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It is all about losses not about wins. No creative chess, no ideas, no perfect execution of a plan. Chess in a Canadian weekender is much more exciting. I do not follow the live commentary, but I guess the players got the commentator they deserve - lifeless chess - lifeless commentary.
Yes, I know, I should not criticize them so much :-)
Accuracy is important and probably there were more blunders before the computer age came about, but also more ideas, more risk-taking, and better understanding of positions. I guess the 2700+ players spend much more time learning computer variations then really understanding the nuances of positions (even Caruna aknowledged that in a recent interview).
Turning off the engine while following the games does not really help much. Computers analyze moves, not concepts.
Originally posted by Laurentiu GrigorescuView Post
I guess the 2700+ players spend much more time learning computer variations then really understanding the nuances of positions (even Caruna aknowledged that in a recent interview).
I think the good players spend most of their time using a computer as a tool in order to understand the fine nuances in a position.
But at some point, over the board, they are on their own. You should try it, it's a lot of fun, actually.
If Fabiano can take first, he can pass Shakhriyar Mamedyarov currently holding second in the Grand Prix. This will get Fabiano into the 2014 Candidates' Tournament.
Bob A
Last edited by Bob Armstrong; Wednesday, 2nd October, 2013, 11:24 AM.
I have an app for my Ipad, Social Chess. The setting are for a move a day BUT sometimes I get a player who simply plays the game at a reasonable speed so the game can finish in couple of hours. If I get the feeling I'm playing a computer I end the game.
In spite of the valiant efforts of Grischuk and Caruana to win, their games resulted in draws as did those of the rest of the field. The standings with two rounds to go are:
The Nakamura game ended with two bare kings on the board whereas the Gelfand one had eight pawns each at the end, with rooks and queens and knights and bishops gone. Dominguez was drawn by perpetual and Bacrot by repetition of position. What more can one say?
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Tomashevsky-Grischuk was King’s Indian 5.h3, 51 moves. This was characterized by someone as The Professor versus The Gambler.
Grischuk sacrificed a pawn early in the game for initiative, but Tomashevsky was not about to play his game and decided to focus in development rather than material gains. Grischuk aggressively expanded and won the pair of bishops but Tomashevsky struck back by getting in the e5 break and strongly placing his knights, matching the power of his opponent's bishops. The duel came to whether the passed pawn on d6 was weak or strong; if it was captured quickly Black would have an overwhelming advantage, but if not maybe Tomashevsky could use it to pin Grischuk to his back ranks. Unfortunately the d-pawn disappeared very soon, as Tomashevsky found himself forced to sacrifice it for activity by his rooks and to eliminate the light squared bishop. Grischuk countered by sacrificing his own pawn to activate his dark-squared bishop, and soon afterwards the game ended in a draw in an interesting rook endgame. (CB)
Alina – Alexander, you tried everything today to catch up (to first place) with your comrades..
Alexander – I cannot catch up with anyone; it would be a silly dream. Just to play…
Giri-Caruana was a QP game, 65 moves
Despite using a rather strange opening Caruana had nothing to complain about after ten moves of chess. Giri's set-up was solid but not too ambitious and Black had an acceptable Benoni despite putting his bishop on e7. The game went back and forth until Black was allowed to play the move 25...c4! and it was clear that Caruana held an edge. An important inaccuracy on move 31 allowed White to retain a strong knight on e4, which should have been kicked out immediately and maybe Black could have had some winning chances. In the game Caruana sacrificed an exchange for a pawn and counter-chances against White's exposed king. Giri misplayed the position by allowing Black to consolidate his king, he should have struck back with 47.h4! but even without this his position was strong enough to hold to a draw.(CB)
Black had N and two pawns for his rook and you felt that he could grind Giri down with his relentless technique in the endgame, but he couldn’t.
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Internet Comments
- Grischuk would need an unlikely to impossible amount of help from two other players to finish in sole first place and qualify for the candidates event: He can get 6.5 points maximum. Nakamura and Gelfand play each other tomorrow, so whatever the result is, one of them will (already) have at least 6.5 points - except if the result is 0-0 (both players being late for the game, or both mobile phones ringing simultaneously). Caruana's fate isn't in his hands alone either: he already played against Nakamura and Gelfand, so he cannot control their final score - I wonder which result he wants/prefers for Nakamura-Gelfand tomorrow.
To me it seems that both Caruana and Grischuk already took considerable risks with black today, about as much as possible without looking stupid and (borrowed from Kramnik) "losing like an idiot".
- Is Tomashevsky the new draw king?
- We will find out when Toma has the black pieces vs Caruana tomorrow. I predict 1-0 in that game. Nakamura will have his hands full against a furious Gelfand who must try to win with black. Last time Nakamura faced Gelfand in a similar situation with the white pieces, a tournament lead and after a rest day in Tal memorial he choked so lets see if he can at least hold a draw or possibly win with the white pieces.
- I think Gelfand is experienced and objective enough that he won't be furious, i.e. to take major unwarranted risks with the black pieces tomorrow - something like shared second place in the event is still a fine result for him (his situation is, after all, different from Caruana's).
Repeating what I already mentioned: Nakamura winning with white against Gelfand would be unprecedented, his score with white so far (including rapid and blitz): =3-8.
- Yes Gelfand is one of the few players who consistently punish Nakamura. Most of that abuse was years in the past through in recent times it has been mainly draws but still in Gelfand's favor. Nakamura would do well to get a draw and provide some problems for Giri to solve in the ultimate round. Gelfand is a universal player, like Magnus it is not easy to identify weaknesses and if you try something speculative he will usually sniff it out. On the other hand Gelfand's form has not been the best the last two rounds. He might be getting tired. Some inaccuracies are also piling up for Nakamura who had been largely flawless from rounds 2-8. Will be very exciting.
[And an amusing comment from chessbomb, comparing Giri and Carlsen:
- he definitely needs to work on his endgame, but give the kid a break. He's only 19, youngest in the tournament
- When Carlsen was nineteen he was killing anacondas in the Amazonas with his teeth]
+++++++++++
Two weeks ago I had never heard of Sergei Tiviakov. In the past week I’ve met him three times, so to speak. First, he is in the pop-up on the chessbase site with a new instructional DVD on the French with 3.Nd2. Second, in two games with Kramnik in his My Life and Games and third, a thirteen-page spread in New in Chess 2007/6. It has Tiviakov’s by-line and reports the Canadian Open in Ottawa and the Montreal International six years ago.
Sergei had an interesting comment yesterday on the growth of chess knowledge. It was during the Wang Hao-Dominguez game discussion:
“The theory of opening variations grows with each day. I can remember when I got my first computer. It was in 1994 and the largest chess database was only 300,000 games. Twenty years afterwards, the database is 12 million games. So, you cannot even imagine how much more information is available to any chess player all over the world. So, it means if you compare previous times and now, you have to work, work and work more. The life of the chess professional has become more difficult. Not only the volume of the chess information you have to go through is much higher but also the general level of chess has increased dramatically. It might have been easy before to win against any lower-rated player but now even amateurs can play good games.”
Caruana-Tomashevsky – Caruana’s task looked formidable – to beat Tomashevsky, who had drawn all his games so far. The opening, a Caro-Kann surprised Fabiano. In a passive position, Tomashevsky sacrificed a pawn and defended stubbornly until move 27... Bc5.
Here Caruana struck with 28. Nxc5 Qxc5 29. Nxe6! fxe6 30. Bxe6+ Kh8 31. Bxf5 Bxf5 32. Qxh5+ Bh7 33. Qe8+ Bg8 34. e6! and the e-pawn proved unstoppable.
Caruana now shares the lead with Gelfand.
- Caruana really deserves a candidates place either by winning this or a wild card . He truly looks like someone with potential to be clear number two after Carlsen.
++++++++++
Nakamura-Gelfand - Over the past years, Gelfand frequently chose solid openings with Black, such as the Petroff and the Sveshnikov Sicilian. Today, he adopted a more ambitious attitude, by switching to the ultra-sharp Najdorf Sicilian, one of the first chess loves from his youth. The choice proved very inspired, catching Nakamura a bit unaware, who put the blame for his loss on two consecutive and unfortunate queen moves right after the opening.
Boris developed a mounting attack, and in mutual time trouble delivered the final blow.
Both Gelfand and Caruana deserved their wins. They stepped up to the plate when it was required and gave outstanding performances.
- Absolutely brilliant game by Boris Gelfand. Reminds his critics how good he always has been, and still is.
- Gelfand is in the best shape since early nineties, good news for chess fans.
+++++++++++
Pairings for the Eleventh and Final Round
Wang Hao(4.5)-Fressinet(4)
Bacrot(6)-Grischuk(5)
Dominguez(5)-Caruana(6.5)
Tomashevsky(4.5)-Ivanchuk(4.5)
Giri(3)-Nakamura(6)
Gelfand(6.5)-Ponomariov(4.5)
Now Caruana and Gelfand have 6.5 points. Caruana has to take clear first in order to surpass Mamedyarov in overall Grand Prix standings.
[In the interview portion of the coverage, earlier in the day, Sergei Tiviakov talked with Professor Ken Regan, a member of the joint ACP-FIDE Anti-Cheating Committee about his work. It was much too long to set down here so I have given my transcript of the conversation in a thread on this Forum entitled Work of the FIDE Anti-Cheating Committee.]
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Saturday, 5th October, 2013, 01:32 AM.
Reason: added results and end note
Just looking at the game score, without a board, it looks like white didn't want to play against 6. ... Ng4. So he played 7. Bc1 Nf6. Then he played 8. Be3 again. I thought the way to avoid playing against Ng4 was to have played 8. f3 with Be3 to follow the next move.
Caruana said at some point in the opening, there wasn’t a single idea for Black and it was still possible to lose. He said that if he lost and Boris lost, he would never forgive himself!
+++++++++
Gelfand-Ponomariov is a draw. Ruslan was surprised that Caruana’s game ended in a draw so quickly.
Boris said he played the standard moves and they led to nowhere. It was very difficult for both sides to make useful moves. Draw by repetition.
Boris said that two out of three tournaments have gone well, but he collapsed in two of them in the Grand Prix cycle (Beijing and Tashkent?). If he had made 50% in one of them, he would have qualified. He likes the idea of Grand Prix series.
In two days Ponomariov goes to Bucharest. Gelfand was invited as well, but he declined as it is too close to the ending of this tournament.
+++++++++
Giri-Nakamura finishes in a draw. Today Hikaru is happy with his play. He feels bad that in this tournament he lost to Boris, wishes it could have been anyone else.
- Draws in the final round for Caruana, Gelfand and Nakamura. So Caruana misses on this Candidates. I expect to see him there one of these cycles. Fine tournament for him, +4=6-1 and tied for first with Gelfand.
- Congrats Gelfy for winning the tournament! As Monokroussos writes about who has been the best player of the year 2013 - Carlsen may deserve that distinction but ONLY IF he can beat Anand, otherwise Gelfy has been the best player of 2013.
++++++++++
Both Wang Hao-Fressinet and Tomashevsky-Ivanchuk were draws.
Vassily gave me a laugh, when analyzing his endgame with Tomashevsky at the Press Conference, he said, ”It is not easy to understand these pawn structures. If everything is better, what is worse?”
Total Games – 66
1-0 13 Games = 19.7%
0.5-0.5 46 Games = 69.7%
0-1 7 Games = 10.6%
++++++++++
After the first few days the videos were fixed and were available.
Sergei Tiviakov had a baptism by fire. Providing the sole colour and analytical commentary for at least five hours a day was very fatiguing. He admitted near the end that he could really have used a colleague in the next chair. He has to learn to subdue his own ego when discussing the games. Alina L’Ami did a good job with the press conferences but could have used a strong floor director. Her photos and summaries were very good.
The players going to the 2014 Candidates are:
1) The loser of the WCC 2013 Match - Anand/Carlsen
2) The top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2013 – Kramnik, Andreikin
3) The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012-2013 - Topalov, Mamedyarov
4) The next two highest players from World Cup or Grand Prix – Aronian, Karjakin
5) Organizing Committee’ s wild card (July 2013 rating must be at least 2725) – TBA
I would assume that the Organizing Committee will select one of their country’s own!
++++++++++++++
Internet Comments
- Carlsen and Caruana's behavior in the last round of their last respective tournaments is a good indicator of why Carlsen is playing a World Championship match next month, and Caruana is just another GM.
- Carlsen declined a draw offer because he was better at that stage; Caruana accepted a move repetition because he thought he would be worse after the alternatives (15./17./19. - Qd8 or 16./18. - e5!?). He said afterwards "I couldn't forgive myself if I took too much risk and lose, and then Gelfand also loses". Also, the importance of the two events isn't exactly comparable.
Also, Carlsen plays a WCh match because tiebreaks in the candidates event happened to favor him. Caruana might have qualified if the GP series had tiebreaks for first place in individual events (both Sonneborn-Berger and direct result favor him over Gelfand). Granted, this depends on how the threeway tie at the London GP between Topalov, Mamedyarov and Gelfand had been broken.
- Caruana was the 7th player to break 2700 at the age of 20, has been consistently top 5 in the world for the last 2 years, and is the only player to beat Carlsen twice in the last 2 years (2012 and 2013) and overall has an equal score to Carlsen.
He also just won the Grand Prix in case you didn't notice, but please feel free to denigrate him because he accepted a move repetition when he had no choice to deviate except if he wanted to lose - which is of course what you wanted.
- Overall, Caruana's performance at the Grand Prix seems to be more impressive to me than Mamedyarov's. If we summed over all grand prix tournaments, Caruana would be on the top, even above Topalov. Also, if we add up the number of points (in the usual, not the grand prix count) Caruana got in his three best grand prix tournaments, it's one more than Mamedyarov got in his three best.
Looking at the results of this year, Caruana, Nakamura and Gelfand are the most obvious choices for a wildcard.
- Nah, the Russians won't pay to hold the event in Khanty to invite someone else than Grischuk or Svidler. Maybe Gelfand's millionaire friend could buy him a spot instead, but I think it will be Khanty and Grischuk in the end.
- The wildcard should be given to Houdini! I think it is time to have computers at this stage and see how well they perform against the elite human grandmasters! For this reason, I hope FIDE will make the wise decision and invite Boris Ivanov and his shoes as the representative for Houdini for the next Candidates tournament!
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Friday, 4th October, 2013, 10:07 PM.
Reason: added commentary and final results
Paradoxically, the players that finished 1-3 in this tournament still have a chance to be picked up by the organizers of the Candidates. By rating, overall results in all tournaments, and long standing career, Gelfand, Caruana, and Nakamura should be on the "short list". I would also like to see a Chinese player (Wang Hao may be) for the first time in the Candidates. We will see.
Ponomariov, Caruana, and Wang Hao are all playing in Bucharest along with Radjabov and Romania's no. 1 player Dieter Nisipeanu.
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