Round 8 was our second round of four draws, although there was a modicum more interest to them today compared to the abysmal sixth round. Aronian-Svidler and Anand-Topalov both looked like they were headed into waters fast and deep out of the opening. Aronian's offbeat old 6.b4 was met in kind with ..a5 b5 a4 and Svidler dropped his queen on a5 -- on the wrong side of his a-pawn. What started looking like a Sam Loyd composition opened up when Svidler employed a handy piece of Grunfeldish sneakery with 12..e5. Things really could have gotten interesting had Aronian played 14.dxc6!? It was still looking interesting enough when Aronian offered a draw on move 16, probably not liking the looks of 16..Qb4. Sadly this is routine enough. Sharp position, White no longer has an advantage, offers draw, Black accepts. Aronian has lost a couple of games to Svidler's Grunfeld lately (not in the opening though) so maybe he was happy to just get out of this one.
Anand-Topalov, #2 vs #1, a Najdorf Sicilian, what more could you ask? How about another 20 moves? Anand tried the short-side castling line that Ivanchuk used to beat Topalov in the second round. Topalov gave Ivanchuk's 10.Bxe6 another stamp of approval by playing 9..Nc6. A blocked center that looked straight out of a Ruy Lopez arose, knight dancing included. GM Larry Christiansen quite liked White's position after 21.Nh4. Topalov bit the bullet and played the hairy 21..g5 in response. Now 22.Qf3 must be the acid test, although it looked like White still had play in the game. Instead of finding out, we got a draw on move 25. Black is probably fine with his bishop nicely deployed.
Leko and Ivanchuk went into a known endgame in which White tries to make something of his knight vs bishop. It's practically playing for a triangulation win from the start. White does have some annoying tricks but it's hard to imagine a technical player of Ivanchuk's pedigree losing this. I could see Kramnik beating 2600 players three out of five in it though. Carlsen busted out the Open Ruy he used against Karjakin at Corus this year against his good client, Morozevich. Black gave up a pawn and it wasn't clear he was going to get it back when Morozevich helped out with the wacky 17.Nd4. Moro just hates being up material. He continued his flamboyant play all the way into a clearly inferior endgame. Somehow he survived, although it's probable Carlsen had improvements along the way. We missed a ludicrous line with 17.b4 d4 18.b5 dxc3 19.bxc6 Qxc6 20.Qc2! cxd2! 21.Qxc6 d1Q 22.Qxc7 and White keeps the extra pawn.
The official website and broadcast was, por supuesto, a disaster. Spanish chess sites are like garbage trucks -- they stink but you miss them when they don't work. Every year the same thing. It's not so much that I think the fans "deserve" anything for free as such. But clearly they want people to watch. The money they spend is on the design, such as it is, and the salaries of the people who run the site. The bandwidth and server power is chump change compared to that. For $400 they could host the site on a machine that could handle the traffic for Christina Aguilera doing profane things with a bishop. (Catholic or Episcopalian, your choice.) Centimo wise and peseta foolish. It's all euros now, alas. Thanks to Macauley Petersen in Linares for getting the moves out to the ICC.
Round 8 Chess.FM trivia questions and winners (for account extensions, t-shirts, and one year-long subscription to New In Chess each day).
1) Which player in Linares has drawn all his games so far? Winner: RueeLopaith
2) The legendary bullfighter Manolete was killed in Linares. Which actor will play Manolete in this year’s movie about him? Winner: zenpawn
3) Which two Linares players are scheduled to play each other in the first round of the FIDE world championship candidates matches in May (May 26-June 14)? Winner: Akselborg
Saturday, March 3. Round 9: Morozevich-Leko, Topalov-Ivanchuk, Carlsen-Aronian, Svidler-Anand. Hoping for some big chess in Topalov-Ivanchuk.
Well, even non-paying fans do deserve one thing at least: the basic courtesy of being spared false promises. When we are told that there will be a live transmission then there ought bloody well to be one! By analogy, if I announce that I'll give a free concert in the local community center on Sunday afternoon and people trot out to attend, they'll have a legitimate grievance if they do so in vain due to my laziness and/or incompetence.
As Mig notes, it's laughably easy and cheap to provide the advertised service, so there's no excuse. And if the trifling bandwidth cost is an issue after all, why not put some ads on the page?
did anybody else notice the vigilant censoring on Susanblogspot site?
Good recommondation to become USCF responsible
Yes, I noticed the censoring on the Pro Gal Susan blog. Even comments that were not pro-Sloan but just mildly critical of the non-specific nature of the SP camp's pitch were binned - presumably on the grounds that they might have come from the Sloan camp.
There's also prejudice: Sloan is being attacked because he made mistakes with the law in the past. Simply demonstrating the negative value he seems to have been for the USCF seem enough.
Grasp U Sloan clearly has a problem with Sam and he does seem a bit chaotic - but are the USCF's problems all about him? I suspect not.
I do wonder if the SP team, if elected, will listen to and work with anyone else. There are signs that they are not 'learning' on the site.
Anyway, I originally wrote in to applaud MG's fine writing - perceptive, graphic, v entertaining - something conspicuously absent on the SP blogspot which is increasingly full of US Polar Nags.
Is there any web site for us to watch the games live without paying ?
thanks.
Mig, you wrote the link. Sorry, I saw it now.
I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but please stop hijacking new threads. This is the Linares round 9 item and it's unacceptable to try to use this blog for your politicking. I have no qualms about inviting cries of censorship [sic] by deleting blatant hijacks, especially if you are making habit of it. People should be able to discuss the topic in peace and without sorting through all this off-topic silliness. Thanks.
Is somebody like Susan, who does this sort of extreme censoring of even the slightest critic of people who are appearently not in any relation to Sloan, really suited for representing USCF?
Will she cooperate? Will she use the money of USCF not for herself? Will she install everywhere her "own" people? Discard any other opinion?
Give yourself the answer.
But for now we concentrate on the games. Hopefully Ivanchuk will have a good day, that would be very fine.
"...concentrate on the games."
What games? I'm staring at four boards with the initial positions. Either the players are boycotting today's round or else the broadcast is down as usual. Let's figure out which one it is.
The Russian website is finally working, so at least we can watch the games; here's the link for one of the games, & the others are accessible by links shown at the bottom, on the website: http://www.chesspro.ru/chessonline/onlines/index_311.html
The weird thing is that there are no moves for the Karlsen-Aronian game, at http://www.chesspro.ru/chessonline/onlines/index_309.html. There's a whole lot of text in Russian, though; can anyone translate, or at least enough to give a clue as to whether there's a problem w. the game or the players?! Incidentally, after 22 moves, it looks like Svidler's got a better endgame against Anand, at least to me...?!
Carlsen-Aronian's now up. So as Gilda Radner used to say, never mind...
4:42 Spain local time
Topalov is struggling for a win I guess.
He is ready for attack.. Who knows ?
Maybe Anand is better despite the lost pawn.
Carlsen will rather win ?! What a child anyway!
Moro - Leko I cannot tell.
You say the mexican website was a disaster. I saw all the games live. The Todoajedrez doesn't even conect!! What is hapening to the great Euro technology?? If it was the same level as the mexican one I was very happy.. it sucks!
They fail on Spanish management, not on Euro technology.
After the first day the Mexican website worked nicely till the end. I can't believe that's happenning in Spain... ...or perhaps developing countries are better hosts? Latin countries? Nobody beats the Dutch at Corus. They had it all nailed down.
Just joking, before anyopne jumps on me...
D.
From what I can tell, Carlsen-Aronian was agreed drawn (?); can anyone confirm?
According to chesspro.ru, Carlsen-Aronian is drawn.
Nice attacking game by Moro. I hope Chucky will also win.
Anand drew with Svidler? I think that's what Chesspro is telling me...
Topalov looked very lost to me. But like I always say about chucky... If there's one player above 2700 who is capable of losing this position...
No one cares about Susan Polgar. Or the USCF. And I'm -from- the united states. The USCF should seriously just delete its organization and become a rating body only.
Doesn't matter. They would find a way to end up in the red doing that.
Looks like Ivanchuk is set to double-blank Topa. LOL! So much for Topalov cheating. Either that or else he's throwing one to put everyone off the trail.
Blech. Topalov-Ivanchuk drawn in extreme time pressure. There was still a lot of fight left in the game.
Yes, Topalov-Ivanchuk drawn: НИЧЬЯ. That's your new Russian vocabulary word.
@Robert : we knew that before. How are win and loss called ?
Please don't mix up Southern and Northern Europe: In the north the technology and management are clearly on a higher level...than anywhere in the world. Alas the Southern Europe is....well... do I need to say more?
The game topalov ivanchuk was a win for Ivanchuk. He should have traded queens and he then had a very simple won game.
Too bad.
I may be wrong (of course!), observer, but I don't think it's a simple win at all.
Nice win by Moro. The guy is something special ;)
@George Russian Teacher:
ЧЕРНЫЕ СДАЛИСЬ means "Black Have Resigned." That's all I could dope out from the site today. btw I can't read a lick of Russian really, but there are free translators on the www for your future reference :)
As you can see, they translate much good!
And БЕЛЫЕ СДАЛИСЬ is White Have Resigned. Please note: those words are not normally written in caps in Russian, just as result of games on chesspro.
Mig, it seems like Susan Polgar thing is getting a lot of interest and it's a newsworthy subject. How about creating a place on this website to post about it?
Sorry for posting on SP Censoring here again, pls, Mig, give us a hint where to discuss this. Now there is Linares-R10 thread so posting on R9-thread might be considered not so harmful highjacking.
To give an idea what is going on on SP Site:
My comment on SP Site "Be careful posting here because of censoring" was immediately deleted.
Also deleted was "don't believe Susan. She supports Topalov. A person who does this can do everything".
Nothing really inappropriate. Normal opinions, shared by the majority who thinks the same. I am not in any relation to Sloan. Don't know this man.
I support Topalov but I can't fix my car.
"She supports Topalov. A person who does this can do everything"