Chess: Observing the Mating Patterns of King, Queens and Bishops.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just came home from a footy match. I was wondering, whether they'd try to produce a result, if this would just be a rather uninspired draw to get to the tie breaks.

 

Looks like a draw, but not a quick and empty one. Off to the tie breaks.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And Ding won the fourth rapid game to claim the title in the tie breaks.

[Plessiez]

Ding Liren is the 17th world chess champion.

Very happy to see him win (I remember rooting from him in the 2020-21 Candidates, though that didn't exactly go to plan), although after a decade of Carlsen (and for some years Anand before him) it's going to take time to get used to a world champion who isn't even the second highest rated player in the world.

Very strange to think, looking back, that Ding only qualified for the Candidates' Tournament at all after Karjakin got himself disqualified; didn't even have a positve score in the Candidates until round 10, only pipped Nakamura to second in the final round, only qualified for the match itself after Carlsen refused to defend the title and never led in the classical portion of the match.  And as late as the last rapid game, it looked like it would be Nepo, not Ding, who had all the chances to win.

Still, one of the most entertaining matches I've watched in a while (even if -- or, well, because -- the quality was often not quite as high as we might have grown used to).

[Rorshach]

Congrats to Ding! He managed to cling on throughout, and it was entertaining to watch (even if, as some have mentioned, the quality wasn't top).

Have to wonder about Nepo's resilience, though. He led this match so many times, but never managed to shut it down. 

[Altherion]

Do people here think it is worthwhile to play dubious but interesting gambits? I don't mean ones like the Queen's gambit which are perfectly sound, but something along the lines of the Rousseau gambit ( 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 f5? ) where Stockfish says that black is already losing (+1.4), but even with correct play by white, the position becomes pretty sharp for both sides.

For some background, I have not played rated over the table games in more than 20 years, but I'm rated about 2100 in Rapid and Blitz on Lichess (a little more in Rapid, a little less in Blitz) which I think corresponds to something like 1600 to 1700 USCF or FIDE. Obviously, these openings are a very bad idea against master-level players, but they result in sharp, dangerous positions which I have relatively little practice with and force me to do things that I don't usually do (e.g. queenside castling). Is it worth it to try playing these or would they instill some bad habits?

[A Horse Named Stranger]

No definite answer to this imho.

On the one hand yeah, getting you out of your comfort zone and forcing you to play positions you are not that familar with can help you improve your overall understanding.  Personally, I usually use online blitz in an attempt to help me memorize my own openings better. If you know you repertoire inside out, congratulations, I kinda envy you.

However, if you really want to improve (endgame) studies and tactic puzzles are the way to go. A whole lot of chess is pattern recognition. And solving studies helps you improve your calculation skills. OPenings themselves actually only start to become an issue at a much much higher level than either of us play.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Depends what you want out of your games. I mostly play Rapid on Lichess and am currently running at ~1925 (which I think may translate a bit higher in USCF than you put down - maybe 1800), and most of my enjoyment comes from playing a sequence of moves that are unexpected, particularly at that level and in rapid . Of course, I then mess it up next game by playing a dumb move that betrays shallow thought. In other words, my game oscillates between truly good and some dross, but I can find games that allow that even with reasonably conventional openings.

[Rorshach]

Hard question. I'm lower rated than anyone else here, but in blitz games at our local chess club I have notched wins against 2000-2100 ELO rated players playing a bit off-beat. 

Clock management is part of the game in blitz, so forcing players out of their known reportoire increases the chance of them stepping wrong a bit.

Even so, I mostly lose those games, of course.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Rorschach - 2
Writing skills non-existent.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Oh, btw. THe Womens' WCC match between Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie was fun.

Score was more even than I expected (and then it should've been tbh).

I thought Ju would win this, because I rate her more as a player. And tbf she got a couple of promising positions, which she was unable to convert and Lei managed to defend very stubbornly.

And then Lei managed to score the first win in game 5 (great technique converting it). Next game Ju failed once again to convert a huge advantage. Ju finally managed to breakthrough in game in game 8 to level score. And finally sealed the win in the final game 12.

If you have a moment, the games I saw were really fun and of good quality and not dull.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And the World Cup is under way.

Today was game two of round two, so the first round with the big hitters. And it was also the last round for some of the big hitters.

Most notably: Abdusattorov who lost with the white pieces to Turkish GM Vahap Sanal and Shak, who got ousted GM Tin Jingyao of Singapore.

Also out Shankland, who got eliminated by Moldovan GM Ivan Schitco

[A Horse Named Stranger]

New round new exits.

After we lost Abdusattorov, Shak, Shankland and Grischuk in Round two.

This round we lost thus far Dubov. He sacrificed a rook for an attack yesterday, which would've been equal with perfect play on both sides. Alas, Vocaturo defended better than Dubov attacked. Thus Daniil found himself in position with a rook down. So today he had to win on demand to stay alive in the tournament. He didn't get the result. And we also lost MVL, who fell victim to Sindarov (way less of an upset than Vocaturo taking out Daniil).

Elsewhere Carlsen eliminated Tari and the battle of the Norwegians. Carlsen face off against Keymer who made short work of Tabatabaei (2-0). The only other pairing for round 4 that is complete is Nakamura vs. Pragg (who took down Navara).

Also qualified for round 4 are Rasmus Svane, Robson, Maghsoodloo, Leinier Dominguez and Gukesh, who are still waiting for their opponents.

Furthermore Alex Sarana, representing Serbia, has eliminated Kirill Shevchenko, representing Romania, in the duel of the Russian exiles. And Erigaisi eliminated Fedoseev, who is now representing Slovenia.

 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Magnus in deep trouble against Keymer.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Also, in the Womens' section I am deeply impressed by Roebers.

Perfect score thus far, and the pawn ending against Dronavalli looks completely winning.

[BigFatCoward]

Can someone more versed in the world of chess please explain the ban on trans women? 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

47 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Can someone more versed in the world of chess please explain the ban on trans women? 

No. It's baffling, and non-sensical.

[Heartofice]

Can't say I know much about Chess but I'd think the main question is why would you separate competitions by gender at all.
 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ok, I had some time sorting through his post, a few remarks.

 

Those fabled women competition basically exist on two levels. Youth levels, and later on elite levels.

The good girls female players on the youth levels prefer to play in the open sections (age groups) to playing the girls tournament. Girl's section sucks from a competitive perspective. Simply no point for a 2.000 rated young women to bully some poor 1.200 (and below!) rated players. It'd simply be no fun for anyone involved. On the elite level, like say the womens' world cup, there's been no case of a trans women qualifying. At least none I am aware of. I know there a handful trans women playing. The strongest one I am aware of Yosha Iglesias, a French FM (elo 2.200). She is clearly not the apex predatoress of French chess by a long shot. That's still GM Marie Sebag , who is still sitting on her 2.400 rating (she obviously was above the 2.500 mark like 10 years ago). Other than Ms Sebag there are also a couple of IMs.

As for the womens title thing. What Salter conveniently ignores are the requirements to bear a title.

It's rating, norms (at least for (W)IM and (W)GM), and money. Norms tourament performance (elo wise) + points from encounters against titled players (and having played a certain number of them).

Yes, then you have to pay a fee to FIDE for them to process your claim, before you get awarded a title. So a friend of mine, could carry a FM title (Elo > 2.299), but doesn't do so because of financial reasons. The titles are interesting for active tournament players, because GMs and IMs tend to get into opens at a discount with start money (if it isn't waived for GMs entirely). Or they get invited to play in closed tournaments to offer norm chasing opportunities for young and hungry players. FMs can get used to fill the ranks I think, but I am not sure, and would need to read it up or ask some other friend(s) with an FM title. I vaguely recall having had a conversation about that like some twenty years ago.

AFAIK, women prefer the unisex title. So they'd rather be an IM than a WGM. It's simply a more useful title I imagine. However, this is more speculation on my part.

[Rorshach]

Just on a personal note:

Was at a tournament with my son today (like me, he'll be a very middling player) and organizers had made a parent's bracket. So I joined. 

Another parent, it turns out, is an IM. I .... didn't win that game.

[BigFatCoward]

8 minutes ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

Just on a personal note:

Was at a tournament with my son today (like me, he'll be a very middling player) and organizers had made a parent's bracket. So I joined. 

Another parent, it turns out, is an IM. I .... didn't win that game.

How many moves before you knew you were utterly fucked and out of your depth? 

[Rorshach]

1 minute ago, BigFatCoward said:

How many moves before you knew you were utterly fucked and out of your depth? 

Card on the board before the game.

He has IM before his name and a rating of 2448. I was relatively happy not to get completely overrun - just lose normally