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| Posted by tag1153 cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 01:23:21 Play online chess |  Subject: Controversy in U.S. Women's ChampionshipMessage:  main.uschess.org
Be sure to view the Armageddon game in question. Irina has a point (although I agree she should have said something right then and there....) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by kansaspatzer cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 04:01:08 Play online chess | Message: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by heinzkat cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 05:21:51 Play online chess | Happy times behind the chess board Message: www.youtube.com ——— Children 1, Astronaut 0 — In the end, the astronaut could not outwit the children. Wednesday, Greg Chamitoff, an American astronaut, resigned a long-running correspondence chess game against a group of children from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash. They had started the game in September 2008 while Chamitoff was stationed aboard the International Space Station. The game had been the idea of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Officials at the agency had asked the United States Chess Federation about having Chamitoff play a game of chess against some of the federation’s members. Stevenson was chosen as an opponent because the school ... Posted by ganstaman | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 09:55:05 Play online chess Message: The only part I don't like is when she 'explains' her own throwing of the chess piece at the end of the game. She basically says "It's not as bad as what Anna did, so you shouldn't care about it." Saying sorry with one sentence to explain that she was more fustrated than normal would have been ten times better. ——— London Chess Classic: Kramnik's lesson in positional play — McShane-Kramnik, London 2009. Black to play. With two rounds to go in the London Chess Classic, the Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen looks set to win the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik, his main rival, is in second place. In this game from round three, Kramnik displayed his refined positional understanding. RB I've been following this tournament online, but I missed this particular game, and more's the pity because I can't find a good continuation for Black. Clearly Kramnik has the better game – the two centralised knights look very threatening – but how to convert Black's positional superiority into a winning position? 1...Nxd2 2 Nxd2 doesn't lead anywhere and ... Posted by heinzkat | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 10:49:51 Play online chess That was just an alternative wayMessage: ——— Gelfand Wins World Chess Cup — Boris Gelfand of Israel is the 2009 World Cup champion. Gelfand won the title by beating Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a playoff on Monday. The first four games of the playoff were rapid games (25 minutes per player per game) and Gelfand took the lead by winning the second game. But Ponomariov, with his back to the wall, won the last rapid game to tie the match up again. The playoff then went to blitz chess (5 minutes per player per game) and Gelfand once again took the lead by beating Ponomariov in the first game when he managed to trap Ponomariov’s queen in 21 moves. Ponomariov rallied again, winning the second game. But Gelfand won the third and Ponomariov ... Posted by tim_b | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 11:00:55 Play online chess Message: ——— A tragic knight — The London Chess Classic, a fabulously organized eight-player elite tournament, shaped up as a confrontation between two great chess grandmasters, the top-rated Magnus Carlsen of Norway and the former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. By the luck of draw, they met in the first round, and Carlsen won. The Norwegian GM was still in a clear lead on Sunday with four points in five rounds, a full point ahead of Kramnik. U.S. chess champion Hikaru Nakamura drew four games and lost one. The tournament concludes Tuesday. The Carlsen-Kramnik duel looked like a perfectly played game by the Norwegian, who took advantage of Kramnik's stranded knight. "If one piece is ... Posted by chessnovice | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 12:11:49 Play online chess ...Message: ——— A Game Lasts 163 Moves, and That's Not Even a Record — Chess professionals are conditioned to games that take four to five hours and last about 50 moves, but occasionally play lasts much longer and the contest becomes a war of attrition. That is what happened between Nigel Short and Luke McShane of England in the first round of the London Chess Classic, which started on Tuesday. McShane, who had White, got a tiny advantage out of the opening, but Short defended well, and after 60 moves it seemed as if the game would end in a draw. But McShane, 25, persisted and Short, 44, was forced to continue to defend. It took McShane seven hours, and 163 moves, but he finally broke Short and forced him to resign. That ... Posted by scarper | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 14:03:59 Play online chess Message: Posted by ionadowman | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 16:16:34 Play online chess Fascinating...Message: Consider: you are sitting at the board, the enemy makes a move and forgets to punch his clock. Are you entiotled to make your move? Well, according to the USCF Official rules of 35 years ago, one would have to infer yes. The rules actually talk about whether the arbiter, noticing the omission ought to warn the player. The Rules come down against the arbiter doing any such thing. Which suggests to me that the opponent doesn't have to wait until the enemy punches the clock in order to make a move. The Rules do state that (14.4) "When determining whether the prescribed number of moves has been made in the given time, the last move is not considered as completed until after the player has stopped his clock." Given the time control in the "Armageddon Match" this doesn't apply. From that perspective, I incline to the view that Irina Krush doesn't really have a case. But I do sympathise. Look where the clocks are placed: as is standard, to the right of the Black pieces. Playing right-handed, Black's hand has less distance to travel to the clock; White has to reach right across her body to reach the clock. Simply: the physical placing of the clocks confers an advantage to a right-handed player of Black, or a left-handed player of White. We might decide this is unfair, but look at the time control: 6 minutes for White; 4 and a half for Black, who gets the margin of draw. I think the extra 90 seconds ought to subsume any slight disadvantage to White owing to the physical placing of the clocks. The problem I have with this whole affair is the problem I have with a good many sports events: this stupid insistence that there has to be a sole winner. I quite fail to understand what is so bad about joint winners of a sporting event; why a draw/tie/dead heat is to be avoided at all cost. This insane stampede for determining the winner of a competition leads to some peculiar results: The UEFA Champions' League being determined by a penalty shootout; the "Golden Point" in Rugby League; even the toss of a coin on one or two occasions I've seen. The "Golden Point", or sudden death in some sporting events makes a certain degree of sense, but even then it might be a matter of luck who begins the period of sudden death with possession of the initiative (i.e. the ball, in ball games, say). But others strike me as entirely arbitrary, including the method used in US Chess Championship. The two protagonists ought to have shared the title. If there had to be a winner, the process by which it is determined has to be entirely symmetrical: keep playing pairs of games under whatever time control you choose until one side is a clear point ahead after an even number of games. That final game was asymmetrical, and therefore biased. I'm not saying it's biased against White, be it noted: for all I know it may be biased against Black (however, it became pretty clear that the advantage of one minute was't enough to offset Black's margin of draw!).The fact that the bias exists is in my view sufficient to disqualify it as a fair means of determining a winner. It would have been fairer to have played a second game under the same time control having swapped colours. But doesn't this game strike you as arbitrary anyway? Where is the quality of chess? The whole concept of blitz emphasises one skill over others - the ability to play fairly well quickly over accuracy of analysis, endgame skill, strategic planning, tactical vision... Well, when all's said and done, I can't see the USCF overturning the decision, and, on balance, it probably ought not. But, if there absolutely must be a single Champion or the world will explode, then do it by fair and symmetrical means. Cheers, Ion Posted by cascadejames | cyclonechess.com 6/01/2008 18:17:25 Play online chess Avoiding blitzMessage: own. Posted by ionadowman | cyclonechess.com 6/02/2008 04:24:30 Play online chess Before anyone comments on it...Message: Don't make the process a fair one, though... Cheers, Ion Posted by pgroenborg | cyclonechess.com 6/02/2008 06:53:25 Play online chess holding down the clockMessage: Do you see the same thing? I love blitz and am perhaps too familiar with the thing. I'm with Irena. Posted by bucklehead | cyclonechess.com 6/02/2008 11:23:38 Play online chess It's a tough call. Message: Posted by tag1153 | cyclonechess.com 6/02/2008 14:23:28 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letterMessage: main.uschess.org Posted by ionadowman | cyclonechess.com 6/02/2008 15:18:00 Play online chess response to I.K.'s letter... Message: It does indicate that not a lot has changed since the publication of my own copy of the USCF/FIDE Official Rule Book of 1974. Neither player played strictly illegally in the time scramble (give or take I.K.'s failure to restore the rook she knocked over - had she done so she would have lost the sooner). It is sad, I think, to see an important event like this settled in such a fashion, not only by a means that can be described justly as arbitrary; but also end in such ... well, not acrimony exactly, but not a particularly savoury taste in one's mouth. I go back to my earlier idea. If you can't settle the contest in satisfactory manner, then accept the notion of a joint winner. Cheers, Ion |