Board pairings here. Live games will be here.
Comments
Charbonneau beat Anand.
Posted by: peach at June 3, 2006 11:49
What's wrong with Anand? A 2800+ player falling prey to a 2500+ guy?
Posted by: gerald at June 3, 2006 11:55
Anand is not as good a player as his rating makes him out to be. I think he is past his prime. He is very likeable. So, the press give him good reviews.
Posted by: peach at June 3, 2006 12:05
"Anand is not as good a player as his rating makes him out to be. I think he is past his prime."
Sure. He crossed the 2800 barrier to get his highest rating ever, that's a clear proof that he is past his prime.
Posted by: zarghev at June 3, 2006 12:18
"Anand is not as good a player as his rating makes him out to be."
I wish I had a dollar every time somebody on this board extrapolates from one event.
Posted by: Marc Shepherd at June 3, 2006 12:21
Hmm, I wonder if there is something wrong with Anand that goes beyond being tired from MTel. After all, he has only won one of his latest 15 games, and that was against a 2300!
Posted by: acirce at June 3, 2006 12:31
Hey now! Lets not talk about how weak Anand is and let's instead focus on what a genius Charbonneau is!
Posted by: Greg Shahade at June 3, 2006 12:34
You don't reach 2800 by luck. That being said, this has been an atrocious tournament for Anand. A 2617 performance rating so far...
Posted by: KB at June 3, 2006 12:37
Kramnik pulls the old bxf7+ on Bruzon
Posted by: canuckian at June 3, 2006 12:45
Worst Anand performance since Dortmund 2001 (last place with -4) I guess.
Posted by: acirce at June 3, 2006 12:45
Israel defeats the United States 2.5-1.5. This eliminates the US from any realistic shot at a medal.
Posted by: Marc Shepherd at June 3, 2006 13:12
Norway beats Germany 2,5 - 1,5 with Carlsen winning with black against Naiditsch. Carlsen has 5,5 of 7 and about 2850 performance rating.
Posted by: Xaurus at June 3, 2006 13:19
Peace...
Well, Ildar Ibragimov has really underwhelmed during the latter part of this event. What a shame that his loss in what was thought to be our only clearly favorable matchup eliminates the U.S. from medal contention. Kaidanov should have played. :-(
Hotep,
Maliq
Posted by: Maliq Soter at June 3, 2006 13:20
Does anyone know which and when is the next major tournament for Anand ? And did any journalist ask Anand about the cause for his dismal performance ?
Posted by: shankar at June 3, 2006 13:23
Kram rules with white
Posted by: marc at June 3, 2006 13:34
Too bad for Anand, I guess. Hopefully this won't discourage him from occasionally getting his hands dirty in olympiads and such. It's nice to see how the inbred top players fare against the rank-and-file GM's once in a while.
Posted by: macuga at June 3, 2006 14:28
USA-Norway in the last round of the Olympiad this year as well it seems.
As a Norwegian, there are several other teams I would have preferred for the last round...
Posted by: KB at June 3, 2006 17:11
Considering all of the material and financial assistance that the USA gives to Israel, it was a rather ungrateful gesture on the part of the Israeli team to defeat the US team, and thereby scuttle their chances to medal. Bush ought to dock the amount of aid that Israel receives, by, say, 100 Million $$ or so.
The match result would have been worse, if it hadn't been for the fact that Sutovsky is in dismal form. Sutovsky hasn't had a decent result in over a year....
As a whole, the Israeli team has had a mediocre event, but Gelfand salvages something for himself, with his win over Kamsky.
The first match defeat for the US could not have come at a worse time.
The Chinese men seem set to repeat their feat of winning the Silver Medal, as they did at the World Teams. Just in case anybody thought that result was a fluke....
Final (13th) Round pairings are:
Round 13 on 2006/06/04 at 10:00
No. SNo Team Team Pts. Res. : Res. Pts. Team Team SNo
1 3 Armenia ARM 34 -- 30½ Hungary HUN 16
2 12 China CHN 31½ -- 29½ Netherlands NED 8
3 1 Russia RUS 31 -- 30 Israel ISR 6
4 10 Bulgaria BUL 29½ -- 30½ France FRA 5
5 7 USA USA 29½ -- 29 Norway
China is a half point ahead of Russia, and a full point ahead of France. Russia has the talent to score big against the Israelis, but thus far have not been playing up to their potential. In contrast, China HAS been scoring big against teams the caliber of The Netherlands, and could well be expected to stay ahead of the Russians.
Posted by: DOug at June 3, 2006 17:41
Israel is playing on board 3 in the last round, which isn't really "mediocre," given that they're the 6th seed.
It would be bizarre if Russia were to end up completely outside of the medals. I guess times really have changed.
China seems to do well as a team. Which makes me wonder if they're underrated -- perhaps they don't play enough in international events, so their ratings end up artificially deflated?
Posted by: macuga at June 3, 2006 18:19
Carlsen v. Kamsky tomorrow. Or will it be Kamsky v. Carlsen? How are colors allocated, anyway?
Anyway, a good rematch after their World cup encounter. Two fighters.
On paper the USA should have this one in the bag regardless of board 1 result.
Posted by: Twillig at June 3, 2006 18:46
And Anand is not playing, says goodbye with 50 %. A tournament he will like to forget soon, I think.
Posted by: Charles Milton Ling at June 3, 2006 20:29
An article from chessbase
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3157
has a picture with the caption:
WIM Arianne Caoili, Australia, 2169 (more about her later)
but from what I can tell, her performance has been unimpressive...odd.
Posted by: superfreaky at June 3, 2006 21:32
I mean, perhaps there's an anecdote with the Australian female player, but wouldn't the icon on the main page of chessbase for round 12 report of Turin be a picture of Aronian?
Posted by: superfreaky at June 3, 2006 21:35
The Australian WIM is very cute. I look forward to learning what the "more" is.
While I follow the Olympics and think that a lot of excitement happens here, I generally don't overvalue negative performance here in what I think of the player. Some guys just don't function well in this type of atmosphere--some on the opposite thrive.
Posted by: Yuriy Kleyner at June 3, 2006 22:04
Carlsen has 5,5 of 7 and about 2850 performance rating.
Carlsen is probably falling apart. haha. past his prime for sure.
Since so many are picking on Anand, I thought I would be the first one to outrageously pick on Magnus.
Unfortunately I like both Magnus and Kamsky. of course I have to cheer for Kamsky first but it would be nice to see them both win.
As far as Anand's performance. I would not be surprised if he is not happy with the present state of affairs in chess. he has been passed over so many times. he was shuffled to the side for years on the Prague Agreement and NOW Radjabov moves in for a shot. Again no one pays attention to Anand. it must be very discouraging.
Also there is no news on the Candidates Matches.
I hope Anand gets right back into top form and starts winning again. I bet if he was playing in Radjabov's place he would have had a great Olympiad. it would have energized him instead of discouraging him. let us all stop draging down on Anand and start supporting him. he deserves a lot of support. he is a great chess player.
Posted by: tommy at June 4, 2006 00:02
"Hey now! Lets not talk about how weak Anand is and let's instead focus on what a genius Charbonneau is!"
Right on, Greg. Pascal is a great player. Just Anand's back luck to have had to play against him.
Posted by: inky at June 4, 2006 00:04
Anand, no doubt, has had a poor olympiad, a very poor one indeed. Surely, there are reason(s). But, NONE amongst them can be that he is not a true '2800' player. To achieve 2800, one has to consistently outperform 2700s over a considerable length of time. Anand has done it, and reached 2800.
Is it the case that after achieving 2800, he is having an immediate case of 'chess burnout'? A 'lack of motivation'?
or, is it that Anand entered a 'bad patch' coincidentally at the olympiad?
Did having to play much lower-rated opponents at the Olympiad 'compromise' his style and play? In the sense, he didnt want to enter lines where he might be forced to either reveal his deeper theoretical preparations and in some sense 'waste' them, or play weaker lines of these variations. I mean this as a general argument, you all can fill in the details.
Perhaps it is a combination of a little of all of the above?
Just some thoughts. Others can come up with other possible reasons. One point I liked is what tommy raised, Anand was feeling disspirited that Radjabov or Kramnik has a shot at the world title, but not him.
Ultimately, only Anand can explain his 'debacle' in the olympiad. Has there been any interview of him so far?
It remains to be seen how Anand will play in upcoming super GM tournaments. Btw, what is the next one he is slated to play, anyone?
Posted by: Ashok Patel at June 4, 2006 03:08
I just thought I mention that Etienne Bacrot has been on top of the Rating performance list for the last few rounds, ahead of Carlsen and Kramnik. I hope that means that he at least keeps his current rating. :o))
Posted by: Albrecht von der Lieth at June 4, 2006 04:14
Anand had a shot on the FIDE title less than a year ago, and he didn't even have to qualify for it. If THAT is the reason, then something is seriously wrong.
Posted by: acirce at June 4, 2006 09:32
Guys, please, the Anand-bashing is ridiculous. Very likely he was exhausted, possibly he was a little dispirited, certainly he was out of form - great players are allowed to be on occasion...
But this was a TEAM event - he had to know he was not at his best, but he didn't run away. He took a bullet for his TEAM, trying to neutralize the other teams' Board 1 players, and allowing his teammates to play down a board. Why is it so hard to give him the credit that his sportsmanship and patriotism deserve?
Jeez, it's one lousy tournament with extenuating circumstances, and the fretting over what it "means" is way over the top. His form will come back, his previous career stands on its own, this olympiad will not determine his place in history, nor predict his future. And the chess aside, he showed some real character. Any way he can be cut a little slack?
Posted by: partizan at June 4, 2006 10:11
Anyone bashing Anand here? You could imagine what it would look like if it had been Kramnik.
Posted by: acirce at June 4, 2006 10:17
Yeah, but Kramnik claims to be a world champion. Anand doesn't.
Posted by: peach at June 4, 2006 11:11
Interesting point, peachy-keen, since Kramnik likely would stop claiming to be world champion if relieved of his title.
Posted by: Clubfoot at June 4, 2006 15:22
