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News
David vs. Goliath: Upsets of the Week
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Anand-Carlsen Borefest Continues
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 19 November 2013 |
By GM Daniel Gormally, England, FIDE 2504
Anand - such a disappointment
It was desperately disappointing today to see that Anand, two points behind, has virtually given up on the match.
When he needed to win games, to sharpen the fight, he chose the Berlin defence.
It seems to me that Anand is already resigned to his fate, and although he may be intending to make a fight of the last few games, I very much doubt he'll change his overall negative strategy.
Such a shame.
However, something a friend of mine pointed out to me before the World Championship Match may be significant.
Anand is booked to play the London Classic which starts only a few days after the World championship match. So far Carlsen is yet to accept- he may well be intending to celebrate his win.
This is a tip in itself as to who the overall of this match will be, as surely the winner of the match will be too tied down in media obligations, for example I expect Carlsen to be doing the American chat show tour after the match, assuming he wins.
Maybe I'm being harsh, but the fact that Anand agreed to play the London Classic, and Carlsen did not, suggests to me that Anand already resigned himself to losing his title before the match even began.
Bonus from Pogonina.com: a demotivator dedicated to both Carlsen and Anand playing the Berlin in the match -
 Comments (4)
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 November 2013 )
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Azerbaijan and Ukraine win European Team Chess Championship
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World Chess Championship Match: Game 7 Drawn
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 18 November 2013 |
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Image from the official site
In game 7 Magnus Carlsen played another Berlin Defence and drew comfortably in 32 moves. Neither side was taking any particular risks. Obviously, such a scenario suits the Challenger, who had Black and a 2 points advantage. Is the World Champion trying to stop the bleeding before going all-in, or has he given up trying to perform a comeback? The remaining 5 rounds (or less) will show.
Replay the game
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Last Updated ( Monday, 18 November 2013 )
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European Team Chess Championship, Final Round Odds
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Anand-Carlsen and the Future of Chess
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 16 November 2013 |
By candidate master Peter Zhdanov, editor of Pogonina.com
The Magnus Carlsen vs. Viswanathan Anand WCC match is beyond a mere battle of generations. It is a conflict of ideologies and approaches to the game.
During Kasparovs era it was fashionable to try to solve chess and to know your lines up to a draw, or even a win. Apart from possessing a unique talent, Garry had arguably the best team of seconds and the most powerful chess computers at his disposal.
God made men, but Samuel Colt made them equal
Nowadays every club player owns a chess engine that is stronger than the famous Deep Blue supercomputer. As a result, the focus has shifted from trying to get an objectively better (or even winning) position to obtaining a position which suits your style and surprises the opponent. Magnus Carlsen, just like Anatoly Karpov earlier, is a great ambassador of this approach: get a game going and try to outplay your opponent later on.
Perfect knowledge vs. perfect skills
So, if Magnus represents the new, more practical approach, does it mean that it is better than the old, more analytical one? Not exactly. In the past we have seen similar confrontations. For example, Capablanca (raw talent) defeated Lasker (academic approach), but was succeeded by Alekhine (workaholic).
Obviously, if one has perfect (tablebase) knowledge, then there is no need to have any skills. Similarly, if you can work out the best move in any position, there is no sense in memorizing anything. However, humans are not perfect, so we have to rely on both these capabilities. If you take any world champion, then you will notice that he had both amazing practical skills and an extensive knowledge of theory. Although Kasparov says that Carlsen plays without openings, while Anand - without endgames in the match, one shouldn't forget that both Magnus and Anand are better than 99.9999999% of the worlds player base in BOTH openings and endgames. Garry is talking comparative advantages here.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 November 2013 )
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Carlsen Strikes with Black in Game 6
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 16 November 2013 |
Image from the official site
In game 6 Carlsen employed the Berlin Defense again. Anand decided not to swap queens and went for a closed variation (4.d3). However, Magnus didn't have any problems in the middlegame whatsoever. The position has quickly transposed into a Q+R endgame with White having two weak doubled e-pawns. Black eventually won one of the pawns, but had to exchange into a rook endgame, which should probably be holdable for White. On move 60 Viswanathan blundered (60.Ra4?) instead of playing 60.b4 with a draw (not easy to calculate, is it?). Magnus replied with 60...h3! and won in a very instructive fashion. Interestingly enough, during the press conference both players have referred to the position on move 60 as "lost" and have waived 60.b4 off as "too slow".
View the game
So far the score is 4-2 in Magnus Carlsen's favor, and it looks highly likely that we will have a new World Chess Champion by the end of the match. Half the tournament distance, 6 games, are still to come!
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 November 2013 )
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 15 November 2013 |
By GM Kevin Spraggett, Canada, FIDE 2544
Kevin's blog (parental advisory)
The three exemples below are all from the European Team Championship taking place right now in Warsaw, Poland. Solutions at the end. Good luck!
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Last Updated ( Friday, 15 November 2013 )
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