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@dannybgoode A wild and chaotic game 🙂
Yes indeed. I stupidly gave up a couple of pieces when I held an advantage and then at the end as well. You played well in both games though - particularly liked your pawn structure in game one. Made it very hard going for me.
@Klunk - isn’t it just. Tuned in seeing your post and it’s fascinating. How can they maintain this accuracy under such pressure?!
First really proper game of the series I think. Magnus is looking sharper to me.
113 moves on and current accuracy is showing as 98.8% Magnus and 98.7% Nepo.
Insane…
think black can only win on time from this position (assuming no mistakes)
Longest game in WC history! oooofff!
@Klunk - Tablebase had calculated a draw but is now showing a white win.
Both those assumptions are if course a computer playing absolutely perfect moves and Nepo has made a slightly inaccurate move.
But Magnus still needs to be perfect.
brilliant! once he got those pawns on the march!
Magnus accuracy - 99.1%. Basically a flawless 136 move game against the second best player in the world. Astonishing really…
I also didn’t realise the 3x positional repetition for a draw didn’t have to be 3 consecutive identical positions.
At one point Magnus was carefully checking that he wouldn’t end up accidentally fluffing a draw.
That was a cracker of a game yesterday, especially the run up to move 40. I'll bet they are both shattered so suspect today will be a bit of a dull draw.
I've preferred the Chess24 coverage on YouTube to the Twitch stuff on chess.com. Seems (well to me at least) to make what's happening that bit clearer to the chess numpties like myself, without really dumbing it down.
I don’t think Nepo can be a disappointed in losing that game, as I am in being torn apart by irc1979 in my last game; on top of countless other recent losses : (
I am in being torn apart by irc1979 in my last game; on top of countless other recent losses : (
Don't worry, that happens to all of us at some point!
Him and stevo_mcd...
Ooh, I've made it to a 1500 ranking!
In another tournament, ended up paired against an Iranian guy with two games on the go at once (one as white, one as black). Game 1, he blundered his queen very early on and I got that in exchange for a bishop. He then put up this incredible defence - in spite of being a queen down from about move 5, he never gave up.
Anyway, beating him (he was nearly a 1600 ranking) has boosted my score considerably! 🙂
I just await the moment when @irc takes me down a few pegs again...
@crazy-legs congratulations and well done, 1600 next! 🙂 You can definitely play at that strength!
I have decided that you are my 'kryptonite player'. Whereas I can usually battle it out with irc/ steveo (at least to a certain point), I just seem to fold completely in our games.
Re: your Iranian game where he battled on, I think it's always worth trying to defend a losing position, especially if you can complicated it as you may get a position where you can force a draw.
I had it fairly recently in STW4 where I was in a comfortable winning position and then completely miscalculated and made an awful blunder. I was able to 'blunder' (sac) a bishop that meant I could give perpetual check. I did feel a bit dirty afterwards, apologises to my opponent.
I tried a similar thing against Wasnevergreat with a Knight sac that would have left no legal moves but he saw through my obvious plan!
turning into a rout! bit of a schoolboy error got to be tough to take!
Enjoyed this game in a non STW tournament. Both players play book moves up until white plays 8 e5. Checkmate on move 14. I still had one inaccurate move though.
https://www.chess.com/game/daily/371784463
Got my covid booster today and the 15-minute wait afterwards gave me a bit of motivation to finally go back to playing a 10-minute game. Since the first lock-down, I've been hopelessly stuck in a 1-minute game addiction spiral. Swore I would quit once I got my ranking back up to my high point of 1350 or so, but can't seem to make it happen. Doesn't help that my internet connection is flaky (I live in a small village in the Alps...) and I lose a load of games due to lag. Getting into daily games via the STW tournaments has at least got me playing some quality chess instead of endless junk.
Anyway, played a game while I waited to see if I grew an extra head. Played another couple at home. 10-minute is so much better than super-fast games. To be fair, I think both the one-minute stuff and and daily games have helped my chess. I know my preferred openings so well that I've been getting through the opening with about 9:30 still left on the clock and about a 2-minute advantage on my opponent while the daily stuff has actually made me study the game. Won most of the games I played and, having been away from "rapid" formats for so long, my ranking has been deemed less predictable so a few wins has shot it up.
Had a total shocker in an STW game the other day though. Had spotted a forced mate late in the middlegame. Studied it, checked it out, tested every flaw. Was utterly convinced it was genuinely forced and unbeatable. So I waited for my opponents move. And waited. And waited. And then he played. And lo, he had not foreseen it. My mate was on. And lo, I played the second move in the pattern and not the first. Ar$e.
@irc well played! Nicely done!
I was disappointed with your opponent for not giving you a potential stafford... nor going for a Halloween gambit!
Ben Finegold must have been rolling his eyes at move 7!
I play the Stafford if I can. Not totally sound against best play but an interesting game. Seems quite common for N c3 to be played to avoid it.
One minute chess? That way lies madness. 10m is the fastest I play. I have enough trouble avoiding ad moves at daily chess!
@irc and @crazy-legs. Congrats to you both - excellent achievements. 1600 is solid and 96% accuracy - well I would be very pleased :). One thing these tournaments have shown me is just how far my game has fallen off. I was never truly good but was around 1400-1500 however just serious lack of playing for a few years has taken its toll.
I am still enjoying it though and slowly, whilst at the moment I am not winning my accuracy is creeping up.
Just got to put some real work into it over the next few months.
@irc and @crazy-legs. Congrats to you both – excellent achievements. 1600 is solid and 96% accuracy – well I would be very pleased :).
I'm in an other tournament at the moment and on a bit of a winning streak which I'm feeling a bit embarrassed by. I think the number of games on the go at once catches some people out. That said, I made one hell of a blunder and gave away a piece for free earlier. Managed to just about get back on terms but that was harder work than anticipated.
I'm genuinely considering joining the Chess.com Championships Tournament but that comes with a warning of how arduous the schedule is plus it seems to be overrun with 2000+ ranked players and I suspect I'd get absolutely annihilated!
@crazy-legs. I have entered that just for shits and giggles. My only chance of making it through is via people timing out but it is all good experience 🙂
OK, you talked me into it @dannybgoode !
I'm so going to get my arse kicked in that one... Might learn something off the post-game analysis though.
Yeah I am full Diamond now for the advanced game analysis and go through every game - it is very good. It is certainly helping a bit...
whilst at the moment I am not winning
I suspect that may change in the next few days given how totally you're controlling the centre in our game!!
@kennyp - it is one of the main areas I have been working on. That said there is more than enough time for me to do something stupid and throw it away. Or for you to play a couple of strong moves and take back control (to coin a well known phrase or saying 😀 ).
I am studying and practising a lot though at the moment. Hard work but fun...
it is one of the main areas I have been working on.
Something I need to look at too. Not try to learn every opening but have at least a few I'm comfortable with. Too many times I'm on the back foot after the opening few moves and having to be reactive rather than proactive.
Am very much enjoying this tournament so far. All the games in our group have been pretty close and could probably have gone either way.
@dannybgoode Well you were right about “doing something stupid and throwing it away”. You just got the player wrong. Doh!! Now I know how Nepo must have felt the other day.
The last few games I've ignored book openings altogether in favour of just trying to get a good solid centre.
I know a good opening does that however I've found I've been getting distracted by trying certain book moves without fully understanding the advantage they confer.
So for now, whilst I've got a couple I'm studying separately (I find Chessable very good as well as the stuff available on chess.com), in my actual games I'm just playing moves that look strong but safe to me.
That said I'm in another tournament and have had a shocker in the opening of one of my games. Shear clumsiness on my part and I hope to pull it back but its been horrid!!
And yes, but I'll share the game I mention above and what you've just done is nothing compared to what I managed to do!
I find the most useful things are articles where openings are discussed in depth while being pitched at the right level.
For example I had never heard of the Stafford Gambit until I was white and it was played against me on Chess.com. I lost.
There is youtube stuff - IM Eric Rosen specialises in the opening and has a youtube channel. The most helpfull thing I found though was an article on a chess club website. Expains the ideas and traps well. I won a game on Chess.com following a line from that article. Never had to think of a single move.
https://www.dorsetchess.co.uk/stafford-gambit/
@irc - I agree entirely but only once you have got a thorough understanding of the basis of chess strategy and tactics. If you look at pretty much any beginner or even intermediate book on chess none discuss the openings much at all and with reason - other than to ensure you have a strong centre.
Opening theory is more complex than mid and endgame theory and can throw people off when they do not understand the reason certain moves are made.
Always interested in watching decent videos though and will certainly take a look at Rosen's channel 🙂
Carlsen retains his World Championship title.
Eurgh. Just lost the most horrifically bad game I've ever played I think. I'm going to lose sleep over it even at my mediocre level!
"Carlsen retains his World Championship title."
So. A quick click over to the Guardian website. Play a few moves back and forward. Easy.
In contrast the first World Championship I remember was the Fischer - Spassky in 1972. At the time I was on a camping holiday in a remote part of Quebec with my dad and my brother. The chess coverage consisted of buying a newspaper and playing the moves of the previous day's game on a board at the campsite each night.
An interesting result in group 3 of t5, its a 3 way tie for second place...so do we all go through?
Looks like if there is a 3 way tie on points and tiebreak score then all go through.
https://support.chess.com/article/314-how-do-ties-in-tournaments-work
This will mean round 2 has 10 players rather than 8. As the max group size was set as 4 I think this will mean groups of 3,3,and 4. Leaves 6 for the losers in T6. I'll set that up as a 1 group tournament.
Thanks @irc , looking forward to the next round.
I finally, at long last finished my last 2 matches in the first round of another tournament. Must have reported the guy a dozen times for stalling and delaying in the games. He'd wait til the final few seconds then put himself on vacation for a day. Come back, make one move, repeat. Anyway he tried to play King's Gambit on me but messed up the order about 6 moves in so within a couple of moves I'd pinned his queen and was about 4 moves away from mate when he resigned. Serves him right!
My minor niggle was where in a 3 day game my opponent blundered a piece early on for a piece and rather than either resign or dig in for a long fight as most material was still on the board just let the clock run out after 3 days.
But a minor niggle. I usually have 15 to 25 games on the go at once. So if I don't need to move j just forget about it and deal with other games. I find get annoyed st the one that wrnt on vacation for 2 months then let the fame time out. That's just bad manners.
Is the start of the next round going to be delayed until, say, January 2nd? No problem if it's not, but it might be nice to be making moves while not under the influence of half a box of Quality Street and my third brandy of the morning!!
Mmm let's see, if I sacrifice my queen on move 2 that should give me a good chance of a royal flush in the second innings, assuming my pawns aren't all offside. Hey is there any vodka left or did that Russian bloke finish it all, you know the one going on about 'bloody Vikings'.
@crazy-legs - yeah, I had similar in a team match recently. If you're a premium member, then instead of automatically losing the game at timeout, you automatically go to vacation mode. Dude had taken weeks to make about 5 moves. He eventually ran out of vacation time and lost both games!
