OT: Chess

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Harbour Dog

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New mini-series on Netflix The Queen’s Gambit detailing the story of a female chess prodigy as she struggles throughout her life with addiction, mental illness, genius, trauma, sexism, and ambition.

It's on my list!

Apparently the reviews have been very good so far as well. And they hired Kasparov to choreograph the chess games and make sure it stays true to the game. Something I appreciate very much; most times a chessboard shows up in a show or movie, it's set up wrong or in a nonsense position.

Just waiting for the gf to decide whether she wants to watch it me, but I'll be digging into it soon!
 
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aufheben

#Norris4Fox
Jan 31, 2013
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One of my favorite openings, the Halloween Gambit #YOLO

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nxe5?! Nxe5 5. d4 Ng6 6. e5
upload_2020-10-28_21-56-21.png
 

aufheben

#Norris4Fox
Jan 31, 2013
53,400
27,073
New Jersey
It's on my list!

Apparently the reviews have been very good so far as well. And they hired Kasparov to choreograph the chess games and make sure it stays true to the game. Something I appreciate very much; most times a chessboard shows up in a show or movie, it's set up wrong or in a nonsense position.

Just waiting for the gf to decide whether she wants to watch it me, but I'll be digging into it soon!
It’s very true to the game. And the actress is awesome.
 

aufheben

#Norris4Fox
Jan 31, 2013
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I read an article on this opening a while back. It's obviously not good for white, but it's still been played at the GM level like a couple dozen times!
I bet it’s fine for white at lower levels. Catches your opponent off guard. Castle queenside, now we’re getting nice and weird.

This is against 1700 computer:
upload_2020-10-30_22-1-43.png
 
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Harbour Dog

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I bet it’s fine for white at lower levels. Catches your opponent off guard. Castle queenside, now we’re getting nice and weird.

This is against 1700 computer:
View attachment 374892

That is a crushing attack!

I'd say it would be fine at lower levels too. There's something about drastic gambits like that, that mess with the other player's mind. They start feeling like they have to convert and push a bit too hard.

If you come in with it well-prepared, I bet you'd catch people falling into similar traps.
 

aufheben

#Norris4Fox
Jan 31, 2013
53,400
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That is a crushing attack!

I'd say it would be fine at lower levels too. There's something about drastic gambits like that, that mess with the other player's mind. They start feeling like they have to convert and push a bit too hard.

If you come in with it well-prepared, I bet you'd catch people falling into similar traps.
Trick or treat, man, trick or treat. :laugh:
 
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Say Hey Kid

it's better to burn out than to fade awa
Dec 10, 2007
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330px-Judit_The_Look_Polgar.jpg
405px-Hou_Yifan_%2829762728494%29_%28cropped%29.jpg

RankNameTitleCountryRatingGamesB-Year
1 Kasparov, Garry g RUS 2812 0 1963
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788 18 1969
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2788 10 1975
4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2763 0 1979
5 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2752 25 1969
6 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2744 12 1975
7 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2738 26 1976
8 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2735 10 1976
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Judit Polgar was #8 in the world. The best woman now is the 88th ranked GM Hou Yifan.
 
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Harbour Dog

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:rolleyes: I meant that she's happy in the photo.

Lmao, oops.

It's a wonder that she hadn't been caught earlier. One of her opponents actually tried playing moves the engine wouldn't expect, and a grandmaster opponent had a sleepless night, the night before their game.

With the rise in popularity of online chess, it seems that cheating controversies are popping up more and more frequently.
 
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Chimpradamus

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New mini-series on Netflix The Queen’s Gambit detailing the story of a female chess prodigy as she struggles throughout her life with addiction, mental illness, genius, trauma, sexism, and ambition.
It was very politically correct for the political climate of our time, female empowerment and all that political crap that is forced into a story (I wrote political three times, that's how ridiculous I think the movie climate has become), but in this case I didn't mind it at all. Because they put it in the right setting and didn't overblow it at all. The story came first, so it was great to watch. The growth of the character, the respect of chess, the molding of quirks from different grand masters in a main protagonist, I can absolutely not complain. I'm usually so against politically correct series (because they drown the story in their message), but in this case I have to applaud it. It was a joy to watch. It was done the right way and it was splendid. She wasn't a Mary Sue. She had to grow and overcome herself. That seems to be a difficult recipe for Hollywood to learn.

It's one of the best TV series I've ever seen IMO.

Anyway:
If you want to become great at chess, you need to be able to play blind chess. That will bolster your skill like mad. Then you can hard calculate any position and see any position better. But I'm lazy, I don't burn for chess. I was more promising in my youth, now I just play for fun, because now I just see chess as a fun game with no randomness. Join a club if you want to become better, you will learn so much from that and get to know other chess players. They're usually quirky, but smart. And you will gain perspective.

My biggest tip for anyone wanting to become really good at chess:
1) learn the annotations of course.
2) learn to visualize the board in your mind and keep practicing at that. That will also help you in other ways you cannot imagine. Your brain will develop. You will learn strategy, tactics and to handle small problems before they become big in this circus we work in as well. Even without blind chess it helps to be good at chess, to gain perceptiveness and compare.
3) Join a club. Trust me on that. They all have their flaws as persons. So do you. But you will learn from them.

I'm about a 1900 btw. I don't strive for excellence, but I think I know the game pretty well.
 
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Say Hey Kid

it's better to burn out than to fade awa
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"Kramnik Wins Razuvaev Memorial

"GM Vladimir Kramnik still got it. On Friday the 14th world champion won the Razuvaev Memorial blitz tournament as he defeated GM Evgeny Tomasheveky 1.5-0.5 in the playoff final. Among the participants was French GM Joel Lautier, who retired in 2009. The Razuvaev Memorial, a joint effort of the Russian Chess Federation and Chess.com, was an eight-player round-robin tournament with 5+3 blitz games on Friday, November 6. The players that were invited were all, to one degree or another, a student of the legendary author, player, and coach Yuri Sergeevich Razuvaev, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 67. The day before the tournament, an online opening ceremony was held. Among the guests were the tournament participants as well as the widow Natalya Petrovna Razuvaeva, son Alexander, and friends and colleagues of the Razuvaev: Anatoly Vaisser, Boris Gulko, Boris Zlotnik, Mikhail Krasenkov, Sergei Makarychev, Gennady Nesis, Dmitry Plisetskiy, and Boris Postovsky, among others." Kramnik Wins Razuvaev Memorial Blitz"

I'm semi-retired from posting about speed chess, but this is Kramnik.
 
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Say Hey Kid

it's better to burn out than to fade awa
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330px-Vasyll_Ivanchuk1_Ukr_Ch_2014.jpg

No. 2 (July 1991), 2787 (October 2007)

"Throwback Thursday: Ivanchuk triumphs in Havana

11/20/2020 – Since 2005, fan favourite Vassily Ivanchuk has played ten times at the Capablanca Memorial. Playing in Cuba seems to bring out the best of the Ukrainian genius, who won the event no fewer than eight times, including the most recent edition in 2019. We look back on his two most dominating performances, in 2005 and 2007, when he scored +6 and +7 respectively." Throwback Thursday: Ivanchuk triumphs in Havana
 

Say Hey Kid

it's better to burn out than to fade awa
Dec 10, 2007
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91623.jpeg


"Nakamura and Firouzja complete the lineup of the Skilling Open

11/21/2020 – The $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour, a series of ten online tournaments featuring elite players, kicks off November 22 with the Skilling Open. The 16 participants will first play a single round robin to decide who moves on to the knockout stage. World champion Magnus Carlsen and Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour runner-up Hikaru Nakamura will both be playing in the 9-day inaugural event. ...

Champions Chess Tour competition dates include:
  • 22-30 November: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 26 December - 3 January: Major ($200,000 prize)
  • 6-14 February: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 13-21 March: Major ($200,000 prize)
  • 24 April – 2 May: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 22-30 May: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 26 June – 4 July: Major ($200,000 prize)
  • 31 July – 8 August: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 28 August - 5 September: Regular ($100,000 prize)
  • 25 September – 3 October: Final ($300,000 prize)
" Nakamura and Firouzja complete the lineup of the Skilling Open
 
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SnowblindNYR

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Nov 16, 2011
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New mini-series on Netflix The Queen’s Gambit detailing the story of a female chess prodigy as she struggles throughout her life with addiction, mental illness, genius, trauma, sexism, and ambition.

Thankfully this wasn't a huge part of the story. A few times this was brought up but it was an appropriate amount. If this was a huge storyline I'd be extremely annoyed since I'm not trying to watch a political drama. The fact that they mentioned it though shows how people eat that shit up nowadays.

Anyway, great series. I really enjoyed it.
 

Say Hey Kid

it's better to burn out than to fade awa
Dec 10, 2007
23,612
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Team A January 1996: Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Anand, Gelfand, Topalov, Shirov

Team B January 1996:
Harbour Dog, if all of these players were born the same month as Kasparov and they played a team tourney in January 1996 where every player on Team A played one game against every player on Team B, what would happen? Who would win, why, and out of a total possible 81 points what would the final score be? I'll post my reply after yours. Happy Thanksgiving! :popcorn:
 

ORRFForever

Registered User
Oct 29, 2018
17,677
9,219
It was very politically correct for the political climate of our time, female empowerment and all that political crap that is forced into a story (I wrote political three times, that's how ridiculous I think the movie climate has become), but in this case I didn't mind it at all. Because they put it in the right setting and didn't overblow it at all. The story came first, so it was great to watch. The growth of the character, the respect of chess, the molding of quirks from different grand masters in a main protagonist, I can absolutely not complain. I'm usually so against politically correct series (because they drown the story in their message), but in this case I have to applaud it. It was a joy to watch. It was done the right way and it was splendid. She wasn't a Mary Sue. She had to grow and overcome herself. That seems to be a difficult recipe for Hollywood to learn.

It's one of the best TV series I've ever seen IMO.

Anyway:
If you want to become great at chess, you need to be able to play blind chess. That will bolster your skill like mad. Then you can hard calculate any position and see any position better. But I'm lazy, I don't burn for chess. I was more promising in my youth, now I just play for fun, because now I just see chess as a fun game with no randomness. Join a club if you want to become better, you will learn so much from that and get to know other chess players. They're usually quirky, but smart. And you will gain perspective.

My biggest tip for anyone wanting to become really good at chess:
1) learn the annotations of course.
2) learn to visualize the board in your mind and keep practicing at that. That will also help you in other ways you cannot imagine. Your brain will develop. You will learn strategy, tactics and to handle small problems before they become big in this circus we work in as well. Even without blind chess it helps to be good at chess, to gain perceptiveness and compare.
3) Join a club. Trust me on that. They all have their flaws as persons. So do you. But you will learn from them.

I'm about a 1900 btw. I don't strive for excellence, but I think I know the game pretty well.
I would add...

* Study endgames. Big time !!!! It's boring as sin but it will help you win many games.

* Study tactics.

* Do NOT over-study openings - it's FUN but it's a rabbit's hole and can be a waste of studying time.
 
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ORRFForever

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No, that's right. I read the article this morning; she was pretty blatantly cheating using a second phone.
She kept running to the bathroom after every move - and she can't even blame it on prostate issues. At a high end tournament, I'm surprised she was allowed to (continually) leave the board on her move.

From what I understand, when confronted / accused of cheating, she'd get emotional - which would make MOST guys back off.
 
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ORRFForever

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Oct 29, 2018
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Thankfully this wasn't a huge part of the story. A few times this was brought up but it was an appropriate amount. If this was a huge storyline I'd be extremely annoyed since I'm not trying to watch a political drama. The fact that they mentioned it though shows how people eat that shit up nowadays.

Anyway, great series. I really enjoyed it.
I just wish the tournament play was more realistic during the series. Having said that, it would make for boring TV.

A few other quibbles 3 episodes in...

She talks about breaking 1,800 in the future after winning a bunch of tournaments and being on the cover of a magazine. That made no sense.

When she played the guy in the cowboy hat, she hesitates when he plays the Caro Kann (IIRC) - like she'd never seen it before. That made no sense.
 
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ORRFForever

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Oct 29, 2018
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There’s a million Indian defenses alone. King’s, Queen’s, Grunfeld, Neo-Grunfeld, Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian, Old Indian, East Indian, Benoni, Modern Defense. Then the Slav, Semi-Slav, and Ragozin are really popular too.

I like to play the Grunfeld as black. The Slav and Nimzo-Indian are annoying as white.
I play the Grunfeld, too. Provides a dynamic game with lots of drawing opportunities for black.

In many of the openings above, Black's white B is a pain in the a$$ to develop.
 
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