We should really try to do a blitz or rapid tournament some time. Hard part is co-ordinating schedules I guess. The chess is probably less accurate overall, but the games would be wilder and more fun!
Maybe I just think that because I’m continually having my butt handed to me by our top players in correspondence…..
Would setting up a monthly (?) time slot maybe work to have some rapid or blitz games between us? Something like the first Wednesday of every month we have a 2-3 hour time slot where we can do an arena or something?
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Would setting up a monthly (?) time slot maybe work to have some rapid or blitz games between us? Something like the first Wednesday of every month we have a 2-3 hour time slot where we can do an arena or something?
I don’t hate this idea. Hard part will be settling on a time—probably impossible to find something that works for everyone, but maybe it’s possible to find a time that works for enough people that it could be a thing.
Seems like this could be Ding's last chance. Between the two it seems Ian would be better with more rapid time controls. There has been lots of surprises so far though, so who knows?
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Seems like this could be Ding's last chance. Between the two it seems Ian would be better with more rapid time controls. There has been lots of surprises so far though, so who knows?
Ding wins!!! Exciting finish in the final rapid game. Thought it was going to be a repetition draw so played my own rapid game but came back 20 minutes later to see him crowned the champ. Turned out Ding decided to go for it and played a perfect end game with clock pressure.
Crazy the journey it took Ding to get here after being stuck in China during the pandemic and not being able to take a typical qualification path.
1. Karjakin gets the boot for supporting Russia and is replaced by the next highest rated player. This is Ding but...
2. There are a minimum number of tournament games needed to qualify and he isn't even close. Has to play like 25 games in two months while maintaining his rating.
3. Makes the candidates and finishes 2nd. Eliminated until...
4. Magnus retires.
Feel bad for Nepo who seems destined to always be runner up. Doesn't seem fair to play classical chess for 2 weeks only to have to change for faster times. Heard a suggestion they should do rapid and blitz tie breakers after each tie game instead of at the end.
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Last edited by FireGilbert; 05-01-2023 at 12:10 AM.
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Ding wins!!! Exciting finish in the final rapid game. Thought it was going to be a repetition draw so played my own rapid game but came back 20 minutes later to see him crowned the champ. Turned out Ding decided to go for it and played a perfect end game with clock pressure.
Crazy the journey it took Ding to get here after being stuck in China during the pandemic and not being able to take a typical qualification path.
1. Karjakin gets the boot for supporting Russia and is replaced by the next highest rated player. This is Ding but...
2. There are a minimum number of tournament games needed to qualify and he isn't even close. Has to play like 25 games in two months while maintaining his rating.
3. Makes the candidates and finishes 2nd. Eliminated until...
4. Magnus retires.
Feel bad for Nepo who seems destined to always be runner up. Doesn't seem fair to play classical chess for 2 weeks only to have to change for faster times. Heard a suggestion they should do rapid and blitz tie breakers after each tie game instead of at the end.
It’s hard to say what the right format is. I think right now FIDE must be noticing that the world rapid and blitz championships are attracting more viewers and are (frankly) more watchable than the 6 hour marathon games in the current world championship format.
I think they need to change the format to a faster time control. For one thing it looks absolutely grueling for the players—by the end, Nepo looked like he had gone on a 3 day bender and then followed that up by swallowing a whole lemon. And the process takes like 18 days??
In the age of esports it may be the case that a sacrifice of “purity” needs to be made in order to allow for a better entertainment product and access to the sport as a whole. Not very many people can watch a 6 hour game of chess, but way more people can get behind the spectacle of rapid and blitz, where the accuracy of the play may be lower but the entertainment value is way, way, better.
Just my thoughts. I do feel a bit sad for Nepo—though he may still have another chance next year. Over the course of the year he has played at an astonishingly high level, including dominating the candidates tournament. I suspect he will be back.
Thanks! Sad day for CP to have the chess championship held in a foreign country...
Good games to all my opponents: Scornfire, IFF, Superfraggle, and mrkajz44. Wanted to say you guys are incredibly good at openings and regularly had me in awkward positions early. Even a lot of the post game chess.com analysis was like your opponent was brilliant in the opening but you recovered in the middle game.
Here is a list of every opening in the tournament with some comments:
-10x Caro-Kahn
-5x Queen's Gambit
-3x Indian
-1x Italian
-1x Petrov's
-1x Damiano defence
-1x Sicilian
-1x London
-1x Bogo Indian
-Other than the Sicilian there are a lot of safe openings here. Maybe it speaks towards the personality of our members.
-White went 16-8 which seems a bit higher than normal and strange there were no draws. Despite white's dominance for some reason I play better against Superfraggle as black.
-I played the Queens Gambit. Used to win a lot as a beginner with the gambit accepted but later didn't know what to do when declined. Recently though have really figured out the QGD with a lot of success and would recommend. Props to mrkajz44 for confusing me in the opening by not going into the QGD and we ended up in a Bogo Indian I was not familiar with.
-Don't play the Damiano defence, it has been refuted. The f pawn does not actually defend the e pawn, defend with the knight instead.
-Surprised there was only one London but suspect the move orders may have caused Chess.com to call a couple of these Indian games. Superfraggle's London scared the hell out of me so I found a King's Indian line against it, only to have him pivot to a more traditional Indian and stress me out.
-Clearly the Caro-Kahn is CP's favourite opening and I can't really blame us because it is incredibly solid. We should all be very good at this now and hope we are using it to smash noobs online. I should dig deeper into all the variations we played. IFF and I had two intense lengthy games of the Advance Tal variation. After he beat my Caro the first time I found some line where I could gain an advantage by taking a pawn and then trading my Queen for the Rooks but of course he plays something different on move 9. Frankly I never want to see that position again and am considering if I need to learn another opening against e4.
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Just as an illustration of FireGilbert’s point, The Damiano defence (which goes 1. e4, e5, 2. Nf3, f6??) is one of the reasons for GM Ben Finegold’s rule: “never play f6.” It’s not a good set up for black at any level.
White can simply sacrifice the knight on e5, and after 2 Nxe5!, fxe5, 3. Qh5+ leaves black with no good options at all. 3. … g6 blocks the check but loses the rook in the corner after Qxe5+. 3. Ke7 is the only other option and it’s not much better.
Also, I’m disappointed we had only one Petrov (1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nf6). It’s low-key a very solid option for black, and white has to know not to get too greedy about the “free” pawn on e5 (you basically have to give it back in most lines).
I’m fond of the Stafford gambit line in the Petrov, which is not sound enough to play in correspondence games, but at my level against other “low intermediate” players it’s a very powerful blitz and rapid weapon. White really has to know the exact refutation, or will find itself on the wrong end of some nasty tactical lines.
I've definitely been experimenting with different openings and I've found the Indian opening (Nf6) to be very interesting against the Queen's gambit. It's put me in positions I'm quite unfamiliar with right now, but it seems like it's not a common play which can help give you the edge as white doesn't really know how to play against it.(even our tournament champion was surprised by it, though it didn't lead me to victory).
I do like the Caro-Kann, but have grown to hate the white pawn that ends up on e5. Seems like it's key to use your knights properly in that opening to avoid that problem, but I'll admit I've shied away from using it as that pawn just frustrates me. Perhaps it's time to bring it back?
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I’m fond of the Stafford gambit line in the Petrov, which is not sound enough to play in correspondence games, but at my level against other “low intermediate” players it’s a very powerful blitz and rapid weapon. White really has to know the exact refutation, or will find itself on the wrong end of some nasty tactical lines.
Would be hilarious for someone to play the Stafford in a daily game! I've been learning to refute it as white but it's super stressful and you need to play like 5 perfect moves in a row to realize the advantage.
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Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I've definitely been experimenting with different openings and I've found the Indian opening (Nf6) to be very interesting against the Queen's gambit. It's put me in positions I'm quite unfamiliar with right now, but it seems like it's not a common play which can help give you the edge as white doesn't really know how to play against it.(even our tournament champion was surprised by it, though it didn't lead me to victory).
Nf6 has become my response to d4. Has a lot of flexibility going into Indian games and you can also easily transpose into a QGD or anti-London. I'm not a big fan of the King's Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6), as you are conceding the centre and have to rely on pawn breaks at the right time to fight back, but have really been liking the Nimzo Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4) as a powerful counter that threatens white with doubled pawns. In our game I didn't want to face the Nimzo so developed my other knight instead and we ended up in that Bogo Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I do like the Caro-Kann, but have grown to hate the white pawn that ends up on e5. Seems like it's key to use your knights properly in that opening to avoid that problem, but I'll admit I've shied away from using it as that pawn just frustrates me. Perhaps it's time to bring it back?
Yeah the advance Caro is challenging to play against as you can't easily develop your king side and castle. I like to be very patient and strike with the c pawn at the right time to undermine that e pawn. Qb6 is also a useful move as you probably saw in our game when I eventually used the Queen to capture your d pawn.
Just don't like playing against IFF's Advance Tal variation as it takes even more space on the king side and castling is next to impossible. Funny enough I was able to get ahead in our second game of this variation after he made a mistake castling while I kept my king in the centre. Clearly the lesson is never castle!
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