Chess discussions

[pillory]

Carlsen's record in the rapid and blitz WC since 2014:

2014 R: Won
2014 B: Won
2015 R: Won
2015 B: 1.5 pts behind the winner
2016 R: 0 pts behind
2016 B: 0 pts behind
2017 R: 0.5 pts behind
2017 B: Won
2018 R: 0.5 pts behind
2018 B: Won
2019 R: Won
2019 B: Won
2021 R: 0 pts behind
2021 B: 1.5 pts behind
2022 R: Won
2022 B: Won

(Not held in 2020)

Simply miles ahead of the rest. The (joint) highest points total in 12 of 16 tournaments, and just half a point behind in two more.

 

[harms]

anyone playing chess on chess.com?

Me (@slinnik)

We should do a caf tournament some time

 

[Berbasbullet]

anyone playing chess on chess.com?

Yes, terrible though, always get battered

 

[Abraxas]

Hikaru was shocking by his standards in the rapid.

 

[Samid]

Magnus taking the piss

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[NM]

Magnus taking the piss

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His opponent equalized the clock. He didn't want the arbiters to start (he should have taken the advantage IMO)

 

[Samid]

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.

 

[stretford_oslo]

That Carlsen vs Rapport match was mental

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

Final round incoming

 

[Abraxas]

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.

 

[JPRouve]

Abdusattorov is seemingly instoppable. He is on his way to reach the top of Chess world in classical and shorter formats.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

Brilliant tournament

 

[Amarsdd]

Great tournament win for Anish!

 

[paulscholes18]

The final of the Airthings masters, Nakamura vs Carlsen, the GOAT vs the 5 time world champ is about to start

 

[prateik]

 

[sullydnl]

Makes sense, ChatGPT struggles with maths too:

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[paulscholes18]

What a blunder by Wesley So to gift Hikaru the American Cup, thought he was getting a free pawn instead got his Queen trapped

 

[JPRouve]

It's so strange to see Kramnik casually competing in a high level tournament on his phone.

 

[rcoobc]

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.

 

[Salt Bailly]

Just got my highest ever rating in blitz

Well done he's 13.

 

[altodevil]

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.

Well done. Don't get tilted when you plummet

 

[rcoobc]

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.

 

[Samid]

Thought this thread was bumped for the World Championships. Shows what an uninspiring event it has become now

 

[rcoobc]

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?

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.

 

[altodevil]

I'm all for Fischer chess now, when it comes to watching tournaments.

 

[do.ob]

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.

 

[paulscholes18]

Nepo wins with Black in the 2nd game, Ding didn’t manage his time at all well.

 

[17Larsson]

I enjoyed that

 

[sullydnl]

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.

 

[NM]

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...

 

[altodevil]

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.

 

[altodevil]

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.

I'm not sure I do - Carlsen has been far from perfect recently, and the challengers would obviously have much greater motivation when prepping.

 

[do.ob]

I'm slightly amazed how quickly they make certain moves today, despite this being such a unbalanced position.

I'm not sure I do - Carlsen has been far from perfect recently, and the challengers would obviously have much greater motivation when prepping.

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

 

[paulscholes18]

Ding should level things up from this position

 

[altodevil]

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

Yep that was brutal

 

[do.ob]

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.

 

[JPRouve]

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.

 

[do.ob]

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.

 

[JPRouve]

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.

 

[do.ob]

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.