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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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I played a tournament in the early 90s where my opponent (a Canadian IM) obviously didn't realize the time control was at move 45 instead of move 40, so I told him on my time at roughly move 38 (when he was down to under a minute) to go ask the arbiter and come back and I wouldn't move. In the early 2000s I was in a time scramble with an American IM where he hit the clock, but his time kept going, so we just agreed he made time control and kept playing anyway. There are often non-standard solutions to non-standard problems. Still, I agree that Carlsen is totally at fault for not knowing the time control.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
I played a master in the Bermuda tournament a few years ago. TC was at 40 moves. He made a move and I responded but only then realized that he had not pressed the clock. As the 40th move approached, I went over to the TD and explained that his clock was showing one move short---I think the TD (the redoubtable Carol Jarecki) thought I was pulling something. As I feared, he played his 40th with seconds left and then took his time on his 41st only to have the flag fall. This time, the TD took matters seriously and reset the clocks. The game ended in a very long draw, the last game to finish in the event. It was only at the awards ceremony afterwards that my opponent, Andrei Moffatt, bought me a drink as he had finally figured out what had happened.
The tournament director comes on with Jan and Dirk after issuing an apology on the official website:
Official apology
Published June 18, 2015
On behalf of the Grand Chess Tour and the Chief arbiter, as well as personally, I would like to apologize to the players for the insufficient information with regards to the time control.
Although the information was on the www.grandchesstour.com and was also announced prior to the first round, we learned that several players, during the first round, were not aware of the new and unconventional time control. This fact tells us that our work providing the information leaves room for improvement. For this, we are truly sorry, and especially towards Magnus Carlsen who lost his first game due to not being aware of the time control.
Sincerely,
Jøran Aulin-Jansson, Norway Chess
In the Rules and Regulations section there is an interesting appeal committee:
Appeals
A player can appeal against a decision of the Chief Arbiter to the Appeals Committee, which shall comprise FM Jøran Aulin Jansson, GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Sopiko Guramishvili. The reserve is GM Jan Gustafsson.
Presumably, if Anish Giri lodges an appeal, Sopiko would recuse herself.
______
Aben Rudy of Scottsdale, Arizona tweets – Is it the arbiter these days that calls the flag down? In the 50s it was the opponent. I can recall a game in the Reshevsky-Donald Byrne Match when Reshevsky’s wife shouted out, “Sammy, Byrne’s flag is down” and caused a minor riot.
This has been written about online: One of the bigger disputes in American chess history. In the first game of the 1957 match, Byrne's flag had fallen, and Reshevsky offered a draw, not noticing this fact. Byrne accepted, and the draw stood, because Reshevsky hadn't claimed the flag-fall before the game ended.
In this, the 2nd game, Byrne's flag fell again, and again Reshevsky didn't notice. Then Reshevsky's flag fell too. Neither player noticed. However, Mrs. Reshevsky, sitting in the audience, remembering that the important point was to claim the game... claimed it herself!
Aside from the illegality of a spectator calling a flag fall, Byrne pointed out that under the rules then in force, only the player on the move could claim a time forfeit. Since it was his move, he claimed the game himself.
An appeals committee was organized, which Byrne objected to, on the grounds that it was impromptu and not provided for in the match rules. The Committee came up with the concept of "ocular evidence", i.e. the only way it was known that the flag was down was by seeing it, and eyewitness testimony is notoriously fallible.
According to Morton Siegel, "The committee substituted its concept of justice for adherence to the rules", and declared the game a draw. By the time this dispute was settled, two more games had been played, both draws, and Byrne walked out of the match. He was later persuaded to return, but ended up losing by a 7-3 score.
_______
The last time I heard of Rudy, he was asking about the venue of the first four New York City games in the Reshevsky-Fischer Match. The answer: At the Hotel Empire across from where the Lincoln Center is now.
He is the Russian-Belgian coach of Fabiano. There is a game where you have to name the ten most famous Belgians – and now Chuchelov can be added to the list, which includes Audrey Hepburn, Eddy Merckx, Adolphe Sax, Peter Paul Rubens and … well, I cannot remember the others.
Vladimir has also coached Giri, von Wely and Radjabov. He says the difference in them is the working attitude. Fabiano can keep a high level of concentration when working and when playing. He lives in Spain and Vladimir lives in Belgium and they communicate by Skype. Dirk says that Fabiano owns a house in Florida but will be moving to the States but not there. He is asked about his schedule being a second but he smiles a lot, laughs and gives up no useable information.
______
Quiz Question from yesterday – Did Magnus ever lose a classical game on time before?
The answer is that it was in 2004, at the Drammen International Chess Festival. The official site says Magnus lost on time because he had missed out a line in his scoresheet by mistake and therefore thought he had already made 40 moves. It is said that he glanced over at Korchnoi’s sheet and it looked like the moves had been made but they had not – some sharp practice from Viktor against his 14-year-old opponent. Does anyone know the story?
The winner of a year’s sub to NIC is Olle Schmoranz from Gamleby, Sweden.
Dirk says that in the next issue of New In Chess there is a long interview with the prodigy Wei Yi.
Quiz Question for Round Three
There have been impressive runs by the World Champions who have remained unbeaten for a long time. Which former World Champion remained unbeaten (in official classical games) for the highest number of games?
Answer tomorrow.
________
Jon Ludvig Hammer comes in. Everybody is happy for him since he has picked up his first sponsor – a food supplement firm. He is then shooed out because Nakamura comes in to discuss his win. Carlsen-Giri is still going on. Would you like to be the World Champion with three pawns against one black knight or his opponent in the endgame?
The Games
Stavanger 2015
Round 3, June 18, 2015
Nakamura, Hikaru – Caruana, Fabiano
A35 English, Symmetrical, Four Knights System
The website writes that ( http://2015.norwaychess.com/supertou...-2015/14218-2/ ) " Rate of Play
The time limit shall be 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by the rest of the game in 1 hour with a 30-second increment from move 41."
In the post Wayne Komer wrote
"60.Qg5+ Kf7 0-1
SENSATION!
In a clearly winning position, Carlsen forgets there are no increments and oversteps the time limit and loses. This after seven hours of play. "
He lost due to lack of additional one hour after 60 moves, not because of no more 30 sec/move (increment). That what I understood reading elsewhere.
There have been impressive runs by the World Champions who have remained unbeaten for a long time. Which former World Champion remained unbeaten (in official classical games) for the highest number of games?
My guess Capablanca "for a long time" "Capablanca's defeat at the hands of Richard Réti in the fifth round (New York, 1924) was his first in serious competition in eight years"
The venue is the Utstein Monastery. This was built between 1260 and 1340 and was Catholic until the Reformation. The players are in the library. Jan says that the books are intimidating because they can fall on you or catch on fire. He has never heard of anything good coming out of books. Sounds very tongue in cheek.
A monastery would have lots of confessionals presumably, so the players today would have no trouble explaining their games. Actually, the television confessional was set up by the Norwegian Network and none of the footage has been aired online yet.
________
Caruana has a history against the Najdorf. He has really done badly against it. He has lost the last two against MVL and lost 6 of the last 10 games against the Najdorf, which is unheard of in a world-class player as White.
In Anand-Carlsen there are no exchanges after 19 moves and viewers have been hitting the record books to see how long a game has gone from the start without an exchange. They find in Tim Krabbe, Rogoff-Arthur Williams, from the World Junior Championship in 1969 where the game went to move 94 for the first exchange. Ken Rogoff is a world-class economist, who says that he is always thinking about chess. Even though highly-respected now, there is more than a suspicion that the game then was engineered by the two fresh-faced lads to set a record.
One viewer on chessgames.com writes “Ken was a wonderfully friendly and vivacious lad in the 60's. I wonder if he knows he is working for the Illuminati now? ”
The guys continue with the analysis of Anand-Carlsen. In the audience are Vladimir Tukmakov and Yasser Seirawan, whom they ask for help in the evaluation.
Vladimir has a new book coming out this summer. It is called Risk and Bluff in Chess – The Art of Taking Calculated Risks.
The blurb: Winning in chess is impossible without taking risks. When your main aim is to derail your opponent’s calculation by weaving a web of deception, you engage in the highest form of risk: bluff. Renowned chess coach Vladimir Tukmakov presents more than 100 practical ways that masters and grandmasters have used to push beyond the limits of calculation and take a deliberate risk.
What an advantage having a coach like Chuchelov or Tukmakov for a young player! In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. The experience of a coach like those must be worth 5,000 hours at least.
Anand is ahead in the game. What will the Norwegians do if their champion only ends up with half a point after four rounds? Shut down the tournament?
The last time that Magnus started so badly was in 2001 at the age of 11.
Tarjel J. Svensen (tweet) – Gausdal Classics 2001, 14 years ago, the last time Magnus started a tournament with 0.5/4.
Fabiano comes in to discuss his draw with MVL and Dirk asks how the Najdorf went and Fab says, “better than usual!” He will continue though, he thinks that at some time he will win a game against the Najdorf.
Alexander Grischuk comes in for post game analysis and at the same time they announce that Magnus has resigned to Vishy. They hurry Alexander along because Vishy is waiting in the wings.
In an interview elsewhere Carlsen says “Horrible play. I misjudged the position completely, then I continued to play badly.”
________
Quiz Question from Round Three. We were asked about the longest run remaining unbeaten by a former World Champion.
The answer is Mikhail Tal, who in 1973 and 1974 remained unbeaten for 95 games.
Capablanca was unbeaten for 8 years and 63 games.
Vladimir Kramnik in 1999 and 2000 was undefeated in 86 games, then lost to Mickey Adams at Dortmund, and then he was undefeated for a further 25 games, including a match against Garry Kasparov!
Leonardo Martinez, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, USA is the winner of the NIC sub.
Question for June 19 – Hikaru Nakamura must be in a good mood. He is sharing the lead in Norway Chess 2015 and he has plans to get married. How many of the participants in this tournament have already married?
Jan says that 75% of players in the NBA have tattoos and wonders how many grandmasters have tattoos. You would have to see them in a bathing suit. Nobody wants to answer, mainly because they are laughing so much. Since they are playing in a monastery Jan asks how many monks have turned chess player. Dirk says that Damiano and Lucena may have been but the question goes unanswered.
Jan and Dirk talk about how well Anand continues to perform. Kramnik is mentioned too. Two great players of our era.
______
Carlsen in the overwhelming betting favourite at 63/100, followed by Caruana at 29/5, Nakamura at 8/1, Aronian at 44/5, and Anand at 19/2. Topalov is at 22/1 which strikes me as excessive.
Those odds have changed most dramatically now. Topalov becomes the favourite at 43/25 with Nakamura a strong 2nd choice at 23/10. Carlsen, who would pretty much have to run the table to have any kind of chance of still winning this tournament, is at 66/1 (:
Topalov remains remarkably 'lucky'. Carlsen gifts him a win on time in R1 and Hammer plays 74.Kc6?? in a dead drawn position today. That move is inexplicable and incomprehensible, a classic 1,000 pawn blunder.
Last edited by Jack Maguire; Sunday, 21st June, 2015, 06:06 PM.
Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam and Jan Gustafsson are in the chairs. They talk about Veselin Topalov. Dirk says that he has had a long career. He came to the fore in the mid-1990s and was winning almost as many tournaments as Garry Kasparov. He peaked in 2005 at the St. Luis World Championship in Argentina.
Wikipedia says: Topalov scored an extraordinary 6½/7 in the first cycle, one of the greatest streaks in the history of championship-level chess. He then drew every one of his games in the second cycle, clinching the victory with one round to spare. This made Topalov the FIDE World Chess Champion.
FIDE declared before the tournament that they would regard whoever won as World Chess Champion. However, the non-participation of "Classical" World Champion Vladimir Kramnik meant that there were still two competing claimants to World Champion: FIDE Champion Topalov, and "Classical" Champion Kramnik.
Kramnik announced before the tournament that he should not be required to compete; but that as part of the "Prague Agreement", his defense of his title in the Classical World Chess Championship 2004 entitled him to direct entry to a match against the FIDE World Champion for the unified world title. After the tournament, he expressed his willingness to play such a match against Topalov.
Although Topalov initially declined Kramnik's offer, he later acceded. The two contested the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 to reunify the title, with Kramnik emerging the winner.
_____
The book of the tournament is San Luis 2005: How Chess Found Its Champion. The Quality Chess blurb says: Tournament books used to be a familiar part of chess literature with Zurich 1953 a classic example, however such books are now rare because of the huge effort they demand from the authors. Gershon and Nor have risen to the challenge and produced a book that is destined to become a modern classic, a magnificent book worthy of an extraordinary tournament. Many colour photographs of the event and the surrounding Argentinean scenery help the reader feel what it was like to be at San Luis 2005.
________
A viewer asks “What do you consider the optimum age for a chess player? Dirk says that he was talking about this with Alexander Khalifman, the trainer of the Azeri team, and he said that looking at the potential of a young player, they look at his rating and how far he is from the age of 25. Jan says he would have guessed that the age was 24.
_______
Earlier the guys spent a lot of time monitoring Hammer-Topalov because it was reported that Jon Ludvig went into the television confessional and said that he saw no defence for his opponent. People are tweeting that he will have to eat his words for being so cocky in there.
______
Quiz for June 19 – What is the number of players at this tournament who are married?
The answer is three – Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk and Vishy Anand.
The winner is Pella Bakagianni from Athens, Greece
New Quiz for June 21 – During a visit to the Vitenfabrikken (The Science Factory) in Sandnes on the free day, the fastest players at the “Reaction Test” were the blitz stars Alexander Grischuk and Hikaru Nakamura. At the end they played a “Super Final” of two games. Who won?
The Games:
Some tweets to show how the games went:
- Hammer will learn how to shutup his "BIG MOUTH" after this game
- MVL-Giri is a boring draw, all other games are balanced with some advantage to white in Aronian-Caruana
- Grischuk has about 5 minutes for 15 moves so will Carlsen be tempted to stir things up just before the time-control?
- 34... Rd6! shows how strong Anand is in concrete play. Elegant solution to all the questions Naka posed
- Time trouble let Grischuk down again - Carlsen tricked him on move 40 & is winning!
- Carlsen restores order to the universe by beating Grischuk!
- Looking forward to Magnus vs Nakamura tomorrow!
(Lawrence Trent) – Think it’s safe to say this is Topa’s tournament…Everything is going his way
- Moments like 74.Kc6 illustrates the extreme occupational hazards of being a professional chess player. Just tragic.
- Awful blunder by Hammer has gifted Topalov another point. Incredible luck he’s getting in this tournament
(Aronian) – I normally only enjoy my wins if they are undeserved! When they are deserved, what is there to enjoy?
(Tarjei J. Svensen) – Topalov, after winning a drawn position, “Don’t blame me this time!”
(Tarjei J. Svensen) - Topalov in "the confessional": "Very strange game and really many mistakes. I think maybe my opponent missed my last move."
Stavanger 2015
Round Five, June 21, 2015
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime – Giri, Anish
D45 QGD, Semi-Slav
Dirk says that after five rounds, he has not idea who is going to win the tournament. The biggest matchup of the day is Carlsen-Nakamura. Their history is 11-0 for Carlsen in classical games.
In Zurich, in February of last year, Hikaru was on the brink of beating Magnus and let it slip away and was disconsolate after.
Mark Crowther wrote of that contest: “Nakamura obtained a big attack where "there must be so many ways to win" according the Carlsen. However the tempting 37.d6?! (although Carlsen said that "When he played d6 I was very surprised because I thought I'm very happy to get an open line.") wasn't the way and Nakamura's position became difficult and then lost in very short order.
After being forced to resign on move 61, he was incredibly disappointed. Carlsen said that it was "a bit of a freak occurrence" that Nakamura didn't convert such a position.”
It is really no longer on the cards that Carlsen will win the tournament but there are still points to be garnered that are added into the Grand Chess Tour final total.
A viewer writes in to say that Kasparov-Shirov contests were 13-0 in favour of Garry, an even bigger white-washing than Carlsen-Nakamura.
________
The Gausdal Classics were mentioned in an earlier posting. They were written up by Hans Olav Lahlum in English and are very entertaining.
Hans Olav is a Norwegian historian, crime author, chess player and organizer and politician and one of the world’s great eccentrics. He once gave an interview over 30 hours long. He appeared once before in ChessTalk, in Round 5 of the Norway Super Tournament of 2013.
________
Dirk says that in the same room where they are speaking, there is an attempt by two Norwegian players to break the world blitz record. It is some 40+ hours and they will try to go as far beyond as they can. They get five minutes break each hour and these times can be accumulated, so they may use them to come over and be interviewed by the guys.
A chess blog says it all with “Magne og Joachim skal spille sjakk i (minst) 42 timer og sette ny verdensrekord” where this is quoted from the Guinness book: The longest chess marathon lasted 40 hr 20 min between Daniel Häußler and Philipp Bergner (both Germany) at the old town hall in Ostfildern, Germany, between 17-19 December 2010. Häußler won 191 matches to Bergner’s 114. There were 50 draws.
________
Well into the third hour it looks like Anand has a won game against MVL and Topalov is up a piece for two pawns on Grischuk and winning. Giri and Aronian call it a draw after 36 moves and are in the middle of an entertaining postgame analysis when Anand and Topalov win their games.
________
Round Five Quiz – was about the “reaction test” that six of the players tried during the visit at the museum of science. Who won the two-game SuperFinal between Grischuk and Nakamura? That consisted of lights on a wall going on and they had to be hit with the hand to extinguish them.
The answer is Grischuk and the winner is Alberto Mati from Italy.
Round Six Quiz – Most of the grandmasters in Norway Chess 2015 are used to having a second that helps them. The exception in Jon Ludvig Hammer, who was a second himself during Magnus Carlsen’s world championship matches. But this time Hammer has a second too! Who is helping him?
I believe he has been loaned by M.C. and his initials are L.F.
A viewer, Felix Krammer, from Austria has researched the names of the contestants and has found out these meanings/origins:
Carlsen – son of Carl
Nakamura – city wall
Anand – Tamil for happy
Grischuk – Ukrainian for The Gregorian
Giri – Sanskrit for the mountain
Hammer – Norwegian for hammer
Caruana – Sicilian Castor oil plant
He could find nothing for Aronian and Topalov. Son of Aron is put forth for the first. His original Russian name is Aronov. What do you think about Topalov? And Vachier-Lagrave is missing from the list too. I have heard it has an unpleasant connotation but I don’t know what that could be.
Jan says maybe Felix can research the top 100 chess players with tattoos. Also he wants to know when Carlsen stopped drinking orange juice during his games.
As you can see, everyone is waiting for Carlsen-Nakamura to end and the commentators are running out of things to say.
Jan says you can ask as a quiz, “Who is the only contestant here who smokes?” But they have talked about Alexander Grischuk as a smoker before so it is not a great question.
Finally, the last game is drawn.
The games:
Stavanger 2015
Round 6, June 22, 2015
Carlsen, Magnus – Nakamura, Hikaru
D56 QGD, Lasker Defence
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