On July 06 2020 22:59 Biff The Understudy wrote: Yeah. I used to follow Matojelic, but Agadmator is definitly the best these days.
Talking of which i can't recommend enough Seirawan and Svidler commentary for the Chessable event. Those two are the most likeable grandmasters ever and absolutely awesome commentators.
Svidler makes me feel stupid when I dont understand what he's talking about. Seirawan is like the perfect chess commentator though.
On July 06 2020 22:59 Biff The Understudy wrote: Yeah. I used to follow Matojelic, but Agadmator is definitly the best these days.
Talking of which i can't recommend enough Seirawan and Svidler commentary for the Chessable event. Those two are the most likeable grandmasters ever and absolutely awesome commentators.
Svidler makes me feel stupid when I dont understand what he's talking about. Seirawan is like the perfect chess commentator though.
I love both of them. I am starting to really like Jan Gustaffson too. His humour is really charming.
On July 27 2020 15:58 Biff The Understudy wrote: I don't know if anyone here is following the Chess Legend tournament but it's bloody awesome. Kramnik is playing, so are Anand and Ivanchuk.
Poor Anand is not having his best tournament though.
On July 27 2020 15:58 Biff The Understudy wrote: I don't know if anyone here is following the Chess Legend tournament but it's bloody awesome. Kramnik is playing, so are Anand and Ivanchuk.
Poor Anand is not having his best tournament though.
I think the tiger is getting older maybe. Such a great player but he hasn't shone for quite a while. His loss against Kramnik, missing that knight block was really heartbreaking.
I always felt like Anand was a master of preparation, especially in classical. Playing four to five games a day, against 9 different opponents in 9 days shows cracks in his plays indeed. Ding Liren is struggling too, but having to finish the games at 3am probably doesn't help. He had a much better performance at Chessable.
On July 27 2020 23:23 Lysteria wrote: I always felt like Anand was a master of preparation, especially in classical. Playing four to five games a day, against 9 different opponents in 9 days shows cracks in his plays indeed. Ding Liren is struggling too, but having to finish the games at 3am probably doesn't help. He had a much better performance at Chessable.
On the other hand, Nepo's games are a delight.
That's a good point.
Gelfand and Anand are playing, it's such a weird feel to see those two all those years after their WC match. Meanwhile, rooting for Svidler. He is by far the most likable guy there imo.
It's the first over the board event in absolute ages. I have liked the online rapid games tournaments we have had recently, they produce some very entertaining games, but classical is still the queen category.
I saw Carlsen in Oslo not long ago. He seemed really eager not to attract attention. Anyway. Playing two pawns down to get activity was amazing. I don't quite see who can challenge him at this point.
After about 15,000~20,000 combined games online on chess.com and lichess, I got a K+B+N vs. K https://www.chess.com/game/live/16380901525 Funny thing is, I went into this, thinking I'll remember how to do it, but once I got the position, I realized that I don't remember how to mate with them, so if he played on, he probably would have drawn, but he resigned. I'm going to go review and memorize how to mate with N+B now.
Nice. I've never gotten that ending and definitely wouldn't remember how to mate with N+B. Mind you I mostly play bullet, so the amount of time I spend playing endgames is pretty small anyhow.
hmm, Hikaru tested positive for covid at the World Blitz Chess Championship. they paused the tourney for now pending more test results, but most likely it'll continue.
but the tie-break system HAS to change next year.. for real.
boggles the mind why aren't the TBs played in rounds of 2 games, meaning both get to play white+black? Obvious advantage for the player starting with white! Imagine a football shootout where after the first 5 penalties, the first team shooting can decide with penalty 6.
The Swiss format has to have more rounds for the luck element of the draw to be evened out.
I feel that the top ranked players just happen to hit form at the right timing. Extend to 2-3 more rounds, and we'll probably have a different top 3 or 5. In blitz, I felt that all Top 3 (MVL, Duda, Alireza) were somewhat lucky to ladder up after a poor Day 1 and hit a good run towards the end (Alireza had a fairly easier run of opponents and it's probably fair that he missed out on tie-breaks between the three).
With more rounds, the tie-break problem will be mitigated because the truly deserving players will have an unassailable >1.5 point advantage before the last round (just like the women's edition). Anti-climatic, but fair.
The problem is the large amount of players. Maybe the solution is to increase rounds, but implement a cut-off point to eliminate 50% bottom bracket players? Of course, the tie-break of the cut-off will be problematic (but less controversial than relying on tie-breaks to determine the winner).
I played chess as boy, for example against my grandma (won only once) and as teenager wrote a Turbo Pascal programm with no functional AI, but 2D graphic user interface with mouse, and a function computing all legal moves (including en passant).
Playing chess again just started a couple of weeks ago. I am a total noob, no strategy, horrible tactics. Won 2 games so far on lichess (one time opponent left the game, on time opponent ran out of time). Usually I play 3+2 mode.
Even though I am a no-skill scrub, there is something to chess. The raw competition. The many aspects of the game. No wonder it is so well-known.
On December 31 2021 22:20 RKC wrote: The Swiss format has to have more rounds for the luck element of the draw to be evened out.
I feel that the top ranked players just happen to hit form at the right timing. Extend to 2-3 more rounds, and we'll probably have a different top 3 or 5. In blitz, I felt that all Top 3 (MVL, Duda, Alireza) were somewhat lucky to ladder up after a poor Day 1 and hit a good run towards the end (Alireza had a fairly easier run of opponents and it's probably fair that he missed out on tie-breaks between the three).
With more rounds, the tie-break problem will be mitigated because the truly deserving players will have an unassailable >1.5 point advantage before the last round (just like the women's edition). Anti-climatic, but fair.
The problem is the large amount of players. Maybe the solution is to increase rounds, but implement a cut-off point to eliminate 50% bottom bracket players? Of course, the tie-break of the cut-off will be problematic (but less controversial than relying on tie-breaks to determine the winner).
yeah, rapid should have stayed at 15 rounds.. no idea why they reduced it to 13.. thats ridiculous. 21 for blitz is okay, but you may be right that cutting the number of players to 200 might be a good idea to implement next year.
as for the play-off format.. you should either let every tied player play in them or none of them. this weird two player cut-off doesnt make any sense.. and the play-off format itself also make little sense, as i've already stated in the post above.
overall a very interesting tournament for sure but some major improvements would be easily possible to implement, imo
On January 01 2022 10:59 [F_]aths wrote: I played chess as boy, for example against my grandma (won only once) and as teenager wrote a Turbo Pascal programm with no functional AI, but 2D graphic user interface with mouse, and a function computing all legal moves (including en passant).
Playing chess again just started a couple of weeks ago. I am a total noob, no strategy, horrible tactics. Won 2 games so far on lichess (one time opponent left the game, on time opponent ran out of time). Usually I play 3+2 mode.
Even though I am a no-skill scrub, there is something to chess. The raw competition. The many aspects of the game. No wonder it is so well-known.
EPT
