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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.
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.
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