Chess

[Federberg]

he went for the human move. Sharpening up

 

[Federberg]

I'm so confused! Why allow the endgame? h4 Nf3 NxN QxN+ QxQ... he might have a slight edge, but Magnus has not shown any ability to best Sergey in a grind

 

[Federberg]

engine evaluation keeps growing in Magnus's favour. I don't feel that optimistic. Clearly only two results a white win but much more likely a draw surely?

 

[Federberg]

Still don't understand how they got here, but I must say, Magnus is starting to build up some nice pressure. Lots of things Sergey has to try to cover

 

[DarthFed]

Carlsen's position is clearly more preferable but this is still a draw barring a bunch of inaccuracies. Totally forgot they were playing today.

 

[Federberg]

He inexplicably allowed the position to simplify in a more promising situation

 

[DarthFed]

Haven't been able to play over it yet. Tough to see where Carlsen can break through and if he presses too hard...well he only needs to look back a couple games ago

 

[DarthFed]

Time trouble could become a serious issue for Karjakin here

 

[DarthFed]

Karjakin is in serious trouble now.

 

[DarthFed]

Too bad, was hoping for the upset here. Carlsen wins the match for sure after this game.

 

[DarthFed]

It's official, Carlsen takes game 10. I think Karjak will fold after this one, probably lose game 11 and/or game 12

 

[Federberg]

Is it just me or has the quality in this World Championship been at a slightly lower level than in previous times? Some inexplicable decisions and oversights in quite a few games. Still can't get over Magnus being unable to convert some of the advantages he built up in earlier games. Granted Sergey has shown he's the premier defensive player of this era, but still...

While Broken and I were watching game 10, we both saw a forced draw was a possibility. Ok I'll admit when Sergey missed it, I assumed that I must have missed something only to see Svidler show that it was indeed a forcing sequence. The fact that both of them missed it is telling. Remember what a big deal we made of that game in the last World Championship when Anand missed a chance to gain an edge (I don't think it would have led to a clear win, just a dramatic turn around of the range of possibilities for that game). Seems that has happened with more frequency this time around. Maybe I'm being harsh, sure feels that way though

 

[brokenshoelace]

Yeah I don't think this has been played at a particularly high level, relatively speaking of course.

 

[DarthFed]

Is it just me or has the quality in this World Championship been at a slightly lower level than in previous times? Some inexplicable decisions and oversights in quite a few games. Still can't get over Magnus being unable to convert some of the advantages he built up in earlier games. Granted Sergey has shown he's the premier defensive player of this era, but still...

While Broken and I were watching game 10, we both saw a forced draw was a possibility. Ok I'll admit when Sergey missed it, I assumed that I must have missed something only to see Svidler show that it was indeed a forcing sequence. The fact that both of them missed it is telling. Remember what a big deal we made of that game in the last World Championship when Anand missed a chance to gain an edge (I don't think it would have led to a clear win, just a dramatic turn around of the range of possibilities for that game). Seems that has happened with more frequency this time around. Maybe I'm being harsh, sure feels that way though

I don't really agree that it's been worse. The game you're speaking of is game 6 of the Carlsen-Anand match in 2014: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1778864 Anand missed 26. Nxe5 which would've led to a winning position or damn close. That would've made things extremely interesting in the match last year. And then there was the ridiculous 28.Nf1 in the 2013 match : http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1737896 Those games are worse than any we've seen so far in this one. Overall Anand was pretty easily outmatched last year, he can't defend well enough anymore to really hold the tough positions. The year before was even worse, Anand put up no fight and was just inaccurate throughout, ,making it a walk in the park for Carlsen. I think coming into this match the expectation was Carlsen would win a couple games and Sergey wouldn't win any and that it'd be fairly comfortable. Against Anand you got the sense Carlsen might lose a game or two but he could win 4 or more pretty easily.

The game yesterday was interesting because it featured two clear mistakes from Karjakin. The first was a calculation/tactical error where he didn't see Nxf2+ led to a clear draw. Also, the main reason this was a huge mistake is that a draw would be an awesome result for him given he's up a point this late. So the move wasn't necessarily a big mistake under normal circumstances, but clearly it was here. The 2nd was just a positional blunder where he didn't realize he needed a rook on the 8th rank to defend his position. Still it was a great game from Carlsen. The game before was all around a good game even though Karjakin missed Qb3. The real atrocious game was the one Carlsen lost. Karjakin missed many wins throughout and Carlsen seriously played like a bloodthirsty amateur who had no idea he should be playing for a draw instead of recklessly pushing pieces. There have definitely been some errors aside from that, particularly the real poor white game from Karjakin that Carlsen was unable to convert, but most individual mistakes have been pretty small, there just have been some games with a bunch of inaccuracies. IMO, that's still higher quality than having games with an enormous blunder like some of the games in the Anand matches.

We have to remember these guys aren't machines and they aren't always going to play like one. With so many people following these matches online with a program it makes it seem like the players are hacks because they often miss the computer's #1 move.

 

[Federberg]

That's fair about the Carlsen Anand match.

Regarding game 10, Sergei missed Nxf2 twice which was bad enough but for me the worst move of the day was Magnus playing Bxe6. It was wrong on so many levels, and the fact that a patzer like me discounted it a few moves before it happened shows how bizarre it was. I do agree this is much more tense though

 

[brokenshoelace]

I think the most terrible aspects of Karjakin missing Nxf2 isn't so much missing the move itself (although I honestly didn't contemplate for a second that he might miss it. For these guys this should be straightforward), but as Twisted said, the implications of a draw. Seriously, we might look back and see that this is one move that could have changed the history of chess.

 

[DarthFed]

I know I didn't say it at the time but even when Carlsen dropped game 8 I still thought it was 60-40 for him. I just think he was going to eventually break through and if he evened it up it would be over. There's no way Sergey wins a tiebreak especially now. His only chance is to win 1 of the last 2 games and I don't think that's happening. So maybe Nxf2 would've changed history, but Carlsen definitely could've won the match regardless.

 

[Federberg]

I guess neither of you were as appalled about Bxe6 as me? I've made moves like that in the past and instantly regretted it. It's just the sort of move that an inexperienced player will do that ends up unleashing a world of counterplay

 

[DarthFed]

Well it was only bad because it allowed nxf2 to force the draw. They both missed Nh5+ after nxf2, it happens.

 

[DarthFed]

I guess another way to look at it again is if it was reversed and Carlsen was up a point it wouldn't have been a bad move at all. Sometimes it is tough to play "the circumstances" vs just playing it like a normal game.