@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 🙂

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2021/dec/10/magnus-carlsen-v-ian-nepomniachtchi-world-chess-championship-game-11-live

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!

@kennp

There is no way of pausing the tournament. It automatically starts the next round when all games in current round are finished.

But the vacation option is open on this tournament. Anyone not wanting to play between say 24th Dec and 1st Jan could just set themselves on vacation.
While I like tournaments to keep moving I think a halt for anyone that wants it between Christmas and New Year is fair enough.

There is no way of pausing the tournament. It automatically starts the next round when all games in current round are finished.

But the vacation option is open on this tournament. Anyone not wanting to play between say 24th Dec and 1st Jan could just set themselves on vacation.

Ah I see how it works now. I’ve got more than a month of vacation time available so may well take a break for two or three days over Christmas, and another day or so at New Year.

Though it has to be said I’ve been enjoying these tournaments to the point I’ve found myself taking sneaky wee peeks at my phone on nights out to see what moves opponents have made. Mrs Kenny caught me once when just the two of us were out for dinner……she wasn’t too impressed. Apparently her sister’s broken boiler was more important than a potential pin on my kingside rook.

The boiler won’t get fixed by losing a rook
Yes it’s a bit addictive. I can mentally write off my losses by telling myself it’s only a game but get satisfaction from wins. Like declining a draw offer around move 44 when I was a rook v bishop ahead then having to play until move 70 to overcome a stubborn defence and get a win.

@crazy-legs

That’s some winning streak you are on right now. 26 games or so? Now the highest rated STW player I think.

@crazy-legs

That’s some winning streak you are on right now. 26 games or so? Now the highest rated STW player I think.

@irc – I got kind of lucky in the tournaments I was in mostly rated against lower players. A few of the wins were timeouts as well. One guy lost the first game on time, played a few very desultory moves in the other one then just buggered off never to be seen again. The most recent win was a guy who screwed up King’s Gambit opening and literally had nowhere to go after that, it was a very easy win for me.

What you find in some of the tournaments is a group of say 5 with 4 ranked at about 1400 – 1600 and 1 poor soul at 400 so they generally just let themselves time out or resign immediately.

I’m sure my winning streak will come to an end as soon as I’m paired with you or @stevomcd !

Also, I’ve entered the Chess.Com Championships which starts in the New Year and there’s a lot of grandmasters in that. I’m going to get absolutely thrashed.

Might be good for a laugh. And if you lose to a player ranked much higher effect on your rating is minimal.

I just looked at it. I can’t enter unfortunately. It’s a 1 day no vacation and I do the odd bothy trip where I have no wifi for more than a day so I would lose games on time.

My Christmas present from the wife. I’ll be putting this in my hifi room so I can try and do a bit of chess study wist listening to music 🙂

In other news. Magnus to not defend his WC?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/14/magnus-carlsen-ready-to-give-up-world-chess-title-due-to-lack-of-motivation?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I can see his point sort of. He hasn’t anything left to prove. And with 14 games plus rest days and preperation time it’s a month. But he can decide later.

My Christmas present from the wife. I’ll be putting this in my hifi room so I can try and do a bit of chess study wist listening to music

nice! At least you can’t lose the chess board now 🤣 3D printed pieces as well 👍

@dannybgoode

That chess table board looks awesome! Very nice!

Nice table, loving the reclaimed wood outer.

Last two games in another tournament round at the moment and once again the entire round is waiting on this one guy to play his games. One move a day. Painfully slow. How can 4 of us finish our games inside of a week and this guy is still playing 2 weeks down the line?!

Thanks all :). I wanted a coffee table to put a chess board on and was scouting Facebook Marketplace and sae this local to me. Bit of haggling on price and deal done. The chap threw in the 3d printed pieces which I rather like.

Whether I will improve as a player I don’t know however I have a few books to study so got to at least try a bit!

once again the entire round is waiting on this one guy to play his games.

All you can do is forget about it until the next round when a reminder pops up that it has started.

A quick look at my list of 21 tournaments and apart from STW Inaugural I have another from Dec 2020. Also waiting for one game to finish with a player on vacation. I stopped entering 2 or 3 day events with vacation option.

https://www.chess.com/tournament/best-of-the-beginners-tournament-1001-1350

Also noticed I have qualified for the next round of another tournament after the player in first place went “inactive” after playing over 11000 games.

https://www.chess.com/tournament/christmas-in-july-1/pairings

Edit. A google shows he/she left.

“Did any of the supports read this?
Why can’t I see my developments for my 10,000 games in 11 years?
I am terminating my membership until the error is fixed.”

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/opening-book-3

One move a day. Painfully slow.

And one game that hasn’t even started yet. I only tend to play in the STW tournaments and while a break between rounds is welcome, after a few days I want to be in there and playing. If anyone wants a friendly while waiting just drop me a challenge.

Whether I will improve as a player I don’t know

Lovely looking table. I read somewhere that even if you are practicing against a computer it’s better to sit at an actual board as it improves concentration. Something I’ve found to be very true. And there’s something nice about physically moving proper wooden pieces, as opposed to clicking on a screen.

@kennyp – I tried inviting you for a game but it told me my rating was too low to challenge you! Have sent you a friend request to see if that gets round it or alternatively ping me a game request and I will happily be humiliated once again 🙂

Lovely looking table. I read somewhere that even if you are practicing against a computer it’s better to sit at an actual board as it improves concentration. Something I’ve found to be very true. And there’s something nice about physically moving proper wooden pieces, as opposed to clicking on a screen.

A few of the trickier games I was playing, I set a board up and worked though some of the moves. I much prefer faster games where you sort of play on instinct a bit more but if an opponent is going to play one move a day, I’ll sort out the possibilities on a board and be able to respond quickly. You sometimes find that turns the pressure onto them. 😉

I seem to have completely lost my way with the last few games. I know I’m scrambling to find time to play but feel like I’m losing from the first moves onwards and I’m just playing to delay the inevitable. Probably it’s no more than just these games have been against much better players, and I need to go back and practice more against my level players and rebuild my confidence again…and just maybe learn a bit of theory.

but it told me my rating was too low to challenge you!

Ha ha……that, sadly, is the best (and probably only) chess compliment I’ve ever had!!

@dannybgoode I’ve sent you a challenge. It’s for a one day for a move game though I may put vacation on for a couple of days over Christmas.

And let’s both keep a careful eye on those queens this time!! (-:

The Stunning Stafford strikes again. White resigns after 9 moves as getting mated next move.

https://www.chess.com/a/2nrQt3hzEQv7p

I can’t claim any credit for the 99% accuracy as every move was following analysis as per

https://www.dorsetchess.co.uk/stafford-gambit/

Note to self: never play e4 on opening against @irc … 😉

@irc – I am trying the Stafford in a game that’s just started in another tournament. Will report back 🙂

I am trying the Stafford in a game that’s just started in another tournament

I tried it as well but the guy wouldn’t bite. He nabbed the hanging pawn then buggered off as soon as I tried to lure the knight out again. I’ve got no more tournament games on. 🙁

Although I think there’s only one game left in T5 to go so that should start up again soon.

@crazy-legs

If you are up for a daily game – challege issued on Ches.com.

Good game with @irc (outside of the tournament). As black, I tried the Stafford Gambit but as he knows it, it was quite easy for him to refute it. Although there’s a few traps in it, there are also a couple of lines that just get white out of all that so he ended up ahead for the first half.

I think it was only a single rook move that tipped it back in my favour and even then it was close.

I feel I’m being lured into a false sense of security ahead of the rest of the tournament…

@crazy-legs

Yes my rook and pawn endings need work. Well played. I felt obliged to accept the Stafford challenge. White playing d3 and h3 after taking the pawn might be better.

PS I think the challenge you issued was a 20 minute game. I’m up at 6.40 for work do will decline. Set up another daily challenge with your turn as white. I’ll get into it at work.

PPS Currently 3 pawns up with only 1 rook each left against a 1700 player. One of my better wins if I get over the line.

I knew I’d been lured into a false sense of security. Second game against @irc, I made one mistake and one inaccuracy (according to chess.com analysis) and he ended up a rook and a knight up in about 3 moves!

Revenge is sweet!

You’re still 6 wins to 4 ahead in our games though.

As suggested earlier. Tournament STW T6 created for the players who dropped out in Round 1 of T5. Invites sent via Chess.com. Or click

https://www.chess.com/tournament/stw-t6/join/dd964e

There is 3 spare places for anyone who didn’t enter STW T5 but wants in this tournament.

Tournament at
https://www.chess.com/tournament/stw-t6

The chess.com Daily Chess Championship Tournament starts first thing tomorrow. It’s quite a demanding schedule of games, hopefully I can still complete the second round of T5 which is on at the moment.

Also, I’m going to get absolutely annihilated anyway; there’s about 32,000 players signed up to it and it seems that every 2000+ player in the world is there! It’ll be just my luck in Round 1 to be up against half a dozen grandmasters who will fall about laughing when they see my moves, shortly before checkmate in 8 or something equally humiliating…

17 yo humbles the best player in the world