Chess

[Federberg]

^Yes agreed. I can tell you now, that kid Carlsen is probably an absolute demon at Fischer Random. I'm not sure any of the other guys in the top 20 are anywhere close to him in terms of depth of understanding. They should be grateful that it's still classical chess that they play, because I suspect that his ratings lead in Fischer Random would be more than double what it is in classical time controls

 

[brokenshoelace]

I do think it's more difficult to dominate, yes, but I don't think this automatically means that someone like say, Kasparov would not have dominated in this ear (meaning a younger version of Kasparov. I'm not implying he would have dominated in his 50's). Yes, computers were definitely game-changing, but everyone has access. And preparation is preparation and talent is talent.

Although I guess the other side of the coin is that some of the players who are notoriously hard to beat (ie Petrosian, Karpov) would have been even harder to beat.

 

[Federberg]

US Championships start soon. Who do you guys have? I suspect Hikaru wins again, but it'll be interesting to see if Wesley So can go on a revenge mission after last years furore

 

[DarthFed]

http://www.uschesschamps.com/2016-us-championship/player-bios

Found the field here. Hard to look past any of the top 3 winning this. Old bird Kamsky and the young Robson might be the only real spoilers there.

 

[Federberg]

pretty sick blitzing from Magnus. Insane 2900+ rating, the guy is just a monster

 

[DarthFed]

I checked out a few of those games, forgot they do blitz the day before. Carlsen was 7.5/8 before a last round loss to Giri. Even with that 7-1-1 in blitz with that lineup is very impressive. Should be a good tournament. Let's see what Kramnik brings to the table. Of note is that Karjakin withdrew, pretty understandable given the recent tournament win and possibly not wanting to face Magnus beforehand.

 

[DarthFed]

MVL crushed Giri today as black in a super sharp Najdorf game. MVL has seemed to climb the ranks very quietly and also he is just 25 years old. I always liked playing against the Najdorf as white but against someone good if you don't get a nice attack you're in trouble.

 

[brokenshoelace]

MVL crushed Giri today as black in a super sharp Najdorf game. MVL has seemed to climb the ranks very quietly and also he is just 25 years old. I always liked playing against the Najdorf as white but against someone good if you don't get a nice attack you're in trouble.

MVL is probably my favorite player at the moment. If all goes according to plan I'll actually get a few games with him in early 2017. And by that I mean I'll have the pleasure of getting crushed by him.

 

[DarthFed]

You take lessons or play at a club? Or just online?

 

[DarthFed]

Still that's exciting. The highest player I've played online is Nakamura, a few 15 minute games about 5 years ago on ICC (Internet chess club) Naka was around #60 in the world at the time. He didn't take the first game too seriously and paid, but the last two he did. Ended up 1-1-1

 

[brokenshoelace]

You take lessons or play at a club? Or just online?

The former.

 

[DarthFed]

So you're going to take lessons from MVL maybe?

 

[brokenshoelace]

So you're going to take lessons from MVL maybe?

The club I play for are going to bring him in for a weekend. So yeah, we'll be taking lessons, playing against him, etc...

 

[DarthFed]

Damn, that's cool. Your club must have some connections. He plays sometimes on the site I currently play on, chess.com. They sometimes have him play Naka in 1 and 3 minute games.

 

[DarthFed]

This Carlsen-Grandelius game is wild today. Carlsen sac'ed a piece and has a pawn on the 7th rank and most of black's pieces are still hemmed in on the back rank and black can't castle. I'd be shocked if black survives this, he'd have to defend with computer-like accuracy here.

 

[DarthFed]

Carlsen up the exchange now but down 3 pawns, black still looks to be in big trouble. If you saw the position without knowing the players you'd think it was a game between imaginative beginners. Pretty cool when top level games go like this.

 

[DarthFed]

MVL - Eljanov looks interesting too. Even on pawns and opposite colored bishops but white looks like he's going to get 2 passed pawns on the kingside. Probably a lost game for black.

Edit: ended up being a pretty easy draw after the above post. Well defended.

 

[DarthFed]

A bunch of interesting games today. MVL-Carlsen was an active draw. White had a lot of pressure built up but Carlsen found 31. Bxg4! That move simply wouldn't cross most people's minds. Giri also got crushed again as White.

 

[DarthFed]

In the US Championships Caruana leads by half a point over So and Naka and has black against an IM who so far is 1.5/10. Pretty good chance to take matters into his own hands and win outright today.

I forgot that this event has a blitz tourney with Kasparov in a couple days: http://www.chessdom.com/garry-kasparov-to-face-the-top-three-finishers-of-the-2016-us-championships/

 

[DarthFed]

And it is set. Caruana won by a full point and Naka and So round off the top three. That is going to be awesome seeing Kasparov duel it out with those guys. All 3 of them are top 10. I'm pretty sure this is the best competition Kasparov has played since he retired at least in a public setting (he has trained both Carlsen and Naka since his retirement). The closest thing he's come to this is a couple games of blitz vs. MVL back in 2011. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=75293

MVL was already strong but not at the level he is at today or at the level So, Naka, and Caruana are at today.