Hikaru was shocking by his standards in the rapid.
Chess discussions
- Thread starter Danny1982
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) review both the Everton and Bodø/Glimt victories at Old Trafford. Listen to the guys discuss 2 wins and 7 goals in the last week, analyse of the Amorim formation, focus on Amad and how he is playing, and also take a look at Hojlund, Rashford & Zirkzee – who starts v Arsenal?
Magnus taking the piss 
Magnus taking the piss
His opponent equalized the clock. He didn't want the arbiters to start (he should have taken the advantage IMO)
Yeah because he lost the plot and played the following 10 moves at tortoise speed. If he was going to deliberately equalise the clock he would've done it straight away.
That Carlsen vs Rapport match was mental
Final round incoming
Simply mental the consistency Magnus has. You're really not supposed to win the world Rapid and Blitz this often against such a large and strong field, even if you are the best on paper. To use a cringy American term, he must be one of the most clutch sportsman ever.
Abdusattorov is seemingly instoppable. He is on his way to reach the top of Chess world in classical and shorter formats.
Brilliant tournament
Great tournament win for Anish!
The final of the Airthings masters, Nakamura vs Carlsen, the GOAT vs the 5 time world champ is about to start
What a blunder by Wesley So to gift Hikaru the American Cup, thought he was getting a free pawn instead got his Queen trapped
It's so strange to see Kramnik casually competing in a high level tournament on his phone.
Just got my highest ever rating in blitz
Last time I broke through a rating barrier I then dropped 100 points within 10 games. Going to just sit on it for a while.
Ultimate aim is to gain another 150 elo points I think and then pretty much retire.
Last time I broke through a rating barrier I then dropped 100 points within 10 games. Going to just sit on it for a while.
Ultimate aim is to gain another 150 elo points I think and then pretty much retire.
Well done he's 13.
Well done. Don't get tilted when you plummet
Might just retire on my new high
To be fair, I've definitely improved. My end game is a lot better, my middle game is a bit better, and my openings are... well... Okay they're not amazing as I don't have a great memory but they've actually improved a bit too.
I think biggest area if improvement is I'm noticing opportunities to create winning situations a lot easier, and I'm noticing opportunities for the opponent to create opportunities quicker too. Not always as quick as I should, but sometimes if he doesn't capitalise straight away I can defend against it before he can enact it.
I do think I've got a bit lucky in the last few games though so will probably fall back down.
Thought this thread was bumped for the World Championships. Shows what an uninspiring event it has become now
Even if Carlsen had participated, are the World Championships that exciting?Thought this thread was bumped for the World Championships. Shows what an uninspiring event it has become now
If the reigning world Champion had to go through the (rename it) challengers tournament it would be more interesting. It's like Brazil not having to compete in the next World Cup until the final.
I'm all for Fischer chess now, when it comes to watching tournaments.
Carlsen refusing to participate is obviously the problem. Everyone knows/assumes that he'd beat either candidate, so it's a bit like watching the match for third place at a football world cup, only it's get played as a best 5 or something. But having said that, today's game was pretty spectacular. If you're interested in the chess and not just the names it has been a good match so far and today's result promises to make the following matches (more) entertaining as well. Let's just hope the psychological damage hasn't been to much today.
Nepo wins with Black in the 2nd game, Ding didn’t manage his time at all well.
I enjoyed that
Based on some of his comments Ding doesn't seem to be in a particularly good headspace going into this. Gonna be tough for him to turn it around methinks.
FIDE is becoming irrelevant. Chess.com is going to run the chess world, and the sad thing is I don't even know if that's better...
It's not. It might be worse.
I'm not sure I do - Carlsen has been far from perfect recently, and the challengers would obviously have much greater motivation when prepping.
I'm slightly amazed how quickly they make certain moves today, despite this being such a unbalanced position.
If Carlsen was playing this he'd have spent the last year completely differently, too. I don't know if he would or wouldn't be in top shape, but I don't think his recent results have any meaning in this hypothetical scenario.
edit:
just as I posted this Nepo blundered a tactic
If Carlsen was playing this he'd have spent the last year completely differently, too. I don't know if he would or wouldn't be in top shape, but I don't think his recent results have any meaning in this hypothetical scenario.
edit:
just as I posted this Nepo blundered a tactic
Ding should level things up from this position
Yep that was brutalI'm slightly amazed how quickly they make certain moves today, despite this being such a unbalanced position.
If Carlsen was playing this he'd have spent the last year completely differently, too. I don't know if he would or wouldn't be in top shape, but I don't think his recent results have any meaning in this hypothetical scenario.
edit:
just as I posted this Nepo blundered a tactic
I'm beginning to think that Carlsen had a similar effect to Guardiola's Barca, where he made everything boring, not by playing "boring" chess himself, but by scaring his opponents into sucking the excitement out of the game(s). The games seem so much more interesting this time around.
We found Anish Giri's caf account!
But seriously, yes. Carlsen is very entertaining online in short time controls especially when he plays against Hikaru otherwise he is too theoretically sound, even when he makes a mistakes he knows how to guarantee a draw, he is also so good at endgames that the rest of the game doesn't matter, he doesn't have to take risks or try to surprise his opponent.
I wonder how much Nepo's style affects Ding, who has to use all his time to find his moves (and kind of couldn't find any for a while) and then Nepo returns to the board and pretty much instantly plays an engine-level move after the quickest of confirmation calculations. It perhaps also goes to show his personal growth, since against Carlsen he kind of imploded, whereas now he's still got the confidence to play like this.
I don't think that it affects anyone. Everyone implodes against Carlsen because he doesn't go away, he plays the best moves over and over and then crushes you in pretty much any endgame scenario.
What I mean is that from what I remember Nepo blundered a game away against Carlsen and then also blundered horribly in the following games, whereas here he had a terrible blunder against Ding last game, but now he's following it up with an impressive performance, where he just completely outplayed Ding, without much thinking.
Nepo's prep worked, it's not that Ding is bothered by the pace it's that Nepo who is the genuine #2 in the world, prepped well with white and won. Also Carlsen is a special case, every super GM has admitted that there is a psychological hurdle to pass against him because you can't make even minor inaccuracies against him, you also have to be very careful about every move and their direct or indirect consequences when it comes to endgames. That doesn't apply to Ding, Ding is a more normal Super GM, he is roughly equal to Nepo, Caruana, Wesley So or Nakamura, you can play a game that isn't perfect against them and still get a draw or a win.
Ding looks super sloppy in this match. His prep has been pretty poor at this level, all things considered. It's a World Championship match and he looks out of book very easily which is kind of surprising to me.
I also thought Rapport was kind of strange as a second. Completely polar opposite players. Surely at some point it would be more logical to have a player who has more similar tastes, so when the suggestions are made it is more natural, both for the player and the second.
I also thought Rapport was kind of strange as a second. Completely polar opposite players. Surely at some point it would be more logical to have a player who has more similar tastes, so when the suggestions are made it is more natural, both for the player and the second.
It's a fairly even match. I don''t really see what makes Ding look less prepared especially when both players gained advantages with white. The one thing that people need to keep in mind is that neither is playing for draws, so they both avoid lines with theoretical draws which are the majority of main line plays and what we are used to see in big tournaments.