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

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just took a quick look at today's game.

Ding missed a clear win (26.Rd3 27.Rh3 was just crushing). Fortunately Nepo is returning favours now.

31...Qh4? now Qxd8 wins, black has a few checks but not a perpetual

OMFG DING?!?!

He went 32.Kd1 instead and the position is now about equal. Ding might still grind out a win there, but bloody hell. This is surely interesting in terms of suspense/excitement, but quality wise for WCC match... 

Anyway gotta go.

[Altherion]

OK, what exactly was that? I guess they're both really tired and nervous and playing mind games with each other, but chess is not poker -- it should not be possible to bluff and get away with it against players at this level. It's exciting and unpredictable, but this is not grandmaster level chess. If Magnus Carlsen was playing either of them and they played like this, he would be at +4 or +5 by now.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just checked the results.

And took a quick look at the game.

 

Bloody hell, of all the misses I somehow find 37.Bf3(?) instead of 37.Bc6 the most dificult one to explain.

Bc6 is such a natural move. You want to give d7 as much protection as possible while you play pacman with the q.side pawns and then push the a-pawn. That's how and why I thought that Ding might still be able to grind out a win.

Those last two games will be dificult to recover from for Ding. He could be up by two points now, instead of trailing by one. Bloody hell.

 

[Knight Of Winter]

Quick glance at game 9 (move 19) - and it looks to me that Nepo is in the driver seat. Current position seems more comfortable for him. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just took a quick look, looks super drawish to me now.

[BigFatCoward]

22 hours ago, Altherion said:

 If Magnus Carlsen was playing either of them and they played like this, he would be at +4 or +5 by now.

Has he spoken about the standard? 

[Rorschach - 2]

28 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Has he spoken about the standard? 

He has said he's not really interested - he'll probably watch some of it, but he's not glued to the screen. 

And I've not seen a statement from him anywhere.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Don't think you will.

Him resigning the title to then take shots at the players would look like extremely bad style. So doubtful he will take that road.

Just checked position still looks like a draw to me. Ke7 is the most natural move. Get the King to f6 and claim that white is never gonna win this.

The only way for black to lose this. Drop both pawns or trade knights.

Knight ending 2 vs. 1 pawn on the same wing, Ding is never gonna lose this. 

If white's pawn were split, preferably with a passed pawn on the a file, then things could get hairy, as Knights don't like to play against those pawns.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Gonna watch a game for a change.

I pick the official stream with Dubov in the commentating booth with Krush.

[Knight Of Winter]

Game 12 starts with Colle System for Ding (White) - a bit of a unusual choice when you want to play for a win. It doesn't look like it will provide White with much opening advantage (move 6 at the moment), but we'll see.

ETA: move 8 now. Even with weird tempo-losing maneuver by Black (first 6...Bd7 and then 8...Bg4) - White's position doesn't seem to hold much of a bite.

Edited April 26 by Knight Of Winter

[A Horse Named Stranger]

He has picked the Colle for realz? I already roll my eyes, when people play the London... But to me the Colle has always been an unambitious London system, with the dark squared Bishop on c1.

Curious decission by Nepo to exchange on d4 that early. Personally, I would've kept The tension in the center a bit longer, and gone Bd6 Nc6(ord7) 0-0 b6 Bb7

But since he is in the lead, he doesn't have to play ambitiously woth black

[Knight Of Winter]

Good news is that, contrary to our expectations coming from the opening - this game is currently anything but dry and sterile. Starting from Nepo recapturing at f6 with the pawn - position (currently at move 24) is really fun and imbalanced.

Bad news [for Ding, who unbalanced the position in the first place (which he had to do, considering he must play for a win)] is that it's unbalanced in Nepo's favour. If anyone is winning here, it's Black.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Was about to say, this looks absolutely bust for white.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And now they exchanged blunders.

 

I am kinda curious why 29...Bb8 is a blunder.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

WTAF.

Random move generator at work. This is now 1-0

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ok, so final classical game on Saturday and Ding with the White pieces.

Let's see if he can win the title then.

 

In terms of match luck, things are now about even, after Nepo blundered away a (very close to) winning position.

Btw. has anybody kept track how Magnus's poker adventure was/is going?

[Rorschach - 2]

Magnus was on a Norwegian podcast. Didn't say much about the poker (something about him enjoying it, though he's not a great player or something along those lines).

For the match, he was talking about it seeming to him that the players took more chances. His experience (note: he doesn't lack confidence) was that his opponents tried to quickly shut down any positions from the black side, leading to the number of draws (he was also critical of his own performance against Karjakin, btw).

As for the WC itself, he still considers the match format very uninteresting, and said it had been a chore for a few years. One should never say never (his words), but he thought it very unlikely he'd play for that crown again. He's generally not that enamored by classical chess (long time controls) in general.

[Rorschach - 2]

Bit of a rambling post, that.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, that's the discussion. Carlsen favoring quicker time controls or a mixture of classical and rapid games format.

The traditionalists (including a certain unnamed horse) and fide want to stick to the longer time controls. Altho Fide has hinted at the possibility of a format change. FIDE problem is, the WCC is their most priced asset, and they totally failed to generate a major buzz with Carlsen.

Whoever wins this will have two problems with that title. A Carlsen (one potential GOAT) is still actively playing. It's sorta Kramnik holding the title in Kasparov's shadow, while he was still playing. But Kramnik at least beat Kasparov in a match. The winner will have won the title in a fashion more akin to Karpov, but Fischer was effectively retired at that point, and Karpov was the dominating player of that time. Fair chance he would've kicked Fischer's ass. Neither Ding nor Nepo will have any hope of achieving Karpovian levels of dominance. At best they'd be the prime inter pares until the next generation (Abdusattorov, Vidit, Erigaisi, Gukesh are atm the prime candidates) will have a go at them. 

It feels sorta unfair to call either Ding or Nepo place holder champions, as they are actually very strong players in their own rights, but neither is Magnus.

Edited April 28 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Rorschach - 2]

Side note to new generation, Magnus was talking a bit about analyzing games with the new generation (Gukesh and Vidit spesifically), noting that they are much better than him at calculating - seeing options he hasn't spotted at all. But it's well known already that Magnus, while being the best player, isn't the strongest calculator.

Commenting on the younger stars, he also noted that while he thought Abdusattarov wasn't the biggest talent of them, he was impressive in his approach where he will grab any opportunity presented to him.