Chess

[Federberg]

Karjakin, Aronian and Caruana all play each other one more time. Awesome! The other notable match is tomorrow with Vishy as white vs. Karjakin. This should be an exciting end to the tournament.

Yes I'm looking forward to that one. Have you noticed how Svidler and Toppy have now been relegated to fillers? Tragic!

 

[DarthFed]

Well it's Svidler's own damn fault in this tournament! He blew a lot of nice positions. Even today he allowed a draw by repetition to Nakamura from a clearly better position. Topalov just didn't seem to prepare well, getting outplayed early and often in games. He could be doing worse in all honesty as he hasn't even threatened to win a game so far.

 

[Federberg]

Well it's Svidler's own damn fault in this tournament! He blew a lot of nice positions. Even today he allowed a draw by repetition to Nakamura from a clearly better position. Topalov just didn't seem to prepare well, getting outplayed early and often in games. He could be doing worse in all honesty as he hasn't even threatened to win a game so far.

Top has been shocking. I guess he made it through via rating, which to be honest is my preferred route to qualification. But in my view FIDE has to add a stipulation that players have to play in a minimum required number of tournaments otherwise you can have a situation where your rating is maintained just from lack of match play. Totally unfair. Wasn't it a few years back where Radjabov stayed at 2790 for over a year because he didn't play? Nuts..

 

[DarthFed]

^ I don't remember that offhand but I agree that there should be something in place. I honestly wouldn't have minded if they made it a 12 person tournament and did a single round robin. Guys like MVL, Wesley So, Kramnik, and Liren Ding are all stronger than Topalov at this point.

I just checked the ratings and was amazed to see Kramnik is #2 with a rating of 2801. Have I been totally mistaken in thinking his form had been poor the last year? Seems like I'm missing something there.

 

[Federberg]

^ I don't remember that offhand but I agree that there should be something in place. I honestly wouldn't have minded if they made it a 12 person tournament and did a single round robin. Guys like MVL, Wesley So, Kramnik, and Liren Ding are all stronger than Topalov at this point.

I just checked the ratings and was amazed to see Kramnik is #2 with a rating of 2801. Have I been totally mistaken in thinking his form had been poor the last year? Seems like I'm missing something there.

Haha! I was a bit surprised when you dismissed him. He played a few tournaments near the end of last year and he was crushing it. Some vintage Kramnik power games. Hence my comment that it's a real shame he isn't in this tournament. I wouldn't have wanted him here at the expense of Levon though

 

[DarthFed]

I have grown to like Kramnik over the years so definitely did not want to dismiss him. It's possible my timing is off and it's 2014 where he really struggled a lot. That or I'm just talking out of my arse

But I know how strong Kramnik is when he's in form. Damn hard to beat like Giri but he could've won a few games here for sure.

 

[Federberg]

Yes exactly. When he's on, he plays chess with such great authority

 

[Federberg]

Can't help feeling that the opposite coloured bishops in the Anand-Karjakin game could see this game fizzle out quite quickly. I'm guessing Sergey will be keen to get the heavy pieces off as soon as he can of course

 

[Federberg]

This is a comment I saw in the chessbomb chat. Made me laugh....

"Giri and Carlsen have similar styles. Carlsen simplifies the position and grinds it into a win. Giri simplifies the position and offers a draw."

 

[DarthFed]

^ Yes, there is a big difference in killer instinct. Still, Giri is very young and it is impressive to be that solid/ hard to beat at such a young age. There are a lot of prodigies these days that can come up with impressive wins but they also lose a lot of games.

That Topalov-Caruana game is very interesting. Topa is up a pawn but down the exchange and has decent compensation for it. Giri has a much better position than Naka. Let's see if he can make anything of it. Anand-Karjakin looks very drawish and Aronian has a better position than Svidler. Ng4 here looks very good

 

[Federberg]

Yes agreed to all.

My only concern with Giri is that he's going to have to go the reverse route in terms of development. Most of the top guys are incredibly aggressive but temper that later. He'll have to learn to play more risky chess if he wants more wins. It'll be interesting to see if he can do it

 

[Federberg]

Looks like it's starting to go wrong for Topalov. I could have sworn that was the sort of active position he used to be devastating with in the past.

 

[DarthFed]

^ True. Hopefully he gets to that point sometime soon. Caruana seems to have improved his position a bit. Still dangerous for sure but he may have winning chances now.

 

[Federberg]

Vishy getting the squeeze on. The two Rooks on the 7th rank will be a major problem. Sergey's bishop is out of it, just when he needs to defend d7

 

[DarthFed]

Anand is making something out of seemingly nothing this game. He definitely has some winning chances now after 38. h4! But opposite color bishops...it won't be easy

 

[DarthFed]

Topalov is completely lost so Caruana will be leading the tournament after this round. Really weak effort from Topalov after a nice aggressive opening

 

[DarthFed]

But that doesn't take away from Caruana who has played extremely well here. Bg5 spotted quickly, threatening Bxe3 to simplify matters

 

[DarthFed]

Bb4, Bxe3 fxe3 Rxd2, Bxd2 and Rd1 looks like curtains

 

[Federberg]

wow! looks like I've missed a lot. Some engine watchers are saying the last few moves from Faby have been a tad weak, and now g5??

 

[Federberg]

wow! what happened to Aronian's great position?