Chess

[DarthFed]

Two passed pawns for Anand and black's king is far away. This has to be winning.

 

[Federberg]

It's just a queening race now in the Anand game. Surely he should win this one? His king is perfectly placed for his king side pawns

 

[Federberg]

Wow! Looks like Vishy isn't taking the most convincing line. Surely he'll still convert?

 

[DarthFed]

Giri couldn't convert. All 9 games have been draws, he's got a nice peace award going

Now it is Anand and Karjakin atop the leader board and they meet with Anand as white in round 11. Rest day tomorrow and then round 10 on Wednesday.

 

[Federberg]

That was a good win by Vishy. It almost seemed like he Carlsened Aronian. He took him down paths that Levon doesn't like to play, and busted him up. We have what four more rounds to play? I think Vishy is going to win this thing again! I have nothing but huge respect, I would rather Levon plays against Magnus just for a bit of variety, but if Vishy does it, he really deserves it.

This just shows what an absolute beast of the game Carlsen is. And from where I'm sitting it still seems like Carlsen, Anand and Kramnik are just a touch stronger than the rest

 

[DarthFed]

It was a very impressive win. On appearance most would almost dismiss a variation that dropped e4 so easily in that position. It certainly looked questionable when I first saw it.

I can't say I agree that Kramnik and Anand are still above the next guys like Aronian, Caruana, Giri, and Naka. They can all almost be grouped together and are a big peg down from Carlsen. Naka has a good record vs. both which is kind of surprising. Aronian still is difficult for Anand though Vishy has started to turn it around. Interestingly enough Kramnik absolutely owns Giri. Kramnik is himself a question mark with age and health, he hasn't been around at the big tournaments lately. A younger in form Kramnik would give Carlsen all he could handle at the very least with serious chances of beating him, but I don't think Vlad will reach that level again.

Obviously this tournament isn't over yet but it's one of those tournaments where most of the players are so close in strength that if you played it 3 times over you might have 3 different winners.

 

[Federberg]

I know what you're saying, and if you base it on the annual round of super tournaments I can't argue with you. But I'm talking specifically about 'when the chips are down' match play. Let's face it if Vlad was in this tournament right now (instead of Toppy say), I'm betting we would be talking about him, Vishy and Aronian. But I accept this is just speculation. It just seems to me that there's playing good chess for money, and then there's playing it for high stakes, and Vishy and Vlad still have an edge both in ability and experience, Aronian is just so strong that he is right there in that category as well. Obviously Carlsen is a totally different animal altogether.

Yup, it would have been something to see peak Vlady play against this Magnus. That would be a tough match to call. I would similarly have loved to see 1975 - 1980 Karpov against this Carlsen. His stats and dominance at that time is the closest we can find to what we are seeing today

 

[DarthFed]

Yeah the hypothetical matches in chess have always been mouth-watering. Karpov-Fischer which we almost got, Karpov, Kramnik, and Carlsen going at it during their respective primes would've been something as far as similar styles clashing. We did get to see Kasparov-Karpov and Kasparov-Kramnik so we got some idea about the contrast in styles. Kramnik was able to force Kasparov into dry and boring positions a little more than Karpov was able to. The difference between Karpov and Kramnik is that the former was quite comfortable playing any type of game. He did not shy away from fireworks and maybe that hurt him a bit against Kasparov. It goes without saying Kasparov-Carlsen would've been incredible. Carlsen also doesn't shy away from open games even if he is more deadly in the quiet positional battles.

 

[DarthFed]

Also, I think when players get older it is a lot easier to deal with tournament play vs. match play. Anand and Kramnik have that going against them in the match with Carlsen especially when the latter likes to play out even the most drawish of positions.

 

[Federberg]

Can't argue with that. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the last game of the first Carlsen-Anand 1 must have had a terrible psychological impact on Vishy. He had already lost, Carlsen had a risk free position and could have offered a draw which Vishy would have been happy to accept. But what did he do? He played on and tortured Vishy some more. I can only imagine after that, that Vishy just dreads playing Magnus now. I know he's since got two wins against Magnus, but the damage has already been done.

 

[DarthFed]

If anything haunts Vishy it would be his loss in game 6 of the last match where he missed a simple tactic (26. Nxe5) that would've turned his poor position into a probable win. He went on to lose that game and lost the match by 2 points (and that game was a possible 2 point swing).

 

[Federberg]

Yup, that's a different type of pain though. That's a what if one if you will. And I would even argue that Carlsen benefited from the real damage he caused to Anand in the last game of the prior match. A sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Making Vishy not even believe anymore, led to that sort of oversight

 

[DarthFed]

True but all said and done Vishy is playing some determined chess. He wants to set up yet another rematch and get another crack at Carlsen. Naka on the otherhand is playing like he didn't want the "prize" for winning this tournament.

 

[Federberg]

I'm hoping like mad we're wrong and either Sergey or Levon pulls through. Even Fabiano stands a chance now. I think he's +1 like Levon now

 

[DarthFed]

ABSOLUTELY! I do not want to see another Anand-Carlsen. That Anand-Karjakin battle in round 11 could decide things but still a decent amount of play left with 5 more rounds.

 

[Federberg]

Vishy backed off from the 15... Nxg3 sharp line, conceding a chunk of space in the centre to Fabiano. This could be dangerous for him. This is exactly the sort of front foot chess that Caruana is good at

 

[DarthFed]

I think White definitely has the edge in that position. Black is going to have problems holding onto the extra pawn and white has the 2 bishops and a big edge in space. This is such a huge game and it would be great to see some good fight even if it ends in a draw.

 

[DarthFed]

Not much life in the other games right now but it's still in the early stages in each of them.

 

[DarthFed]

Karjakin-Giri game looks like an easy draw. Kind of disappointing result for Sergey, I kind of feel like his best chance to win the tournament was to win today. There'd be a lot of pressure on the other players including Anand tomorrow when he plays Karjakin as white.

 

[DarthFed]

Bxh6 played by Caruana. This should get really good!!