Zhao Xue, giving up a few hundred rating points to Sergey Karjakin, nevertheless took him to blitz tiebreaks in their quarterfinal match. The girl's got game. Radjabov stuffed Bacrot in their first game and then held against Bacrot's eventual breakthrough in an epic blocked position game. A rare negative example of increment time controls. Bacrot's pawns looked good for the piece but he didn't follow up well and eventually lost. Tomorrow we have Carlsen-Fressinet and Volokitin-Harikrishna.
Update: Carlsen smoked Fressinet like a fine, umm, French cigar. It's Carlsen-Karjakin in the first semifinal on Wednesday! The sweet final move of the first game, 27.Qf5!, is coming soon to a tactics quiz near you.
Carlsen - Karajakin should be awesome!!
"Zhao Xue, giving up a few hundred rating points to Sergey Karjakin, nevertheless took him to blitz tiebreaks in their quarterfinal match. The girl's got game."
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Well, at least she has "rapid" and blitz game. As Ponomariov can attest, the Chinese ladies are capable of pulling off an upset in these types of events. Anyway, goodbye to her. If she had defeated Karjakin, she would have ruined a perfectly good match-up. I'm glad that one of the women advanced from the prelims, but the final rounds ought to be contested by the 2600s
"Radjabov stuffed Bacrot in their first game and then held against Bacrot's eventual breakthrough in an epic blocked position game. A rare negative example of increment time controls. Bacrot's pawns looked good for the piece but he didn't follow up well and eventually lost."
Why negative? Bacrot held a slight advantage, and he had some play. Without increment, Bacrot would have made the same sacrifice (due to his "must win" match situation), but zeitnot would have played even more of a factor. Maybe the sac would have been played without all of the preliminary maneuvering, but Radjabov needed to demonstrate that he could withstand the torture without buckling. Bacrot might have pressed on, even under Classical time controls, since he could maneuver without risk.
Why was it a negative example of increment time controls? It looked OK to me: game decided on the board rather than by who could punch their clock fastest.
Yeah, this is a perfect example of why increments should always be used. Who wants to see a clock banging contest?
No one mentioned Zhao Xue's pretty RxNf8!!against Karjakin yet? It's amazing how her far-flung pieces at c2, f1, g5 and the pawn at c6 magically cooperate in the attack against the optically well protected opponent's King. The close-by Knight, centralized Queen, and centre pawn were suddenly revealed to be completely ineffectual by that pretty crushing move.
My comment was about how increment allows you to torture someone endlessly by shuffling your pieces around until move 200 and then, when he's exhausted, you play your sacrificial breakthough or whatever. There is no cost for the player with the better position if the defender is tied down. Usually we only see this in endgames, but this was a good example in a middlegame. The players are still finding moves, it's not mindless, but there is no way Bacrot waits until move 100 without increment. I.e. the existence of increment changed the strategy of the game. This is why I don't think increments should be more than a few seconds in rapid chess. It should be there to allow a game to reach its logical result (converting a winning advantage or holding a theoretical draw, for example) without a clock banging session, but not to affect the method of play.
>No one mentioned Zhao Xue's pretty RxNf8!!against Karjakin yet?>
yes it was really neat and Krajakin would have been fried spectacularly even with a better play
after 29.Bxd5 exd5 30.Rf1 Re8
[30..Kg8 ? 31.Rxf8+! ]
31.Rf7+ Kg8 32.Qf2 d4
[4...Qe2 5.Rxf8+! and wins Q]
33.Rf6! [threat 34.Rg6+ Kh8 35. Nf7+] Qd5
34.Re6! (interfering with the Qd5 defense of the f7 square] Qd7 35.c6 and over..
however so good are Zhao's pieces placed that position plays itself
Carlsen final blow Qf5!against Fressinet is also pretty
I have nothing against an official FIDE rapid worldchampionship complete with official FIDE rapid rating list and all. Perhaps we can use Mexico for that, who cares if the rapid title is determined by a tournament.
an anyone see these games live or my browser is defect ?
And Carlsen - Karjakin it is. Hopefully an interesting encounter.
I sympathize, but this "shuffling" is what you get when you, as a player, allow yourself to get into a passive position. This shuffling occurred just as frequently back in the day when there were adjournments, and a player with an edge would want the "Keep the position", and then find the no risk win on the analysis board.
When you introduce an artificial element, then the course of play can be influenced. In this case, the elements were (as always) time, and (in this instance) a must win situation.
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My comment was about how increment allows you to torture someone endlessly by shuffling your pieces around until move 200 and then, when he's exhausted, you play your sacrificial breakthough or whatever. There is no cost for the player with the better position if the defender is tied down. Usually we only see this in endgames, but this was a good example in a middlegame. The players are still finding moves, it's not mindless, but there is no way Bacrot waits until move 100 without increment. I.e. the existence of increment changed the strategy of the game. This is why I don't think increments should be more than a few seconds in rapid chess. It should be there to allow a game to reach its logical result (converting a winning advantage or holding a theoretical draw, for example) without a clock banging session, but not to affect the method of play.
Posted by: Mig at October 31, 2006 08:21
Mig, my impression of Bacrot-Karjakin was different from yours. I didn't think that Bacrot was "torturing" Karjakin. I thought Bacrot was very frustrated and probably felt like the victim. With draw odds in hand, Karjakin locked up the position at move 28 and dared Bacrot to break through, and while Bacrot was "shuffling" trying to work out a breakthrough, Karjakin was "countershuffling" and extinguishing Bacrot's breakthrough ideas. That was why Bacrot waited - because it was never quite right, not because the increment was allowing him to "torture" his opponent. Eventually the 50-move rule came creeping up and Bacrot had to go for broke, ready or not, and it wasn't enough.
Official site works for me. Wait until the second Java window is also displayed in your browser before pushing the button on the first Java window. If you don't wait, you get an error.
An alternative to the official site: http://www.organisechecs.com/evenements/cap2006/direct.html
LOL - I just made a tactics quiz and then I wrote your last sentence (I swear). Check it out at http://www.doggers-schaak.nl.