29 Oct 2010

NANJING #9

TOPALOV VS CARLSEN

Topalov falters towards move 30 and loses to Carlsen, who is now unbeatable.


28 Oct 2010

NANJING #8

WANG VS CARLSEN

Catalan E00

Carlsen is back to his inventive playing style again.
What a relief, after the pussyfooting performance in Bilbao.

Today it is Wang who is being subjected to a confusing notation.

To an outsider like myself, it looks as if Carlsen is singing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.


Fun though, but highly irritating to opponents I shouldn't wonder, even though entertaining for us viewers from afar.

Time wise, todays method is being successful as Wang is 40 minutes behind on the clock already, and we are only on move 19.


In contrast to Bacrot and Gashimov, who are giving short shrift today, with a 14 move draw. I don't inow if anything was physically wrong with either of them, but it leaves a bad after taste. The organizers must be displeased.







........and five minutes later, they too duck out with a draw.

27 Oct 2010

NANJING #7

Carlsen and Anand into yet another Berlin Wall.

CARLSEN MOVES HIS KING TO =g2= ONE MOVE TOO SOON:


29.Kg2, when
29.Qg4 first, would elicit 29...Kh8, and THEN 30. Kg2 is fine and dandy.

A novelty from Black on move 11....Nce7 rather than 11. Re8 as per usual.

On Move 18 Anand played 18...Nf8, when a kingside sortie starting with 18....Bh3, might have been an interesting idea and slightly more fruitful, although the engine perceived march of the a-pawn from White might have been mere pie-in-the-sky.
Interesting though.




WHY IS THERE ALWAYS SUCH A BLIND HURRY TO PLAY MOVE 41????????


Anand, with 12 mins left on the clock, plays a daft move 40...Kg7, when 40....Qe7 would have done nicely for him to get through the time portal.

Then White, with 20 mins to spare after he already played move 40, now doesn't bother to take advantage of Black's less than perfect move, and goes for 41.b3????
when 41.Rh3 would have been great.

Why that hurry after move 40?
Why don't they go for a quick walk around the corridors, or the room even?

I'm fed up.
I expect near perfection from the great.
Especially when they are not under any pressure.

If I can see it, so should they.

I'm out of here.
Not worth wasting sunshine for.




Notation/game later.
Possibly.








26 Oct 2010

Nanjing #6

BACROT VS CARLSEN

E15 Queen's Indian

By move 11 they are still following Savon versus Kalugin, Karkhov UKR, 2000. 1-0 in 25 moves.










On move 20 Bacrot chooses to make a King move, 20.Kf2, when 20.Bh3 seemed preferable.
However, it throws Carlsen into confusion and he comes up with 20...Nd8, when 20...Nb4 looks better.


WHAT WAS WRONG WITH 32.g4


23 Oct 2010

Nanjing round 4

Gashimov almost got him!

Carlsen skated on thin ice, but after move 60 he tired his opponent enough to get away with a draw.

Anand as Black, came a cropper against Bacrot. But whatever line was tried stayed a secret.

On move 30.Ke1 Black played Rxb2, where almost any other move would have pleased the engines better.

But, more importantly:

If Anand had played 29....e5, things would have taken a very different turn indeed.
He didn't move his -e-pawn until move 44 and by that time the effect had worn off.












15 Oct 2010

BILBAO #6

The final round and I am following Anand versus Carlsen.

Kramnik and Shirov have drawn.
Anand and Carlsen are still embroiled in a Closed Ruy, Breyer Variation.

After a steady and even development, Calsen edged forward with a well planned preparation for a kingside attack. Sadly, by the time he had everything in place, the target area had disappeared. Anand yet again did his wizard impression and it was a case of "now you see me - nw you don't".

Towards move 40, Anand with 11 mins versus Carlsens's 4, has turned things around in his favour.

I am puttin up the game as is, with no firm outcome, but a likelihood of a draw is fast disappearing, as Carlsen seems a bit rattled by his lack of time.




Anand seems to slip up on move 40 where he plays 40.Bxf4, when 40.Nf3 might have given him a sound advantage.
Oh well...




14 Oct 2010

BILBAO #5

Carlsen and Shirov launched into a Ruy of Archangle proportions.

Onischuk qui mal-y-pense.

A sober sort of game without fireworks but the occasional damp squib.
Particularly in Carlsen's move 17.Na7, where others had taken the Knight back to a peaceful home corner.

This ruffled the complacent queenside and initiated Blacks eventual downfall.






Well, they went on to move 62 apparently but the outcome was the same.
Just to show you how superfluous the remainder of the game was.
Rybka said:

(0:01.35)} {+299.83|d22} {White has a decisive advantage})




My genius friend Colin McGourty from chessintranslation has been doing a sterling job of translation the lovely Sergey Shipov's commentary from Russian into delightful English.

Unfortunately late into the game his transmission went a little quirky and he has asked me to advise passers-by that the remainder of today's game can be found HERE




13 Oct 2010

BILBAO#4

Carlsen has White against Kramnik and chooses the English again.
Not riding as high as a year ago in London, he may be trying to get comfort from his previous success.

Still, Kramnik has proven to be well prepared in everything they throw at him.
He has been playing fast and shows confidence and deep preparation.

The English turned into the Reversed Dragon and they followed a game played by Burkov and Barkhatov in 2006, 1/2, until move 15.

The queenside became congested by move 27 and as neither side was prepared to stick his neck out to free it all up again, they shifted their attention to the kingside for a pawn confrontation.
So far, move 35, the game is balanced and not exactly on a knife edge.

It seems time is not going to be of the essence as they trundle along to the 40 move time portal.

Here are the first 40 moves to play through.



They staggered on for another 30-odd moves and came to the draw they could have had here.

=========








11 Oct 2010

BILBAO #3

Anand versus Kramnik
Catalan

A rapidly played game where both players seem to have had deep preparation.
Kramnik's research going right up till the end.

An inevitable draw.









=====

10 Oct 2010

BILBAO #2

CARLSEN VERSUS ANAND.

A taste of things to come?
I hope so, but don't quite see it happening just yet.


After two and a half hours' play, they were equal.

It looked as if they might as well have drawn.

But even a draw was not to be for Carlsen.







Carlsen wishes he had offered a draw, if allowed.
Things look bad and he is losing.

And yes, he has lost. Again.
He must be under the weather.
Surely ?

My understanding of the game has been greatly helped by following the lovely Sergey Shipov HERE

In case your Russian is non-existent, as is mine, you can follow his golden words thanks to Colin McGourty's ( from chessintranslation ) excellent translation in real time. Aren't people clever.

Thank you to both of them.




9 Oct 2010

BILBAO #1

CARLSEN LOSES GAME #1











My understanding of the game comes from following the lovely Sergey Shipov HERE

In case your Russian is non-existent, as is mine, you can follow his golden words thanks to Colin McGourty's ( from Chessvibes) excellent translation in real time. Aren't people clever.


Two games today, and I am following Kramnik versus Carlsen.

So far, Kramnik seems the stronger.
Game and analysis up this evening.


It is now 20.00 hrs Bilbao time and I reckon Carlson has lost this first game.
By playing 29...d5, he has stretched his resources too far and Kramnik is not slipping up.

Twenty minutes later, Kramnik has 38 mins left, Carlsen 9, and White has virtually won. I reckon they will play to 40 moves, when Carlsen will throw in the towel.

Shirov and Anand have drawn.