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 The World Championship is here (yesterday, technically). It features champion Magnus Carlsen at his most insecure, defending against American Fabiano Caruana. This is a bit of a hurried thread since I forgot to make it in time for yesterdays game! Places to watch: Official Site — You have to pay and it sucks. Don't use it. Chess24 — My favourite. Features Sopiko Guramishvilli, Peter Svidler, and Sasha Grischuk. Svidler is, in my mind, the best chess commentator going. Him and Jan Gustaffson play off each other fantastically, especially when bored. Chess.com — I think they've hired the Chessbrahs to do it again this year. Quite popular with people here. Schedule: All games start at 3PM London, UK time Caruana has white 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 Carlsen has white 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11 Round 1: November 9 1/2 Carlsen generates a winning advantage but somehow fails to convert. I am not use to him not winning these kinds of games. Round 2: November 10 1/2 Caruana gets the better of Carlsen in the opening, but Carlsen manages to defang play and the game is quickly drawn. Round 3: November 12 1/2 Caruana improves on the game 1 opening but lets control of the a-file slip. Carlsen generates good play in the endgame but can't find a winning plan. Round 4: November 13 1/2 Carlsen gets a small stable advantage but just doesn't seem to try to do anything with it. Round 5 November 15 1/2 A wing gambit! Despite Carlsen marching his king down the board before move 30, a surprisingly straightforward draw. Round 6: November 16 1/2 Game of the tournament. Carlsen plays a weird variation on the Petroff that quickly turns into a queenless symmetrical position. Somehow this ends up with Carlsen giving a piece for three pawns to try and hold an endgame. He plays perfect-to-the-human-eye defence, but apparently somewhere around move 67 there's a win. Neither player sees it. Round 7: November 18 1/2 I was unavailable for this game but it doesn't look like much happened. Carlsen went back to his game 2 opening, as expected, but didn't seem to accomplish anything. Or even come close. Round 8: November 19 1/2 A top level Sveshnikov?! Caruana developed a very good advantage out of the opening, but seemed to punt it very quickly. This game seems to have crystallized the narrative that Carlsen is having trouble with Caruana's opening preparation, but Caruana's actual play has been very inadequate. Round 9: November 21 1/2 Magnus finally gets the better of the opening, and looks to be on his way to a possibly-winning game until he overlooks 25. h5 gxh5. Round 10: November 22 1/2 A dynamic-looking game that is too poorly played to go anywhere. Carlsen nearly blunders a good endgame into a straight loss. Round 11: November 24 1/2 [farting noises] Round 12: November 26 Tie-Breaks: November 28 Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Nov 26, 2018 |
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Nov 10, 2018 15:33
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Hand Knit posted:Places to watch: Basically every chess twitch streamer is also doing live commentary, so if you prefer to get Ben Finegold or Luís Fernández Siles you can do that.
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Nov 10, 2018 15:54
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ulmont posted:Basically every chess twitch streamer is also doing live commentary, so if you prefer to get Ben Finegold or Luís Fernández Siles you can do that. Haha gently caress Agon.
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Nov 10, 2018 16:00
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAFhdYU3Tao Queen's Gambit Declined today. Not standard Magnus fare, so let's see where he takes it.
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Nov 10, 2018 16:02
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Weird that Carlsen didn't win yesterday. I'm watching Finegold cover it today because I found the chess.com guys yesterday to be solid but kinda boring and I unironically love watching Finegold make the same five jokes over and over again in the most sarcastic voice imaginable.
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Nov 10, 2018 16:21
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(After 15 moves) This is one of those positions that I don't feel comfortable with from either side. Both queensides feel too weak to me. Overall I think I prefer white, due to the space advantage and the possibility of putting the bishop on f3, which feels strong here.
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Nov 10, 2018 17:10
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Hand Knit posted:Chess.com — I think they've hired the Chessbrahs to do it again this year. Quite popular with people here.
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Nov 10, 2018 17:16
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It's a goddamn travesty that Jan Gustafsson isn't doing the chess24 stream. I'd much rather have him instead of Grishchuk (I say as a 1200 player, please feel free to ignore me  ) (and yes I know it's because he's almost certainly helping out Magnus).
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Nov 10, 2018 17:18
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Dancer posted:It's a goddamn travesty that Jan Gustafsson isn't doing the chess24 stream. I'd much rather have him instead of Grishchuk (I say as a 1200 player, please feel free to ignore me Where is Jan?
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Nov 10, 2018 17:52
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algebra testes posted:Where is Jan? Team Magnus
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Nov 10, 2018 17:59
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Love Yasser, hate chessbrahs, go magnus!
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Nov 10, 2018 18:01
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I like to pop in during the WCC and pretend that I know chess at all. From what I've seen from commentary, it looks like Carlsen is steering them towards another draw with those last couple moves?
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Nov 10, 2018 18:10
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Teddybear posted:I like to pop in during the WCC and pretend that I know chess at all. From what I've seen from commentary, it looks like Carlsen is steering them towards another draw with those last couple moves? His position is objectively bad/drawn, but he has some practical ideas. If anything he's trying to find a win somewhere, 30 moves down the line.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:23
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Love Yasser, hate chessbrahs
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Nov 10, 2018 18:33
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Teddybear posted:I like to pop in during the WCC and pretend that I know chess at all. From what I've seen from commentary, it looks like Carlsen is steering them towards another draw with those last couple moves? My understanding is it's a drawn position but Carlsen likes to keep playing drawn positions to see if he can eke out a marginal advantage and go for the win.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:37
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If you have a passed pawn on the 6 and you're not losing, might as well play on.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:41
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Revenge of the 3v2 rook endgame.
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Nov 10, 2018 19:08
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They called it, draw confirmed.
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Nov 10, 2018 19:11
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so much for magnus winning it easily
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Nov 10, 2018 19:12
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A very back to the drawing board game for Magnus. I don't think he got anything that he wanted.
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Nov 10, 2018 19:13
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Two games where white had to hold a draw. Pretty unexpected. But a good sign for the tournament. Unless both players decide to respec to boring over the rest day.
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Nov 10, 2018 19:38
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:so much for magnus winning it easily No one could possibly had seriously though Magnus was winning it easily. Caruana is one of 3 people who can go toe-to-toe with Magnus any day of the week. (Mamedyarov is the other. Kramnik is the third.) also: Game 2 feels like a recovery game from game 1. Magnus effect is probably not in play here. Caruana is not as scared of Carlsen as most other players in the world, so he should be able to keep his head. Also Magnus is playing someone younger than him for the first time in his WCC run. Can't run long brutal games to wear his opponent down physically. This match is going to produce an immortal at some point. tonberrytoby posted:Two games where white had to hold a draw. Pretty unexpected. Does Carlsen have a boring setting? Caruana has played aggressive all year too. Jonny Nox fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Nov 10, 2018 |
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Nov 10, 2018 20:42
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My stupid newsfeed keeps spoiling the game results for me in the headlines. I just want to wait and find out what happens in the agadmator videos.
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Nov 10, 2018 22:04
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Inferior Third Season posted:My stupid newsfeed keeps spoiling the game results for me in the headlines. I just want to wait and find out what happens in the agadmator videos. I'll be able to watch game 3 live but after that, It's going to be get spoiled, watch Dan King break it down.
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Nov 10, 2018 22:25
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrSEUaGkvgA Another semi-open, reasonably dynamic position for Carlsen. I feel like he's reasonably happy as black here.
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Nov 12, 2018 16:36
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I completely forgot about this until now, but at least there’s a game today and the match is tied! Can’t wait to watch playback of the first 3 games.
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Nov 13, 2018 11:07
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Have there been any real, highlight "wow!" moments so far?
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Nov 13, 2018 11:22
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Drone posted:Have there been any real, highlight "wow!" moments so far? Magnus loving up a win in round 1?
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Nov 13, 2018 11:44
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Drone posted:Have there been any real, highlight "wow!" moments so far? Carlsen was really dominant for like the first 30 moves in game 1 and that was a wow moment but then he decided to draw instead of winning and since then it's been pretty careful and even.
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Nov 13, 2018 12:01
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I thought the opening choice was interesting in game 3. Is there a good analysis on what the traps were? I'm certain there was something beyond the pawn sacrifice. Game 2 was weird. It was like Fabi was playing for a draw with white. Never once in the game was there any tension or real attacking chances.
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Nov 13, 2018 13:22
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https://twitter.com/TarjeiJS/status/1062322566642196482 The St Louis Chess Club might have accidentally leaked some of Caruana's prep. Hob_Gadling posted:I thought the opening choice was interesting in game 3. Is there a good analysis on what the traps were? I'm certain there was something beyond the pawn sacrifice. Carlsen was white in game 2. It looked like he was completely unprepared for Rd8. White actually has lines to play for a good game after that, but they're very complicated and I guess Carlsen didn't want to play a double-edged game. Carlsen went for a much quieter game because his first priority was avoiding Caruana's prep.
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Nov 13, 2018 13:40
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Hand Knit posted:It looked like he was completely unprepared for Rd8.
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Nov 13, 2018 15:44
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We got a four knights English today. Straight up and down so far. e: I play this as white. I'm watching closely what Magnus goes for because, well, I'm not entirely confident with what to do. I know that white wants to put a rook on c1 to support the knight going to c5, but I can never figure out where to put my bishop or how to do that fast enough. e2: I also wouldn't be surprised if Carlsen doesn't go for the obvious first-choice plan. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Nov 13, 2018 |
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Nov 13, 2018 16:03
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Hand Knit posted:Carlsen was white in game 2. Eh, yes. But still, the entire game looks like it was played safely to a draw as white with no chances taken.
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Nov 13, 2018 16:13
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So is Finegold streaming? Where can I find that? His Twitch is offline. Chess.com is bland and Chess24 is too quiet on the computer I can currently use, and it's also Soviet-style ugly. I mean, look at them. 
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Nov 13, 2018 17:43
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I'm watching Finegold on Twitch right now so  https://www.twitch.tv/gmbenjaminfinegold
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Nov 13, 2018 17:50
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Game 4 has reached a very classic Carlsen position at move 27. Even material with a slight imbalance in the pawn structure that gives Carlsen the opportunity to grind something out while Caruana has to block. Wonder if Carlsen still has it...
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Nov 13, 2018 18:32
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If he does, he decided not to show it. Draw agreed.
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Nov 13, 2018 18:45
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A little depressing to see Carlsen play to a draw so easily from that position by move 34. This is an ultra conservative mentality and is very boring to watch. There was no obvious path to win on the board but young Carlsen would have at least tried.
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Nov 13, 2018 18:48
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Flayer posted:A little depressing to see Carlsen play to a draw so easily from that position by move 34. This is an ultra conservative mentality and is very boring to watch. There was no obvious path to win on the board but young Carlsen would have at least tried. Maybe he's aiming for them rapid tie-breakers .
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Nov 13, 2018 19:21
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