Watching the London Candidates

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  • Watching the London Candidates

    One of the perks of retirement is being able to watch the live feed from London without interruptions.
    It starts at 10 a.m. here so one can see the opening moves over a late breakfast.

    http://candidates2013.worldchess.com...-pairings-view

    The four boards are side by side on the screen with the opponents’ names, the times, the last move and the position that is updated in real time. The colour scheme is red and white, with red/white bars giving the “current advantage”. On the smaller boards I have trouble distinguishing the queen and the rook.

    There are shots of the tournament area from a balcony. The stage is darkened with “spotlights” on boards. On the three days I have watched the commentary has been by IM Lawrence Trent and GM Nigel Short. They are very entertaining. Yesterday they called out to Dr. Nunn in the audience but he did not come up to comment with them.

    I am happy to sit at home and watch, bring up Hiarchs on the computer screen and evaluate an endgame and then grab a snack and watch the interviews after each game. The only guilt I feel in this indulgence is knowing that I will put off doing my income tax for two weeks.

    There is a morbid fascination in watching the clock times and seeing if the players make the time scrambles. The interviews are all in English – some have been uncomfortable – who wants to talk to a world-wide audience after just losing?

    Are there other feeds that people are watching? I think Yasser Seirawan was supposed to be a commentator on playchess.com today.
    +++++++

    I understand that if you are in London, the cost per one day’s ticket is £25 with £5 off for ECF members. The discussions I have seen talk about coming into London by train, watching the matches and then back home to the suburbs at night. The total cost being about £50 or about $77 at today’s exchange rate. If the Candidates were in a major Canadian city, how much would you pay for a day’s entertainment? I am sure that it would compare favourably to watching a ball or hockey game.

    I have just read a first-hand account of a visit to the playing hall by Christopher Kreuzer in the English Chess Forum:

    http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic....5147&start=180

    Travelling by train, I took the scenic route from London Waterloo, a 10-minute walk across the Thames over Waterloo Bridge (the road bridge). The playing venue, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in Savoy Place is right beside the north bank end of the bridge, on the left, down steps and across a road. I arrived around 10 minutes before the round was due to start (2pm), and took pictures of the outside and of the Michael Faraday statue, doing my best to ignore the fact that Vladimir Kramnik was walking past at just that moment. These would turn out to be the only photos I took that day, as inside I was told that cameras and mobile phones and bags had to be deposited in the cloakroom.

    I then collected my ticket from the tournament shop (just behind the main reception) and proceeded to the playing hall, the room called the Lecture Theatre. Both this hall and the commentary room are on the ground floor, all very close together. The security for the playing hall is airport-style, with a walk-through gate scanner and handheld scanners used to check those entering the playing hall. The room itself is surprisingly intimate, with about 300 seats arranged in a U-shape around a central area where the four chess tables and boards are located on the same level as the seating (i.e. not up on a stage). It is also relatively dimly lit, with each board having its own overhead light, making for a more serious atmosphere compared to other events I've attended. This is understandable, given that this is part of the World Championship Cycle.

    When I entered, a few minutes before play started, the central area was bustling and full of press, dignitaries, and tournament officials, all circling around the players who were seated at the boards. I took my seat (you can sit anywhere within the seating area) and took the opportunity to gaze around the room. There seemed to be one arbiter for each game. There were just over 100 people in the audience, with a capacity of around 300, so around one-third full.

    All attention soon turned though to the contest that was about to get underway. Small cameras trained on the boards relayed the view of the players to the watching worldwide audience, with other cameras on the upper balconies.
    (snip)

    At this point, I decided to go to the commentary room. The commentators in action at the time were Lawrence Trent and Malcolm Pein. Around 15 people were there, with those online and in the audience also listening. These headphones came with the tablet computers to be found in the playing hall. There were not enough of these tablet computers for all the spectators, so it appears to be a case of getting there early enough and sitting in the right place. The tablet computers provided analysis in the form of 'advantage bars' (the same Chess Casting output was available online, I think), and video broadcasts and commentary.

    And the comments of about today’s action from Mike Tasker on the ECForum again:

    Went along today and got good value for the £20 with all games being long fighting draws (except Svidler-Gelfand maybe which could of gone on longer but was still interesting). The commentary area was surprisingly informal, almost like an analysis area at a weekend tournament. There are about 10 tables each of which has a very nice set on which you could play with, although only a few were used. There were about 20 seats so they will need a few more at the weekend when it should get busy, there were usually about 30 people in the room watching Lawrence Trent and Nigel Short do the commentary.

    To get in the playing theatre you have to go through a fairly extensive body check each time, which tends to make you stay once you are in! The theatre has about 300 seats, which was about 30-40% full. I was siting about 20 feet from Ivanchuk-Carlsen and you can get closer if you want, Vassily does some of his thinking not looking at the board, which makes interesting viewing! There are about 30-40 tablets which carry the website and commentary, which are a bit temperamental but very nice once you get them going.

    The lack of a stage and arena seating again gives an informal feel. There is also a bookstore and coffee area.
    We are spoilt in London at the moment with so many high level events and this one also is definitely worth a visit, at least once, if you are in town.

  • #2
    Re : Watching the London Candidates

    Did you notice the new chess sets, courtesy of one Daniel Weil?

    http://www.designweek.co.uk/news/dan...036205.article

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Re : Watching the London Candidates

      Further on the London Candidates

      More from Christopher Kreuzer’s visit to the first day of the Match:

      Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (FIDE President) and someone else whose name I didn't catch (possibly a SOCAR representative) made the first moves in Radjabov's game. There was a slightly awkward moment when it seemed there was some confusion over a name, and there was a chuckle from the audience. That chuckle seemed to pick up on the underlying tension, as the players seemed to be more on edge here than at other events, understandable considering what is at stake. All the players were formally attired, with suits and blazers and some wearing ties as well. The body language was fascinating to watch, both at the board and while they strolled around the central area between moves.

      David Sedgwick elaborated on the above in a later post:

      I don't recall there being a SOCAR representative present at that point. Kirsan was accompanied by his assistant, Berik Balgabaev.

      The chuckles in the audience, which I felt lifted the tension somewhat, were actually caused by a slip of the tongue from Werner Stubenvoll. He intended to announce that Kirsan would make the ceremonial opening move in the Gelfand - Radjabov game, but actually said "Anand - Radjabov". Fortunately, Boris Gelfand himself found this most amusing.
      ++++++++++++

      From today’s games (Thursday, March 21)

      Eoin Devane:

      Indeed it was Ivanchuk who got down to 1 minute for 13 moves (again!). Kramnik had plenty of time at that point (about 30 minutes), but when they were repeating moves he used up most of that time desperately trying to find a win. You could see on the video feed that he was shaking his head a lot - clearly he was really hoping to win that one.

      And Kreuzer’s response:

      He wasn't just shaking his head, he was muttering things to himself. I could see this quite clearly from where I was sitting. He was mouthing things for quite a long time as well. Sadly I can't lipread Russian, but he was really agitated. I thought he might have a nervous breakdown at the board! It was quite a shock, as he is normally so cool and calm. I think seeing Carlsen win relatively quickly against Svidler may have had an impact. I saw him look round at some point after Carlsen won - he noticed the result on the screen and then looked back to his game with what may have been a shrug or grimace. The pressure was on at that point for him to win. And it looks like the pressure told. I'll be interested to see if there was a win there that was missed.

      In the press conference right after the game, Ivanchuk seemed very happy and relaxed and Kramnik seemed somewhat dazed. Both players lapsed into Russian and the moderator, Anastasiya Karlovich, interpreted for the audience. (Thank you Aman)
      ++++++++++

      Both Trent and Short were in good form again leading the discussions during the games. When the last one wound up it was 8 p.m. London time and they were clearly very hungry and wanted to get off to a restaurant.

      In the first hour of their stint, Trent mentioned that someone had given them a Glenfiddich Cake the day before and they had “et” it. This evidently is a dense fruitcake made with sultanas and cherries and topped with Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

      Ivanchuk is the player everyone likes to discuss. Nigel said that his record against him is -40, well actually not far off. “I did beat him at Horgen in 1995. I remember Ivanchuk arriving very, very late and missing the opening ceremony and I wished I could get him with me as white in the first round and I did, he was tired and I crushed him. But he’s too good for me. I don’t understand his chess at all. He has a very unique appreciation of chess. I can’t play against him at all.”

      The opening in his game with Kramnik was a Catalan and Lawrence Trent said that he studied the Catalan language for a year. It is spoken by about ten million people. Short asked him where it is the official language and Trent didn’t know. It is in Andorra. George Orwell’s book “Homage to Catalonia” was mentioned. About the Spanish Civil War I expect..

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Re : Watching the London Candidates

        Security at the Candidates, the Displays and Ruffled Feathers

        From an Interview with Andrew Paulson on chess-news.ru:

        M.YURENOK: During the opening ceremony you mentioned that there are some special security measures that you have implemented (like metal detectors for the spectators)..

        A.PAULSON: They are actually useful for two reasons. It also means that it’s very easy for us to distribute the tablets. Samsung is giving us a number of tablets, so the spectators can watch the game with a little bit more information. So, not only does it keep people from bringing mobile phones in, but it also prevents people from taking the Samsung tablets out. The tablets are blocked with a special piece of software, so they can only receive the signal from one URL and they don’t have any access to any other applications.

        There’s also one of the things that we have implemented which you can see if I will tell you about it, but you might not notice it otherwise, it’s that we have very-very high resolution cameras taking pictures of the audience. So, if in future there will be any question about the possibility of cheating, it can be resolved. As for me, I have a very-very precise and strong statement to make about this; when I first got involved with chess the idea that there could ever be cheating among the top fifty-hundred players seemed to me absolutely absurd. For example, I can understand why people might take drugs – to improve the strength of their muscles, but to actively cheat at a certain moment during the certain game is such a revelation of weakness that for me, I would imagine that completely destroy the morale of the player, but now that I’ve spent a year getting to know better the world of chess, I can add a nuance to that belief – I still believe that no great chess player would ever cheat, unless he thought that someone else was cheating. In this case I can understand why he might be tempted, I don’t believe he could do that, but I can understand why he might be outraged. The most important thing that we’re trying to achieve here is to make all the players completely calm – to banish the worry. We search the players when they come in, we monitor the radio frequencies in the hall and there also are some things that we just don’t talk about.

        M.YURENOK: What was the idea behind the hall design, I mean the darkness for the spectators and the light…

        A.PAULSON: Well, there are several things. First of all, one of our goals is to make chess more dramatic, theatrical and staging is part of that. The second is of course also from the point of view of security. If you’re standing on stage of the theater with the lights in your eyes you can’t see the audience; so we have very-very intense light on the boards and no light at all on the audience – this heightens the drama, but also prevents any possible distractions to the players.

        M.YURENOK: And what was the thinking behind the design of the chess pieces used online? The black pieces are red and some people have commented that they’re a little bit difficult to look at, not easy on the eye, you know.

        A.PAULSON: Let’s see how it plays out over the course of the next couple of weeks. Historically, chess pieces were made of ivory and coral – traditionally they were red and white. So from a purely historical point of view we can say there’s some justification here. Making the pieces red was necessary in order to make them stand out from black and white; my feeling at the moment is that on the tablets, on decent computers they’re perfectly readable as long as the screen has a good resolution. There’s a certain amount of problem with the TV screens, where the resolution is not so high and you get close to them and you can't see; however, even on those screens that is a problem only when you have a tournament view with four boards at the same time, but as soon as you click on one of the boards, then the board is big enough so you see everything perfectly clearly what’s necessary to be seen. There’s an issue for the colorblind and we are going to add in the next release the option of changing the color to blue, green, or orange or whatever, while retaining red as the default. (edited)

        From Stephen Moss’s column in The Guardian, March 15, 2013

        The tournament is taking place in a darkened auditorium at the Institution of Engineering and Technology. It's a highly theatrical setting chosen by US chess entrepreneur Andrew Paulson, who brought the event to London. He has the rights to market the world chess championship and wants to bring back the glory days of the 1970s and 80s, when the matches between Fischer and Boris Spassky and Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov captured the world.

        Paulson was keen to wire up the players to heart monitors as they played, to show how stressful a six-hour game of chess could be. That was resisted by some of the players, but he has not given up on his desire to revolutionise the sport. "This is one of the great tournaments and the last thing we want to do is ruffle any feathers today," he said. "We may ruffle feathers in the future, but the only feathers that will be ruffled are the feathers of habit."

        Kasparov or Fischer connected to a heart-monitor while they play – it boggles the imagination!

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Re : Watching the London Candidates

          Another Interview with Andrew Paulson and Comments
          From chessvibes.com:

          How do you think it’s been going so far, after four rounds of play? Is it what you had in mind?

          [Long pause.] I was very worried on Sunday evening (March 17) when our ChessCasting internet went down. We experienced a strange spike in traffic at 5.30. When we checked with other providers of broadcast of the games, namely Chess.com and Chessbase, they confirmed they had not experienced this spike at this moment. I was very very worried when this happened, that it was perhaps our fault and I was equally worried that it was someone else’s fault. On Monday, during the rest day, we did a good deal of investigation and we took measures to protect the experience in the hall with the Samsung tablets and in the commentary room and in the pressroom so that there could not be any interference from the outside. We also took precautions for the broadcast on the internet. Yesterday, which was the first day of play since then, we saw a delay between the movement on the board and the movement on the screen in the auditorium of no more than three seconds and a delay on the internet of three but occasionally five seconds.

          I think the audience has been great, I think the commentary has been great. I think there are some ways in which we have not been able to develop some of the dramatic aspects of ChessCasting that I wanted. To start, I think the way we did the press conferences and the way we did the post-game analysis at Simpson's in London was more interesting. I think the formal press conference format we’re using now is fundamentally unsatisfactory.

          I think that we need to work with our commentators, we need to engage the audience more and bring in some of the great chess players and historical figures who are stopping by, to liven up and make it more diverse… not that there’s any problem with the quality of what they’re doing now but I’m sure everyone would like to hear more than just two people during the course of five or six hours.

          Another thing is the design of the board and pieces of ChessCasting: white and red on grey. Did you test this, did you ask a bunch of chess players what they think of this? Because from the reactions I’ve heard so far it’s universally disliked.

          Of course we tested with chess players. The general feeling is that as long as they’re big enough they're very clear. I think that it is true that for people with slightly imperfect vision red distorts more than other colors but on the pads, on computers which are higher resolution screens they’re absolutely discernible and discriminable.

          A number of things you were planning to do have not been realized yet, for example the biometric measurements. Why didn’t you manage to get it ready for this event?

          Three of the players categorically refused. I sympathize with them for the Candidates, I think that the players need a very stable and predictable environment and because we didn’t have time for example to go around and visit each one of the player individually and show the technology and so on, they were understandably nervous. I absolutely don’t blame them. I can say that some of the players were very enthusiastic about them and one of the first things that they asked when they arrived was: why aren’t we doing the biometrics? I hope that during the Grand Prix cycle we'll slowly be able to introduce these. As you see we already have four parameters coming from Komodo [the chess engine used for ChessCasting – CV] in the boiler room and these are going to be augmented step by step by blood pressure, pulse, skin resistivity. We have a program that will ultimately be able to do eye movements, where the players are looking, we're probably going to have thermometers in the seats… There are all sorts of fun things that we can do. I want to change the dynamic of the relationship between organizers and players of the past, which was confrontational. I have nothing but admiration and affection for the players. They may not believe it at the moment and perhaps I have to prove it to them over the course of time, but that is certainly one of my tasks, to convey to them that I’m their friend, not their enemy.

          Comments

          - I think the biometrics idea is horrible. What would Orwell or Huxley say to that? Making a human measurable like a machine takes something away from his humanity and also deprives the game from its mystique. I can fully understand that three players outright refused this completely insane and inhuman idea. 
Also, I cannot imagine one in a hundred chess players agreeing with the terrible board design that they use for commentary.

          - Why not let the players dance or sing after 2 hours? This would add a LOT to the spectator experience. More spectators means more sponsors and thus more money for the players eventually.
          Chess is about chess, not about the money. If I'd be a top player, I would not sacrifice my dignity for some extra money. Collecting these biometrics is invading the privacy of the players.

          - "thermometers in the seats.."
          What exactly for? Is Mr. Paulson afraid that a player might be coming down with a fever and wants to constantly be aware of his rectal temperature?

          - Is Mr. Paulson aware that red on white is an excellent pair of colours to trigger epileptic seizures? Not to mention that despite being normally sighted thanks to my spectacles, I too cannot discern move notation on the chesscasting site even, during live commentary, at fullscreen.

          - I don't understand why so many people are being negative here. 
I agree that the online coverage is not of such a high standard as some other events, e.g. London Chess Classic, but at least the tournament is actually taking place with all the top players involved and it looks like the Grand Prix will also happen. Hopefully for those events, improvements will be made. 


          Meanwhile, there is more coverage here in the UK than I have seen before (BBC, major newspapers) and some non chess playing friends of mine have actually learnt who Magnus Carlsen is for the first time! 
Andrew Paulson is answering questions from journalists and not avoiding all debate or criticism, which has happened before.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Watching the London Candidates

            There is an excellent Russian commentary at www.crest.book.com with Sergei Shipov and several assistants. It seems to have the most intense floor video that I have seen and occasional interviews with chess personalities. kasparov has been on the show. Well worth watching for anyone with a passing knowledge of Russian.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Watching the London Candidates

              Thanks for the link. I couldn’t make it work as given but did find the page at

              http://www.crestbook.com/en/node/1504

              I also have tried

              http://chessbomb.com/site/

              I am not sure how authoritative the latter is. One comment “Congrats to Kramnik and Gandalf for their games today”.

              If Gandalf were playing, he would never lose!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Watching the London Candidates

                Sunday March 24, 2013

                Nigel Short was not one of the analyst commentators on the official site for the weekend.

                “At the end of the commentary on Thursday, Nigel noted that he wouldn't be present at the weekend as he had a playing engagement. Presumably in the 4NCL at Hinckley. Lawrence didn't immediately know who would be joining him, but according to the Twitter feed it will be times_chess himself.”

                That Raymond Keene would be coming caused some excitement, not the least for myself. The last time I saw him live was at the British Championship in Coventry in 1970. So many bad things have been written about him since then, I have worried that he has sprouted devil horns and I would like to see for myself.

                Alas, Lawrence Trent was cohosted by GM Robert Fontaine for the seventh round. At the end of the session there was this comment on the ECForum:

                Radjabov disappointed but not half so much as those of us who were expecting Ray in the commentary box.

                I have not paid much attention to the 4NCL when the results are given in BCM. I vaguely thought it stood for Foreign Chess League but I have been told in no uncertain terms that it is the Four Nations Chess League comprising England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

                Robert Fontaine is very pleasant but I still prefer Nigel. Do any of the young members of this forum know The Prisoner of Zenda? This comment on the ECF:

                As far as I am concerned GM Fontaine was almost the perfect positional foil to IM Trent's zany tactics on Sat. Just like James Mason and Stewart Granger in The Prisoner of Zenda in which the character played by the latter uses even the furniture in their duel.

                http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=RV_x6YPoetU

                ++++++++++

                After Grischuk made his 10 Nd5 against Ivanchuk in today’s 9th Round, Ivanchuk went into a big think. The commentators mentioned that Chucky was not actually looking at the board, like most of the top players – they are working on the positions in their heads. Alexei Shirov is the best example of this. One is reminded of Fischer and Petrosian in their 1971 Buenos Aires Match. At one time the lights went out in the playing hall. Petrosian insisted that Fischer’s clock continue to run since he claimed Fischer was still analyzing in the dark… and Fischer agreed!

                Ivanchuk was very short of time before the control. I saw the dark shadow of the arbiter as they approached move 40 and Vassily did not make it. Momentary confusion, then Chucky signed the sheets and departed. He was not at the press conference afterwards. Grischuk said it was unfortunate not all the moves were made and that modern players were spoiled by being given increments in some tournaments.

                The FIDE Handbook specifies this control for this tournament:

                3. 5 Time control.

                3. 5. 1 The time control for each game shall be: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.
                +++++++++++++

                In the chessvibes.com interview Paulson said this:

                I am very happy with the reception of the chess pieces. This was something very important and obviously controversial. The moment the players saw them they immediately criticized them but they seem to have developed a fondness for them now. The only thing is that there was a small white dot on the side of the white pieces and the players insisted that this would completely destroy their concentration, so we’ve taken that in hand.

                I have looked at the pictures of the pieces that Jack Maguire referred to in the posting above but cannot see the dot on the side of the white men. Does anyone know any more about this?

                A while ago I seem to remember seeing a chess set, in which a bishop was topped off with a different colour than the rest of the piece but a search of google images failed to turn up a photo of what I saw. A senior moment no doubt.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Watching the London Candidates

                  Chess bishop: one of these, no doubt:


                  http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/pi...background.jpg

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Watching the London Candidates

                    Wonderful! Just what I was thinking of. Does the black bishop have a “white” top? Does anyone mind playing with bi-coloured pieces?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Watching the London Candidates

                      Round Nine March 25, 2013
                      Part I
                      Pardon the stream-of-consciousness report.

                      Lawrence Trent introduced Nigel Short as a legend of English Chess in a jocular way. Nigel had returned from playing in the 4NCL. Trent said he was back wearing a tie because it was a business day but had been tieless Sat and Sun.

                      They said of yesterday’s games that Carsen-Aronian was a damp squib.

                      The tragedy of the Round was the self-immolation of Vassily Ivanchuk, who got into terrible time trouble in a safe position and blundered.

                      To quote Grischuk more accurately than I did yesterday:

                      Vassily Ivanchuk lost on time at the Candidates tournament for the third time. According to his yesterday’s opponent Alexander Grischuk , "It's your own responsibility to think about the time. The problem isn't in this time control, but it is that we are all spoilt by the fact that most of the tournaments are held with time increment, so it's very difficult to switch. I think this is the right time control."

                      "If I had couple of points more, at certain point I could have agreed on a draw, but in this situation the draw would mean the end of the tournament for me," Grischuk said. "I haven't won a world championship game for 6 years and 25 games. I feel like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and 100 Years of Solitude."

                      Kramnik got his first win against Peter Svidler it had been a line prepared for Kasparov in their 2000 match. He is still in with a shot at the title.

                      Boris had excellent preparation and played almost a perfect game against Radjabov.
                      +++++++++++

                      Today’s Game of the Day is Kramnik vs Carlsen. It is either a six-pointer (football terminology) or a two-pointer (also football terminology). A Catalan – so many of them in this tourney so far. The opening is strategically very rich - there are tactical possibilities. This is a well-known line. Kramnik has to push for a win today. He won’t be content with a draw. Do you think he has a wrinkle in this well-known variation? There are two main lines where black is a pawn down. If you win a pawn straight out of the opening, you are saying to your opponent, I have money in my bank, it’s up to you to show your compensation.

                      (Nigel) I am reminded of a story – where Vlastmil Hort was playing Bobby Fischer and said to him,” I don’t know who stands better, but I offer you a draw.” To which Fischer replied, “I also don’t know who stands better but I’m a pawn up”.

                      The moral of the story is that a pawn is a pawn. The onus is on the person who is the pawn down to show that he has compensation. He may just have caught Magnus slightly off-guard.
                      +++++++++

                      Gelfand – Aronian. Boris will be geared up to continue his winning ways after yesterday’s victory. It is a Queen’s Gambit. Dr. Colin Crouch wrote a book called Why B f4?! It’s a good move. He explained it is better than B f5

                      (From a review of that book: Colin Crouch is an experienced IM who has written about chess for many years. However, I don't recall him writing anything with the scope and originality of The Queen's Gambit Declined 5.Bf4!. This is a truly remarkable effort on what is, again, a strangely neglected topic. It didn't take me long to realize how much careful thought had gone into this book, and my feeling was confirmed by a lifelong 5.Bf4 player (IM) who was effusive in its praise.)

                      It’s a good move. He explained it is better than B f5. The theory is that the bishop is unopposed on this diagonal whereas on g5 it is facing the other black bishop.
                      ++++++++

                      Another Queen’s Gambit with the guy with three first names - Vassily Ivan Chuk. He is playing quicker against Radjabov than he did yesterday.

                      This is the Lasker variation. Nigel said “I played it once in my life and lost miserably to Beliavsky 25 years ago and I have passed on it ever since.”
                      It is very solid.

                      (Nigel) Centre. With these pawns I have control of the centre. In my day it used to mean something. Not nowadays. No one gives a fig about the centre. That is the state of our country, kids on the street with no respect for centres. No respect for politics, no respect for centres.
                      ++++++++++

                      Svidler-Grischuk is a King’s Indian, Saemisch Variation.
                      Nigel said that Saemisch lost every single game on time in one tournament though he was pretty old then. From Wiki:
                      At the age of 73 Sämisch played a tournament in memoriam of Adolf Anderssen in Büsum, Germany, and another tournament in Linköping, Sweden, but lost all games in both events (fifteen in the former and thirteen in the latter) on time control.
                      +++++++++

                      Then there was the sacrifice of a piece and they said “that smells of the machine” 12. N x c4 and 13.B x c4. This may revolutionize the whole line.

                      Sufficient compensation for a whole piece – when my opponent sacrifices a whole piece and only takes a few minutes.. If you are Peter Svidler, what do you do? (Close up of Peter Svidler) He is literally asking himself why he didn’t play 1.e4 today. Things have gone bad for him. The one piece of good news today is that Nigel gave him some tickets for the Ashes (England vs Australia cricket in July and August)

                      Jon Speelman and John Nunn are in the audience. Nunn takes over for Trent during the break and sits with Nigel.

                      John said he was once described as the world’s strongest coffee-house player. John said that his last serious game was versus Carlsen and then he passed on competitive chess because there was too much stress.

                      This would have been MC vs JN, 2006 (two games)
                      Last edited by Wayne Komer; Monday, 25th March, 2013, 11:34 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Watching the London Candidates

                        Round Nine (Part II)

                        Do you remember what Carlsen said about Nunn in his Der Spiegel interview?

                        (SPIEGEL: Why? You are 19 years old and ranked the number one chess player in the world. You must be incredibly clever.

                        Carlsen: And that’s precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that.

                        SPIEGEL: How that?

                        Carlsen: At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess.

                        SPIEGEL: Things are different in your case?

                        Carlsen: Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

                        http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4006187
                        +++++++

                        Question from the audience – Who does the tournament structure favor? It definitely favors Magnus Carlsen, whose opening preparation is below the others.

                        Has Carlsen got a photographic memory? No, he has a good memory. Lembit Oll had a photographic memory.
                        (Lembit Oll (23 April 1966, Kohtla-Järve – 17 May 1999, Tallinn) was an Estonian chess grandmaster.)
                        Carlsen is not doing too badly for a guy with no openings.
                        +++++++++++++++

                        Is caffeine on the drug-testing list for chess? Nigel is drinking a Red Bull. He said that more than four cups of coffee used to be forbidden under drug-testing. Someone told him that a Red Bull is the equivalent of four cups of coffee.
                        +++++++

                        Draw in Carlsen game. Lev Aronian is on the ropes in his.

                        Trent talks to Grischuk about the similarities between poker and chess and asks if he is enjoying London?

                        (Alexander G.) Good except for the weather. It is almost April and it is getting colder and colder. Fortunately I am not staying here until the summer because then it will be minus thirty degrees.
                        +++++++

                        In the Gelfand – Radjabov game after five and a half hours they are just grinding it out. It is long suffering.

                        (Nigel) In the old Soviet Union, you wouldn’t mind defending something like this. There were bread queues where you stood in line for three hours in the cold to get your loaf of bread. It was miserable, boring and unpleasant. That is why the old Soviet masters were so good at defending positions like this, whereas you and I are thinking about going out tonight and the nice things we’re going to be doing. The bread queues – that’s why they were so damn good.
                        ++++++

                        Waiting for the Ivanchuk game to finish - Nigel is asked who the best endgame player of all time was. He says probably Fischer and Lawrence says except that he took the h2 pawn against Spassky. The worst possible move, which he is most remembered for, even though it draws. Karpov and Kasparov are added to the list.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Watching the London Candidates

                          Good information - thanks for posting!

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                          • #14
                            Re: Watching the London Candidates

                            Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post
                            Wonderful! Just what I was thinking of. Does the black bishop have a “white” top? Does anyone mind playing with bi-coloured pieces?
                            The so called "Yugoslav" or "Zagreb" design sets have bi-colored kings, queens and bishops. I really like them. Not just for aesthetic reasons, but also for the inherent way they capture the essence that "a great game requires a great opponent"; white and black both need to contribute to make a game special.

                            Photo of all bi-colored pieces in such a set:

                            Last edited by Walter De Jong; Monday, 25th March, 2013, 10:45 PM. Reason: added photo

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                            • #15
                              Re: Watching the London Candidates

                              Thanks for posting the interesting anecdotes.

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