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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Great game by Aronian. The engines don't even understand the real extent of white's advantage on move 11. But the GMs know. I always enjoy games like that, because it makes us kibitzers look like the fools we are.
Ivan told this story today, reminded by the current position in Ivanchuk-Aronian (two bishops vs knight). He was playing the World Cup and he had a mini-match against Epishin (1997). Ivan won the first game with white and in the second game with black he only needed to draw. He had a massive advantage on the board and his opponent was running out of time - he was on increment. He had twenty moves to make on the increment before the time control.
Then he didn’t know what to do. Then he understood that it was time to make a draw. He was a pawn up and his opponent had two bishops. The opponent made the time control and then beat him.
Ivan resigned and was in a very bad mood. He was leaving the playing hall and who did he meet as he was going? The worst person to meet - Viktor Korchnoi. He immediately started to tell him that he was stupid even though he wasn’t asked. When someone loses, you leave him alone but not if your name is Viktor Korchnoi. You don’t leave anyone alone. And he got this lecture immediately.
_____
Some chessbomb comments after:
- draw unless someone screws up bigime
- is two bishops vs knight a win?
- great respect for Ivanchuk
- this fight would have been nice yesterday
- well cone Lev and also to Chucky for a great showing
- too bad, chucky won’t play in the candidates
- a wild card is not out of the question for Chucky
- too bad, one sh*tty game against prep!
Levon passes into the finals. He says the game was tense as he expected. He was playing too slowly and Vassily was trying to exploit that.
He prefers to play the classical games instead of the rapid playoffs. His possible opponents are MVL or Peter Svidler and he hates them both, because they are so strong!
Peter went in to a dubious line. MVL felt he had more energy during the game and was able to pull off the win. This eliminates Peter.
Tomorrow (September 18) is a Rest Day
On September 19, the semi-finals begin, with these two matches:
1. MVL-Aronian
2. So-Ding Liren
The official site closed down its broadcast after the game was finished.
Yasser and Eric were on the chessbrah channel. They were talking about Aman going to the Isle of Man Tournament. He has vowed not to cut his hair until he gets the grandmaster title.
Eric says that he and Aman have been discriminated against in three Montreal restaurants because of the beard. They are thinking of going to New York City and have Aman in the beard hustle people in rapid chess for money.
Etienne Bacrot was a participant in the World Cup 2017. He lost his second round against Bu Xiangzhi. After getting knocked out he has been helping MVL to prepare for his opponents.
A chessbase.com poll has these figures for the semi-final matches:
Levon Aronian to win over MVL 54% to 45%
Wesley So to win over Ding Liren 73% to 26%
It is not clear whether Ding Liren has the Chinese players already eliminated staying to help him or, if they have departed, only his coach Xu Jun.
_______
Peter Svidler, meanwhile, can look back at another World Cup in which he exceeded pre-tournament expectations and played some fine games. It was, in fact, a repeat of his 2013 World Cup, when he also went out in the quarterfinal rapid tiebreaks after two draws in the classical games against Dmitry Andreikin. Although Peter has been a Candidates wildcard in the past it’s unlikely he’ll manage to play in the 2018 tournament in Berlin, but that might at least be good news when it comes to commentary!
Viewers will notice that Ivan Sokolov has some injuries above his right eye. This from chess24.com:
Ivan simply said he went out with Jobava, his brother and another chess player and after Jobava suggested they start drinking chacha the rest of the night became something of a blur. He didn't explain exactly what happened to his head.
For those who don't know what chacha is - it's Georgian vodka.
He is leaving further commentary duties to Evgeny Miroshnichenko – not to recover from these “injuries” but Like many other World Cup participants, he will be playing the Isle of Man open and may want to spend a few days at home in between - if only to pack different clothes for a different climate/weather at his next event in a different role.
________
(Nigel Short) – Why do we bother with qualification tournaments for FIDE events? I think Kirsan should just select all the places. Or Makro.
______
From chess.com:
The likely candidates field looks like the right one:
Karjakin, Aronian, So, Shak, Grischuk, Caruana, Kramnik, MVL. World #2-8 + Karjakin.
Seems that for all their faults FIDE's system seems to deliver the right candidates!
Comment on this:
As others already mentioned, it can be exactly this field only if the eighth player on your list (not necessarily the last one you mention) gets the wildcard: Karjakin is already qualified. Aronian, So and MVL can still qualify via the World Cup - but only two will. So, Caruana and Kramnik can qualify by rating - but only two will. Mamedyarov, Grischuk and MVL can qualify via the GP Series - but only two will, and Ding Liren and Radjabov also still have chances. Whatever happens in Tbilisi (World Cup) and later Palma de Mallorca (last event of the GP Series), one player on your list will need the wildcard - maybe one will be definitely out if Ding Liren or Radjabov gets a GP spot, two if Ding Liren and Radjabov should make it via the GP Series.
It was already pointed out that Kramnik and/or his fans now root for So. Likewise, players who can qualify via the GP Series may root for MVL and Ding Liren (preferably both), while MVL and Ding Liren may root for each other.
Who is rooting for Aronian? He has his fans, otherwise maybe the Isle of Man organizers who want So in their event - Aronian didn't enlist, he seems to be the only top player that doesn't play Swiss opens and he has other things on his mind: getting married after the World Cup.
In Post #197 in this thread, I related Sokolov’s story about losing an easy game to Epishin at Groningen 1997 and then getting bawled out by Korchnoi for doing so.
Some readers may not be aware that Ivan Sokolov has had a book published recently called Ivan’s Chess Journey: Games and Stories (2016) – 272 pages. This story is on pages 76-80.
The book is chatty and has an average of three diagrams per page.
Unlike other writers, he is rather blunt when he doesn’t like someone. He lost a game to Salov at Wijk aan Zee in 1997 (p. 228).
He says that his life time opportunity to win Wijk aan Zee – Hoogovens A group went down the toilet by losing an easy drawn queen-ending.
He had a last round game against Nikolic and was still smarting from the thrashing from Salov.
“As I sat down having my coffee and some scrambled eggs in the breakfast area – all out of nowhere Salov arrived and without asking sat down at my table.
After realizing not to be seeing a ghost and this indeed to be Salov I said: ‘No, no, not you! I was looking at you 7 hours yesterday, played 100 moves. You have f**ked up my tournament! There are many empty tables here..I don’t want to see you. Sit somewhere else!’
Salov was unperturbed: ‘This is my table! I am sitting at this table every morning! This is your first breakfast. You have been the whole tournament drinking with Timman and you have missed all the breakfasts! No, this is my table and I am not moving!’
‘So you bought this table or did you inherit it from your father?’, was my honest question. ‘Doesn’t matter, this is my table!’ Salov was adamant. This ruined my appetite, so I left for a walk..thinking ‘let’s hope this idiot loses today’! Finally justice will be served for once!”
Well, Sokolov drew with Nikolic and Salov drew with Korchnoi and Salov became the glorious winner of the tournament.
Ivan says at the end: Valery Salov decided only few years later, and that still at a young age, to quit professional chess. His only connection with chess at the present, 2015, are some strange Facebook articles he publishes.
_______
Sokolov tells of games with Tal, Smyslov and Geller, Evgeny Bareev and, a rarity – one with Lawrence Trent!
How would you assess this game from Gibraltar 2009 with Sokolov as White and Lawrence Trent as Black?
Black to play his 69th move:
Win, draw or loss for White?
(From the chapter – Simple Endings, Knights pp 221-2)
A most enjoyable and different book of chess anecdotes.
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Monday, 18th September, 2017, 11:44 PM.
The commentators are Evgeniy Miroshnichenko and Keti Tsatsalashvili on the official channel and Eric Hansen and Yasser Seirawan on the chessbrah. Robin van Kampen will co-host the latter for the finals.
Aronian-MVL is a quick draw and So-Ding Liren looks like it is going to be a long battle.
With air time to fill, and a pesky fly in his room buzzing about, Yasser tells a joke about three samurai, who are sitting around the campfire.
To show his prowess with his sword, the first samurai draws his as a fly goes by, snip snip snip and he puts the sword back in the scabbard and the fly, cut in half, falls to the ground.
The second samurai stands as another fly goes by, and snip snip snip, sword back in the scabbard, and the fly, cut in quarters, falls to the ground.
The third stands, another fly goes by and snip snip snip and the insect flies away.
The third says, “He lives, but he will not breed!”
Yasser says that his friend, Norman Weinstein, is following their commentary.
That is a name from the past. He was on the cover of Chess Life and Review, October 1973. A kibitzer on chessgames.com gives his history over the period of a year:
1) Weinstein gave up competitive chess (OTB chess anyway) in order to become an investment banker, where he was quite successful. In fact, there is a story (on http://www.hhgross.net/chessintro.h...) about how, in 1990, Weinstein convinced his firm (Banker's Trust) to put an ad in Chess Life inviting strong chess players to apply for commercial banking positions. Supposedly they wound up hiring two GMs and three IMs as a result. If true, it would be very interesting to know if any of the people who were hired in fact had successful careers.
2) It appears that the two GMs that Bankers Trust hired from the ad were Maxim Dlugy (who seems to have done well as a financier before running afoul of the Russian authorities) and the Briton David Norwood (who has been very successful and is now CEO of the "IP2IPO Group plc"). Since neither one of them appears to have had any significant financial background before they were hired, it would seem that Norman was onto something. Still no information on any of the IMs, however.
3) IM Weinstein posted the following reply when I asked about this topic at http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/
(See September 02, 2006)
In terms of chess players who worked at Bankers Trust, the list includes Girome Bono, Max Dlugy, Anna Gulko, Sal Matera, David Norwood, in addition to myself.
There are some interesting posts about strong players who have given up the game at:
Eric said that when he was a younger player and wanted to achieve some understanding of strategy – he downloaded 500 games of Karpov between 1965 and 1980 (say), and then printed them out and went through them one by one, playing the moves on an actual board.
Yasser said that when he was training the American prodigy Akshat Chandra in St. Louis, they went through the games in his book Five Crowns on an actual board and Akshat had to predict the moves. In fact, Akshat said that he had played them on a computer screen before but with board and men now, it was like seeing them for the first time.
Five Crowns has all the Karpov-Kasparov games played from 1984-1990 and analyzes the NYC/Lyon WC Match 1990 in detail.
_______
Round 6, Game 1, Sept. 19
Aronian, Levon – MVL
D85 Grunfeld, Modern Exchange variation
- yes, it was a 100% clear win for white after RXb3
- was never winning except to commentators
The position after 40….Nb3+. Does 41.Rxb3 win or not?
Sagar Shah in chessbase.com says this:
The best move in this position was 41.Rxb3! axb3 42. gxf6 gxf6 43.Kc3! It is important to start with this move to not let Black rooks coordinate on the seventh rank.
Last edited by Wayne Komer; Tuesday, 19th September, 2017, 10:49 PM.
The game Ding Liren – Wesley So develops slowly and it is difficult to understand Ding’s plan.
Yasser: Somewhere in Sweden Ulf is revolted because White can’t win this ending
Note: Ulf Andersson started off as a player with wild attacking games but as a world-class GM played strategic masterpieces like Petrosian.
Yasser often alludes to Ulf. In one interview he said,” Little Ulf packs a big punch. If he were to write a book of his best games I’d take up a good chuck of the index.”
With the Ding Liren-So game going on slowly and long thinks on some moves, Yasser tells this anecdote:
There was an Austrian player, Josef Klinger, who was addicted to gambling. He was playing at Baden Baden or one of those other sites where the tournament is being played in a casino.
His opponent made a sacrifice, which Klinger didn’t like and so he made a sacrifice of his own. Then he went to the bar and ordered and downed a glass of whiskey.
At that time he saw the casino and went over and immediately lost 700 marks. He went back to the tournament, borrowed 700 marks from a friend and returned and wagered them and won 15,000. He paid back his friend, sat down to his game and found that 45 minutes had elapsed and his opponent still hadn’t moved!
Note: Klinger rose to fame in his native Austria as a chess player in the 1980’s but quit chess in in the ‘90s in favour of poker. I see a poker event from 2010 where he won a million euros at Monte Carlo. There is a Canadian, Andrew Chen, in the final table.
Yasser says that Ding was giving a clinic on how to win the end game but then he missed 37. Rh8 and playsd Rc6 instead.
Ding missed his chance and the result is a draw.
_____
The play-offs for the semi-final are on September 21. Then, there is a rest day and then a four-game final and the playoff if necessary.
Eric says that he is commentating tomorrow for the tie-breaks then he jumps on the plane for JFK and then Dublin and Douglas, Isle of Man. Robin van Kampen and Yasser will be doing the commentating for the finals.
- Ding Liren has blundered away a victory... had about -4.5 advantage
- draw
- sad for Ding Liren, he played such a great game
- absurd, blitz
- are both of them drunk?
- damn draw
- what a save!
Yasser says that Kevin Spraggett is one of the best-prepared North American grandmasters he ever faced.
These games: Seirawan-Spraggett 0-1, New York Open 1984
Seirawan-Spraggett 1/2-1/2, Montpellier Candidates 1985
Seirawan-Spraggett 1/2-1/2, Manila 1990
Sierawan-Spraggett 1/2-1/2, Barcelona 2011
- both effed up, fair result
- great hold by MVL
- such an important match to be decided by time pressure
- now Aronian must survive with black
- most exciting draw I have ever seen
Comment of the day - These games are great. I just wish there was a round of blindfold rapid!
Yasser is on the chessbrah channel via Skype, presumably from his kitchen. He lives in Hilversum. In the background, his wife Yvette is doing the dishes.
From the Dutch Wikipedia: Yvette Nagel (Hilversum, 21 July 1964) is a Dutch chess player. She is an FIDE master. In 1988 she earned a degree from the University of Amsterdam. Yvette is married to grandmaster Yasser Seirawan and she is the daughter of the famous politician Jan Nagel.
Equal on time near the end but Levon with a queen versus a rook for MVL.
MVL eliminated and Levon Aronian to go on and meet Ding Liren in the final on Saturday, September 23. Yasser Seirawan and Robin van Kampen to broadcast the finals.
Now Ding Liren and Levon Aronian are in the Candidates with Sergey Karjakin.
Eric Hansen to shower and pack and a flight to take for the Isle of Man Tournament.
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