NRR: Official 2014 World Chess Championship Thread

Runsingcheck wrote:

Big blunder by Vishy, but his position was already close to lost (-2.5, if I remember correctly). Not sure which looked worse for Vishy, the little mistakes leading toward a loss, or the big one sealing it. Obviously, it's only one game, and it's very early in the match. Even so, a great start for Carlsen. Kid's just a winner.

Classic Carlsen. Nothing amazing out of the opening, but continuously accurate moves just build up the pressure toward the end game and then - oops, there's the blunder by from his opponent. As GM Nigel Short rightly said "blunders don't happen in a vacuum". They're the result of sustained pressure.

Carlsen is going to run away with this match. 8-4. You can take that to the bank.

Elo 2100 wrote:

Runsingcheck wrote:

Big blunder by Vishy, but his position was already close to lost (-2.5, if I remember correctly). Not sure which looked worse for Vishy, the little mistakes leading toward a loss, or the big one sealing it. Obviously, it's only one game, and it's very early in the match. Even so, a great start for Carlsen. Kid's just a winner.

Classic Carlsen. Nothing amazing out of the opening, but continuously accurate moves just build up the pressure toward the end game and then - oops, there's the blunder by from his opponent. As GM Nigel Short rightly said "blunders don't happen in a vacuum". They're the result of sustained pressure.

Carlsen is going to run away with this match. 8-4. You can take that to the bank.

I agree that Carlsen looks likely to win the match decisively, but I'm ready to bet quite a large sum against an 8-4 result since 7-4 ends the match.

I'm sticking with my initial prediction of 6.5 - 4.5, but there's still a long way to go. Game 3 on Tuesday will tell us a lot. If Anand can put real pressure on Carlsen with white, he might make a match of it yet [whether or not he wins the game.] If Carlsen gets another open, interesting middle game where he can grind Anand, I think you'll see a very fatigued Anand in game 4 and potentially the beginnings of a Carlsen route.

Ha. Yes, of course you're right about 7-4 winning, but you take my point, I hope. Carlsen is just too accurate. Anand will have to take chances now - and likely that will likely make things worse for him. I thought Anand messed up today - he let Carlsen set up an Alekhine's gun. Too much.

Imagine having only 2 runners race each other every 2 years to be the world champion.

not a good system wrote:

Imagine having only 2 runners race each other every 2 years to be the world champion.

You clearly don't know how it works, then. Google it.

not a good system wrote:

Imagine having only 2 runners race each other every 2 years to be the world champion.

1. The challenger (Anand) had to qualify through a tournament with some of the best players in the world.

2. A classical chess game, unlike a race, can only accommodate 2 competitors.

3. It's a match, the best way to determine the better player, and matches take time.

The parallels don't really work.

P.S. Although I disagree with your argument, I acknowlege that FIDE has a history of mucking up the world championship process, and it could be improved.

Definitely take your point. As it happens, 2013 match + the 2014 match now = 12 games in which Carlsen leads...8-4.

I've been looking for post-game comments from Anand and Carlsen and haven't been able to find any. Was there a post-match press conference, and if so, can someone point me to it? [I have the impression that when Carlsen played 28 Qe2, he hadn't fully analyzed 28...b5 because he spent over 10 minutes before playing 29 b3, at which point it looked like Anand was worse but still had some drawing chances. Very curious what Carlsen has to say about that.]

I expected this thread to be humming about Anand's victory in the third game today. I haven't seen or heard any serious commentary about the game, and I missed the players' post-game press conference. The game had the look of home-cooking by Anand, but I don't know.

Avocado's Number wrote:

I expected this thread to be humming about Anand's victory in the third game today. I haven't seen or heard any serious commentary about the game, and I missed the players' post-game press conference. The game had the look of home-cooking by Anand, but I don't know.

I get the sense this is a thread full of Carlsen fans. Now everyone's disappointed. I slept through the match after completely forgetting it was on. Looking for some good post game analysis now.

Avocado's Number wrote:

I expected this thread to be humming about Anand's victory in the third game today. I haven't seen or heard any serious commentary about the game, and I missed the players' post-game press conference. The game had the look of home-cooking by Anand, but I don't know.

Didn't get a chance to follow the game as carefully as I would have liked, but I agree that this game was almost certainly a case of Anand [finally!] getting a win that had something to do with the depth of his opening preparation.

Thoughts on where the match goes from here?

p.s. Carlsen's comments after game 2 do indicate that when he played 28 Qe2, he didn't give full attention to 28...b5. Maybe that isn't a big deal, but it makes me wonder if Carlsen is truly on top of his game.

Anand! The old Tiger of Madras still has claws!

Last year, he didn't start playing this way until game 9. Preparing an aggressive novelty like that is exactly what he did all the time in the late 90s/early 2000s.

My money is still on Carlsen, but this is shaping up to be quite the match.

Runsingcheck wrote:

Anand! The old Tiger of Madras still has claws!

Last year, he didn't start playing this way until game 9. Preparing an aggressive novelty like that is exactly what he did all the time in the late 90s/early 2000s.

My money is still on Carlsen, but this is shaping up to be quite the match.

So far the match looks more like a bar-room brawl than a sophisticated discussion of the nuances of modern chess. Will be fascinating to see where it goes from here.

dkny64 wrote:

So far the match looks more like a bar-room brawl

Here's a nice video analysis of game 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AOvrqCSzsA

The analyst suggests that Carlsen may have rushed into an error with 18 ... Nxe4, and that 18 ... dxe4 could have offered Black counterplay in the center and the queenside.

It's interesting that Carlsen got caught by Anand's "home preparation" in the opening. I would have expected Carlsen's sense of danger to be more keen, a la Capablanca.

Just watched the Game 3 press conference. Loved the thinly veiled disgust from Carlsen and the "hush hush" response from Anand regarding his change in strategy from last year. Both men came to win this year.

Runsingcheck wrote:

Just watched the Game 3 press conference. Loved the thinly veiled disgust from Carlsen and the "hush hush" response from Anand regarding his change in strategy from last year. Both men came to win this year.

jalfano wrote:

Here's a nice video analysis of game 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AOvrqCSzsA

The analyst suggests that Carlsen may have rushed into an error with 18 ... Nxe4, and that 18 ... dxe4 could have offered Black counterplay in the center and the queenside.

It's interesting that Carlsen got caught by Anand's "home preparation" in the opening. I would have expected Carlsen's sense of danger to be more keen, a la Capablanca.

Here's an interesting article about the game:

It seems that, among world-class players, it was well known that the first nineteen moves were identical to those played in Aronian-Adams at Bilbao in 2013, and the first twenty-five moves were virtually identical to those in at least two other published games that went badly for black. Magnus was apparently just underprepared (and outprepared by Anand). The twitter comments by Giri and Caruana, in particular, were telling; they both saw that Carlsen was taking a well-trod path to a likely loss.

This seems to be Magnus's Achilles heel -- allowing himself to get into such forcing and tactically sharp lines against booked-up players like Anand and Caruana. It's awfully hard to refute computer-aided home analysis over the board in situations like this.

I think someone already posted the link earlier in the thread, but in case anyone missed it:

http://www.sochi2014.fide.com/video-archive/

All post-game press conferences will be posted here.

Haven't had a chance to look carefully at today's game but at a cursory glance it appears to have been an interesting but more "normal" GM affair.

And now...8 games to decide the world title.