd4 Rad8 19. Be6 Qb6 20. Qd2 Rd6 21. Rhe1 Nd8 22. f5 Nxe6 23. Rxe6 Qc7+ 24. Kb1 Rc8 25. Rde1 Rxe6 26. Rxe6 Rd8 27. Qe3 Rd7 28. d6 exd6 29. Qd4 Rf7 30. fxg6 hxg6 31. Rxd6 a6 32. a3 Qa5 33. f4 Qh5 34. Qd2 Qc5 35. Rd5 Qc4 36. Rd7 Qc6 37. Rd6 Qe4+ 38. Ka2 Re7 39. Qc1 a5 40. Qf1 a4 41. Rd1 Qc2 42. Rd4 Re2 43. Rb4 b5 44. Qh1 Re7 45. Qd5 Re1 46. Qd7+ Kh6 47. Qh3+ Kg7 48. Qd7+ 1/2-1/2

Elyv posted:

QR endgames are so hard.

I think that Anand is completely outclassed in them, even though he managed to survive this one.

Xtanstic
Nov 23, 2007

Aww nuts what the hell I have to pay 5 bucks to watch twitch archives now? http://www.twitch.tv/ChessNetwork/profile/past_broadcasts

Is there any other commented archive that I can watch? I don't know anything about chess so I can't enjoy the championships without a commentator holding my hand :smith:

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

Xtanstic posted:

Aww nuts what the hell I have to pay 5 bucks to watch twitch archives now? http://www.twitch.tv/ChessNetwork/profile/past_broadcasts

Is there any other commented archive that I can watch? I don't know anything about chess so I can't enjoy the championships without a commentator holding my hand :smith:

I don't know about video casts, but Svidler wrote up R1G1 here.

Xerol
Jan 13, 2007


KC & Friends had some fairly in-depth coverage (and a good bit of sidetracking when not much else was going on): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M2HBAPxfYo

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



Hand Knit posted:

PGN:
White: Anand
Black: Carlsen

1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bd2 Bg7 6. e4 Nxc3 7. Bxc3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Nf3 Bg4 10. d5 Bxf3 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. gxf3 Ne5 13. O-O-O c6 14. Qc3 f6 15. Bh3 cxd5 16. exd5 Nf7 17. f4 Qd6 18. Qd4 Rad8 19. Be6 Qb6 20. Qd2 Rd6 21. Rhe1 Nd8 22. f5 Nxe6 23. Rxe6 Qc7+ 24. Kb1 Rc8 25. Rde1 Rxe6 26. Rxe6 Rd8 27. Qe3 Rd7 28. d6 exd6 29. Qd4 Rf7 30. fxg6 hxg6 31. Rxd6 a6 32. a3 Qa5 33. f4 Qh5 34. Qd2 Qc5 35. Rd5 Qc4 36. Rd7 Qc6 37. Rd6 Qe4+ 38. Ka2 Re7 39. Qc1 a5 40. Qf1 a4 41. Rd1 Qc2 42. Rd4 Re2 43. Rb4 b5 44. Qh1 Re7 45. Qd5 Re1 46. Qd7+ Kh6 47. Qh3+ Kg7 48. Qd7+ 1/2-1/2


I think that Anand is completely outclassed in them, even though he managed to survive this one.

I haven't followed professional chess in a long time; I was referring to personal experience on my fairly scrubby level(~1900 USCF when I was actually active, which hasn't been in a while).

i am paul newman
Mar 31, 2010
Official livestream with Svidler gets archived at sochi2014.fide.com/video-archive/, same player and quality as live.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
10 moves in and we have a pretty turdy Berlin. I have some practical worries for Anand given he's already working his clock and the a-pawn looks vulnerable, but so far it's nothing that objectively should cause him trouble.

King Pawn
Apr 24, 2010
What do you mean by "pretty turdy"? I don't mind this anti-Berlin stuff, it looks like a real game of chess with plenty of potential. I much prefer this to 30 moves of theory in some main line.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..

King Pawn posted:

What do you mean by "pretty turdy"? I don't mind this anti-Berlin stuff, it looks like a real game of chess with plenty of potential. I much prefer this to 30 moves of theory in some main line.

By turdy I mean largely stale without much opportunity for play. Even if not strictly in theory, it's a very dry, well-trod position that doesn't offer either player much of anything.

This game actually looks somewhat similar to last one where white, this time Carlsen, gives ground positionally (taking on b6) to undertake a major piece attack that seems to be completely ephemeral.

e: Computers showing a long rook-sac line now. Presumably Anand looked at it and decided it wasn't critical. Let's see if Magnus disagrees. e2: Magnus keeps it simple.

e3: Another major piece endgame where Anand looks to be in quite a bit of trouble.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Nov 9, 2014

An Apple A Gay
Oct 21, 2008

Compared to stl's and last year in India, the russian coverage is abysmal, besides the commentary of svidler,
I laughed at the agro chem company's commercial and at the cutout logo covering the obvious apple symbol on their laptop. The chess museum is smaller than my kitchen and that museum guy is one creepy russian. looking forward to early mornings and great games. cheers

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
And Anand goes out with a splat.

evobatman
Jul 30, 2006

it means nothing, but says everything!
Pillbug
I watch this for Anastasia Karlovich, the queen of press conference management and microphone technology.

King Pawn
Apr 24, 2010

Hand Knit posted:

By turdy I mean largely stale without much opportunity for play. Even if not strictly in theory, it's a very dry, well-trod position that doesn't offer either player much of anything.

I hope we get eight more turdy openings :v:

OrangeKing
Dec 5, 2002

They do play in October!
Geez, you sleep in for a few hours and the game is already over. Even ignoring the results, these were two very Carlsen-esque games, and I imagine he's very pleased.

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
PGN:
White: Carlsen
Black: Anand

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.O-O d6 6.Re1 O-O 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.h3 Re8 9.Nbd2 Nd7 10.Nc4 Bb6 11.a4 a5 12.Nxb6 cxb6 13.d4 Qc7 14.Ra3 Nf8 15.dxe5 dxe5 16.Nh4 Rd8 17.Qh5 f6 18.Nf5 Be6 19.Rg3 Ng6 20.h4 Bxf5 21.exf5 Nf4 22.Bxf4 exf4 23.Rc3 c5 24.Re6 Rab8 25.Rc4 Qd7 26.Kh2 Rf8 27.Rce4 Rb7 28.Qe2 b5 29.b3 bxa4 30.bxa4 Rb4 31.Re7 Qd6 32.Qf3 Rxe4 33.Qxe4 f3+ 34.g3 h5 35.Qb7 1-0

This game was really similar to last game, as well as a bunch from the previous tournament. Anand simply appears to be planless, which is strange because match strategy was his advantage in the Kramnik and Topalov matches. He seemed to accept a toothless opening without putting any consideration into what he would do next. Consequently, once the position reached equality, Anand flailed around and lost very directly.

King Pawn posted:

I hope we get eight more turdy openings :v:

So long as Carlsen can reliably sit there with his dick in his hand while Anand reduces to a major piece endgame he doesn't know how to play then yes we will.

Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Nov 9, 2014

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
I like Anand's choice in opening, even if I can see him losing this very easily. Lots of pieces, lots of ideas, and a passed pawn on the 7 already.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


Didn't know another of these was happening, though I don't have high hopes for the rematch. Is there a website doing streaming commentary for the matches? The Chess24 stream is a bit uninspired.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Nov 11, 2014

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



http://www.twitch.tv/chessnetwork

Edit: Personally, I like the official stream better, though.

Elyv fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Nov 11, 2014

Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..
After 26...g5, I don't know that Magnus understands this position as well as others. This looks like there is a way for white to win with correct play, and the relative clock times (52 minutes for Anand, 13 for Carlsen, 13 moves to time control), I think Anand has very good chances.

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Hand Knit
Oct 24, 2005

Beer Loses more than a game Sunday ...
We lost our Captain, our Teammate, our Friend Kelly Calabro...
Rest in Peace my friend you will be greatly missed..



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