The FIDE 2013 World Chess Championship Tournament, in Chennai, India, begins this Saturday. This may be the most anticipated chess tournament since Bobby Fischer played Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972 and wrested the world title from him. Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the highest ranked player ever at 2872, will be challenging Viswanathan Anand of India, the current World Champion. Anand is 47. Carlsen is only 22 but the heavy favorite.
I would love to be able to follow the tournament as we did the 1972 tournament, which was televised. They would show where each player moved, and then you would have time to set up a board with men in the same positions and discuss where YOU would next move. Experts would give their opinions, and then everyone would see where the two finalists actually moved. Often the games are draws, but there are usually some exciting ones.
Does anyone know how one could best follow this on TV or on the Internet at home? If necessary I would even be willing to pay something (not a fortune, thank you) to view the event.
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Hi Lanny,
ReplyDeleteElementary my dear Watson!
http://chennai2013.fide.com/fide-world-chess-championship-2013-live/
Dave Israel
Thanks, Dave. I made a mistake about the tournament beginning this Saturday. It must have begun last Saturday, because four games (usually out of 24) have been played, and all were drawn.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to see, but these games may not be as exciting as some of the Fischer-Spassky games were if the two now playing play cautiously. Fischer was exciting and aggressive. I recall one game fairly early in the development when he moved his knight to either the A file or the H file (the side files), which is generally considered NOT good; but he had a good reason for the move, which astonished some of the experts.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: The match is not 24 games, but 12, and now, after four draws, Carlsen has won the 5th game. Anand could have drawn but blundered toward the end. However, the rules now stipulate that Anand plays white for the next two games, which gives him an advantage because white moves first. In the 3rd game Anand almost won but Carlsen managed to get a draw. In the 4th game Carlsen almost won but Anand with a brilliant play (Ne4) prevented a loss and gained a draw. Stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteOn the weekend I may get out the chess set and try replaying some of the games. I will probably have no idea why certain moves were bad and others brilliant! My oldest son could probably tell me if I could understand him. Oh well!
No need to get out the chess set. I just replayed the 6th game on the computer screen, thank you again, Dave. What an exciting game. Even though Black, Carlsen won. It seemed to me (but what do I know?) that both players were walking through a minefield toward the end. Both their kings seemed in great jeopardy, but while this was so, Carlsen was using his king aggressively, boxing Anand in. Apparently the experts were predicting a draw, but Carlsen persisted and won, which must be devastating to Anand, now down 2-0 with 4 games drawn. Next game Monday.
ReplyDeleteI wish some of our CV chess players would weigh in, but maybe no one (except me, and I'm NOT a good chess player) blogs AND plays chess. Anyway today has come and gone in India, and the two finalists drew. There were no "blunders." Carlsen, the "boy wonder," was Black, and Black (second to move) does well in chess if he draws. Carlsen carries his 2-point lead (which in such a tournament is considerable) into the 8th game, coming up. If he wants to, Carlsen can play very conservatively from here on, get draws and win the championship. Therefore, Anand must be bold and take it to Carlsen, who has a reputation for wearing down opponents and causing them to err. Anand must WIN 2 games of the last 5 in order to survive, and so far he has won none!
ReplyDeleteGame No. 8 was another draw. I replayed the game online, and it looked to me as though Magnus Carlsen was aiming for a draw, because he kept taking the initiative in trading pieces of equal value (pawn for pawn, bishop for bishop or knight, rook for rook, queen for queen). If you do this and both players maintain good position on the board, the result will be a draw, which is to Carlsen's advantage with his 2-0 lead. Only 4 games to play. If Anand does not win 1 of the next 3, he loses his title as champion. Stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteHi Lanny,
ReplyDeleteI would have advised,
king's to knight bishop three.
This would lead to a classic entente-cordial, which would have resulted in a vertical hiroshmutne.
Dave Israel
Playing Black, Carlsen won Game 9. He thought he was in danger of being mated by Anand, but Anand blundered by protecting his king, which was under check, by moving Nf1. Then he resigned. I replayed the game but couldn't see either why Carlsen feared mate in the middle game or why Anand's knight move at the end was a blunder. So much for what I know! It will be virtually impossible for Anand to even tie now. He would have to win all 3 remaining games, a Herculean task, especially as he plays the Black in two of them. If Carlsen gets even one draw in any of the remaining games, he wins the match.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, you are right, Dave! I see it all now! You should have been one of Anand's seconds.
ReplyDeleteThe 10th game was a draw, making the Norwegian 22-year-old, Magnus Carlsen, the new FIDE world champion of chess. It was an exciting game as I replayed it online, with both players losing their queens and then promoting pawns to gain new queens, only to lose them in a queen exchange. In the end (after 65 moves) only the 2 kings and one knight, due to be captured on the next move, were left. But even had the last knight not been about to be captured, the game would have been a draw, because you cannot mate with only the 2 kings and a knight remaining. Thank you for indulging me to comment on the match in using all this blog space. It was fun!
ReplyDelete