FWIS3

Every year I watch as much of the chess world championship match as I can. The 2016 event is being held in New York. This year I've had to pay $15 to some bastards that made the thing paywall, but this did not deter me. Magnus Carlsen has been the world champion for a couple of years, after being a child prodigy and defeating the incumbent champ Vishy Anand. Carlsen is the top rated chess player in the world by elo rating. He is playing what was the world #9, Sergey Karjakin, who against the odds won the candidates tournament. After 7 draws in a row in a 12 game match, Karjakin did the unthinkable and won a game with the black pieces after Carlsen over pressed. Nobody was expecting this. The remaining games, one of which starts in 2.5 hours will be incredibly exciting. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.

Am I the only chess nerd here?

No. but, it has been a few years since I seriously played or paid much attention to the "sport". My hobbies for many years have been playing soldier and raising children. They seem to be very time consuming.

I'm only a chess nerd, when it comes to the musical.

I played chess tournaments as a kid, and it's a super fond memory. I don't do much beyond following the chess subreddit these days though.

But I know enough to know what you said was crazy, thanks for sharing it! Let me know how the next round goes.

Game 9 just ended in a draw. Karjakin had the better position for most of the game but couldn't find a forced win. 3 games to go, Carlsen has 2 games with the white pieces.

I used to play chess a lot and was on the chess team in high school. My buddy and I used to play board-less chess where we'd just tell each other our moves and see how far we'd get before one or both of us lost the picture of the board in our heads.

geonuc wrote:I used to play chess a lot and was on the chess team in high school. My buddy and I used to play board-less chess where we'd just tell each other our moves and see how far we'd get before one or both of us lost the picture of the board in our heads.

Yeah the board visualisation skills are crazy. I can do this up to a certain point, but at some point the visualisation breaks down, moreso than the memory. I think it just shows how to be a really strong chess player there are a lot of different skills that need to come together. I recently watched a video of Carlsen beating 10 amateurs in a simultaneous exhibition, where he was blindfolded and the challengers all had the board in front of them.

The navigators of the space warp drive will probably be extremely good chess players. The ability to visualize the board and the potential moves in the future will be an essential skill.

The spice melange

Still Races too

Saw this one running on Facebook. John Urschel Battles Baltimore

In game 10 Karjakin missed a forced draw by repitition, and went on to lose, so the score is now 5-5 with 2 games to go.

Apologies to Tim Rice (for my re-wording the first line)

"New York, American setting
And the city don't know, what the city is getting.
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything, but Yul Brenner ..."


How many of you will now have the song "One Night in Bangkok" going through your minds?

This guy has a pretty good way of describing the games, stopping at key points to explore the options and point out the mistakes.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCDOQr ... TCKzqarxLg

Game 11 was a draw.

Last game is tonight. If it is a draw, things get interesting as we move from classical to rapid time controls. Things will be decided with speed chess

SciFiFisher wrote:Saw this one running on Facebook. John Urschel Battles Baltimore

You know, you don't need Facebook to find this. All you need is to watch a little football on TV.

Back when I first started with the state, we played chess at break time. I played alot of chess my first year there. I wouldn't say I was any good, but I had fun. I probably wouldn't even recognize the game now.

I swear to God I heard people talking about this game this weekend just walking down the street. (Also it was in the NY Times, but one was more interesting to witness!)

Exciting stuff.

Well, the last game was another Berlin, this time played with full intentions of a draw, which was agreed to early.

On Wednesday Blitz will decide who the champ is!

" One night in New York
And the world's your oyster.. "

Can't help myself.

Parrothead wrote:Apologies to Tim Rice (for my re-wording the first line)

"New York, American setting
And the city don't know, what the city is getting.
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything, but Yul Brenner ..."


How many of you will now have the song "One Night in Bangkok" going through your minds?

And, I don't mind at all...

Murry Head that sang that is the brother of the actor who played Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
And the guys from ABBA were the ones that composed that musical.

Just random trivia.

Carlsen won the rapid with two clear wins and retained his title

You didn't do the "play by play" very well. You're supposed to keep us on the edge of our seats and surprise us in the last minute.