Chess

[Federberg]

Did you see what Hou Yifan did today in Gibraltar?

Think it was in protest of being paired against women repeatedly

 

[Federberg]

 

[DarthFed]

I had not seen that. Honestly it's kind of ridiculous on Hou's part. These pairings are made by machine based on the player's current score going into the round. There are a lot of women playing at the event and it's just one of those things. She looks really bad doing what she did.

 

[Federberg]

Particularly as she decided to protest when she was finally paired against a man! You can't make this stuff up!

 

[DarthFed]

^ I know, just absolutely bizarre. And seriously, I'm shocked any respectable player would throw a game under any circumstance. Granted she is a woman and they aren't always fiercely competitive but most people at that level wouldn't think of going about it that way.

 

[Federberg]

 

[Federberg]

Are you watching the US Championships @Twisted ? This one should be good. Should be a nice test for Wesley and he's got off to a decent start already. And on a sidenote, he could get really close to Magnus's Elo rating

 

[DarthFed]

Are you watching the US Championships @Twisted ? This one should be good. Should be a nice test for Wesley and he's got off to a decent start already. And on a sidenote, he could get really close to Magnus's Elo rating

Yep I checked out the early games so far. So is becoming stronger and stronger and I favor him slightly over Caruana and Naka here. Kind of a tough tournament to gain a lot of points in though as you have 3 super beasts and then the rest are rated a lot lower. If one of the big 3 are going to gain a lot of points they have to finish with huge + scores and/or score wins against each other. Caruana and Naka have already played so there is just the So-Caruana (going on right now) and So-Naka matchups left in that regard.

 

[Federberg]

Wesley had better figure out a way to tackle Magnus. For some reason he seems to have problems against him. I guess, he sort of has the same pragmatic attitude as Magnus, but tends to make inaccuracies under real pressure. That's the only explanation I can see. To be honest the only real negative observation regarding his play I've seen is that sometimes he keeps his king exposed and uncastled too long

 

[DarthFed]

Well the classical H2H is 2-0 for Carlsen with 6 draws, 1 win in 2015 and 1 in 2016. Not that I put much stock in online rapid chess but they did just do a Pro Chess League on Chess.com which was 15 minutes + 2 second increment and Carlsen beat him there.

So's level has clearly jumped over the past year so it will be interesting to see if he can bring some trouble to Carlsen.

 

[Federberg]

Well the classical H2H is 2-0 for Carlsen with 6 draws, 1 win in 2015 and 1 in 2016. Not that I put much stock in online rapid chess but they did just do a Pro Chess League on Chess.com which was 15 minutes + 2 second increment and Carlsen beat him there.

So's level has clearly jumped over the past year so it will be interesting to see if he can bring some trouble to Carlsen.

yes, I'm really looking forward to that match up. But even in the recent Pro Chess League (which I thought was great fun) tournament, Wesley seemed to underperform. I think he has to lose his respect for Magnus

 

[Federberg]

Wow! fireworks in the So - Akobian match. I know there was some bad blood from a few years ago. So was DQ'd for writing notes on his sheet

 

[Federberg]

Oh dear... Akobian's blown it. Bd6 looked like the obvious move. Now he's lost his initiative and time is now a big issue for him

 

[DarthFed]

Bad blood indeed. So got some revenge last year with a crushing win. This one looks interesting, black (Akobian) looks better but not danger zone for white yet.

 

[Federberg]

He had a really good position and chickened out. He had to have seen Bd6. Even I saw it. Must have missed something in his calculation or got intimidated by So's counterplay

 

[DarthFed]

Well Akobian is now up an exchange and down a pawn. Definite edge to him I think but still a lot of work to do for a win.

 

[Federberg]

Yup. Looking better, but I think Wesley will sneak a draw from this

 

[DarthFed]

Yup. Looking better, but I think Wesley will sneak a draw from this

Yep, reverse the colors right now and I'd predict So wins. Nd2 is interesting here, Black shouldn't take on f2 due to Nxd5.

 

[Federberg]

My first thought would be to play Ng5 and get that piece into the game, but the engines don't like it so much

 

[Federberg]

Lol! Well he went the way I was thinking...