US Chess Championship starts

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Maurice talks further on funky opening choices. Apparently in Sharevich - Ni Victoria Ni chose to play the Czech Benoni and at move 11 after answering Bb5+ with Kf8 and reaching a position where no pieces are developed Maurice points out that Anna Sharevich says to herself so you want to play that way and 0-0 and plays f4 opening the F-file directly at the king. At this point White has 5 pieces developed attacking and Black has no pieces developed. White should play Morphy style. Yasser adds (calmly and rationally explaining): I used to play these openings my self (referring to blacks defence) - it looks awful but if black can find something against the e5 push and d6 then black should be ok.

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

referring to above Yasser asks Maurice what do you think of GM Gareevs opening choice today Maurice: I think GM Gareev is going to beam himself into outer space to play those aliens - no seriously hes using psychology on his individual opponents but although Gata Kamsky doesn't like wild openings hes seen it all before and something like that is not going to phase him (referring to Gareevs choice of the Wing gambit of the Sicilian defence) Yasser says: I admire GM Gareevs courage in playing the Wings Gambit at the highest level.

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Maurice Ashleyism for rd 4: those funky opening choices

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

and now the stage is set for round 4 and the Hikaru Nakamura - Wesley So matchup! Cant wait! 2pm here we come! Grab a beer and invite Yasser and Maurice and Jen! (and all the great players!) onto the big screen in my living room! This is much better than hockey or baseball or football - chess action with great commentary! - it doesnt get better!! (ok - well live in St Louis might be a tad better0 - but then Id have to travel, deal with the border etc yadda yadda)

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 Ray Robson played an excellent game against Conrad Holt complete with innovation! and is now tied for the lead with Hikaru Nakamura!

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 Alex Onischuk found the fantastic Nd4! against Kayden Troff and was clearly winning but couldnt pull it off (highly unusual for Alex who is world renowned for his technique!)

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 Hikaru Nakamura missed a golden opportunity against Gata Kamsky> He was all over Gata and must have been winning but then collapsed and Gata came up with a miracle save!! (and was close to winning!)

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 Wesley So's play has definitely been off. He missed h4! anchoring his knight on g5 against Sevian ( a move Wesley would normally never miss) which would have stopped any counterplay. Give Sam Sevian credit - he blew up the position and created a winning counterattack with almost no time on the clock! What an upset! Wesley was the perfect gentleman after his loss - how often do you see that?

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 What a strange round! Nazi Paikidze absolutely crushed Irina Krush with kingside threats and a central pawn storm! Poor Irina's queen was huddled all alone trying to defend her king! I have never seen her (recently) crushed like that!

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Jennifer Shahade in response to Maurice's words above asked Yasser as a bet if he could ask his opponent to play this opening in return for deducting time from his clock, how much time would he be willing to deduct? Half an hour? Yasser without hesitation - sure! An hour? No, no, no - an hour is way too much time! and then went on to give an interesting story about that from his tournament experience.

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Rd 3 was pegged to be wild with upsets called for by Maurice and Yasser. It started with GM Gareev showing up with a funky shirt and playing as black 1,d4 d6 2.Nf3 h6 3.e4 g5. Maurice Ashley who does not mince words called this a garbage opening. GM Akobian (as white) started thinking really using time and Maurice said stop thinking and just play e4. Stop trying to read your opponents mind. Who knows whats in his mind? Nobody knows whats in Gareevs mind! Maurice brings all the passion needed to his commentary (maybe too much so) and sure creates an exciting mood!

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

In defence of Yasser is that there is no one like Yasser! what a legend! and the perfect gentleman who adds calmness, balance and yet interesting background colour to the commentary.

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Id like to mention that Alejandro Ramirez was cocommentator in round 2. What a great commentator. He was witty, funny, and extremely knowledge on the intricacies of playing competitive chess and he knew all the players well. He would deliver down to earth insights into positions quickly and was not afraid to differ in opinion from Yasser when the position called for it. Perhaps the best of all was that he was the perfect foil for Yasser and made him sharper in his analysis. I hope to see more of his commentary!

[Hans Jung]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

The only answer to those betting odds Jack is we'll see. Wesley is a fantastic resourceful player but against him is that he's black and that he lost a tension filled game yesterday. In his favor is that Hikaru messed up his game against Gata.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: US Chess Championship starts

Nakamura and So will play their 2nd ever game of classical chess this afternoon. Their only other encounter was a 27-move draw at Tata Steel 2014 with So playing White. Naka is White today and is the 37/25 betting favourite, which strikes me as decidedly excessive. So is 69/10 with the most likely outcome considered another draw, 87/100.

https://www.marathonbet.com/en/betting/Chess/