The Match Has Begun: Will an American Finally Reclaim the World Chess Championship?

BJJ is sometimes compared to Chess because of the amount of strategy involved in Rolling.

Of course, as a no-stripe white belt, my strategy is limited to, "spaz out and hope the other guy is even worse than me":oops::)

Will be interesting when they can build a robot that is programmed by AI to do jiu jitsu.
 
@Fawlty we should bring out our greatest stable genius

<TheDonald>

That way when we lose we can just say it was rigged and half the country will believe it. It's a win-win for morale.

lol, Trump consumes you even in a Mayberry chess thread. Haha!
 
I got a little nervous for Magnus' king there, enjoyable game.
The first one. Thank God. I was so bored with the first four games. The few interesting moves have all come from Magnus, but it's felt like watching two computers play.
Game 5 ends in a draw (surprise!). This was a better game. It ended in a draw but at least they were both showing new tactics. Carlsen has an extra pawn in the endgame but can't convert that into a win. It feels like Carlsen is the only one pushing for a win in these games, he's the only one trying to create chances. I wonder if Magnus pushes harder for a win tomorrow or if he's just fine sitting back and saying "You have to beat me, I don't have to do shit here". We didn't get a win last time until game 8 so I still have hope for a decisive win within the 12 games.
I was going to say this exact thing the other night, but got tied up in my other response. So far Fabio has played like he is waiting for Magnus to get frustrated/bored, and play too aggressively looking to exert dominance. It's a fine strategy that could get under the skin of even the best players, but I don't think Magnus is one. He doesn't mind playing closed positions, or playing in inches.

Still, credit for Fabio with that offered b4 gambit in the opening. That was the first somewhat daring move with an intent to initiate I think we've seen from him in the first five games. Watching them counter threats with threats was at least satisfying to watch versus what we've gotten so far where each of them is running around the board putting out the tiniest fires rather than trying to start a big one, and see who can hang on.
 
The first one. Thank God. I was so bored with the first four games. The few interesting moves have all come from Magnus, but it's felt like watching two computers play.

I was going to say this exact thing the other night, but got tied up in my other response. So far Fabio has played like he is waiting for Magnus to get frustrated/bored, and play too aggressively looking to exert dominance. It's a fine strategy that could get under the skin of even the best players, but I don't think Magnus is one. He doesn't mind playing closed positions, or playing in inches.

Still, credit for Fabio with that offered b4 gambit in the opening. That was the first somewhat daring move with an intent to initiate I think we've seen from him in the first five games. Watching them counter threats with threats was at least satisfying to watch versus what we've gotten so far where each of them is running around the board putting out the tiniest fires rather than trying to start a big one, and see who can hang on.
The middle 3 games I didn't enjoy very much, but the opening game was gripping for me. I saw the exchange sacrifice on the g-file and was screaming inside. When Carlsen brought his bishop to e5 instead, I was thinking to myself that Caruana must have been even more screwed than I thought, because Carlsen wasn't playing the obvious crushing move. And then it just all fizzled.

I feel like Caruana is playing not to lose. Hopefully he gives himself a kick in the ass instead of waiting for Carlsen to make a blunder.
 
Looks headed for another draw in game 6, but an interesting imbalance in the end game with Caruana having a knight for 3 pawns. I missed the start/middle of the game so it will be interesting to see how they got here.

I didn't realize that Magnus gets white for two straight games (today and Sunday). Didn't know they reversed starting order after the first 6 games.

ed: After another half hour it's somehow looking very dangerous for Magnus w/white. There's no way I'd win this position w/black against a good player. Exciting complicated stuff here.

7bKjv7d.png




Caruana misses a forced win with a subtle bishop move to h4 in this position on the 68th move (the shorter term idea seems to be that it makes the g5 square available later for Caruana's knight to keep the white king out of h7 - it's findable, but it's very hard to see):

KyUY4i3.png



To be fair, it's a very computer-ish move that, as far as I know, only engines were able to find.

Draw coming shortly.
 
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What a crazy game! There was no way a human being could have seen those winning lines but wow, what an exciting game. The first time Fabi had serious winning chances but unfortunately, he couldn't get it done. Magnus Carlsen's defense had to be on point as any wrong move would have resulted in a loss from him but that guy just will not go down without a fight. Magnus had to have seen his number 1 rating going down the drain but he held on. I will say I am much more enthusiastic and excited about the remaining games. Pretty cool to see Chess.com have the number 1 watched channel on Twitch for a while.
 
Game 7 is gonna be drawn before long. Carlsen has made very little of having the white pieces two games in a row. He seems content to play for 12 draws and a win in the faster time controls, as feared. Caruana didn't find anything interesting here either, to be fair, but at least he played hard for a win yesterday while Magnus tried to bail.
 
Very boring symmetrical game that ends in a draw. Magnus gets nothing out of his white piece advantage. Nothing to say about this game. Still 5 games to go and anything can happen. Advantage back to Caruana with 3 whites including the final game 12. Game 8 is where everything kicked off in 2016 so I suppose we wait to see if that's the case again.
 
I think Fabiano has Magnus, here.

First win incoming. Hikaru's analysis is unbelievable. That speed chess supremacy shines through in eyeballing all potential lines.
 
Hi Fawlty,

I haven't followed chess for years (Kasparov - Karpov era). Carlsen is putting up his title in a straight 12 game match? Is that right? He could have 11 draws and 1 loss and cough-up the title?
 
Caruana just blundered away his big advantage with h3. Wow, what a crazy game so far. Nakamura on commentary couldn't believe it.

It's first to 6.5 so yes, Carlsen would lose if he lost 1 game and Drew the rest.
 
lndeed, that c5 attack didn't just fizzle almost immediately, but now it looks like Fabiano might have to struggle for a draw. Fuck me.
 
Super computer SESSE had it almost +2 for Fabi, he was up over an hour in time, and he was fighting for a win. One wrong move and now Fabi has lost his advantage, lost all his time advantage, and he probably has to fight for a draw. What a cruel game chess is. Eval is now practically dead even.

Really cool insight from Nakamura about how you have a great position against Magnus after he plays badly and all of a sudden he hits a switch and starts playing every best move possible and your advantage is gone and you don't know what the hell happened. Funny to hear him talk about how upsetting it is to play Carlsen.
 
Super computer SESSE had it almost +2 for Fabi, he was up over an hour in time, and he was fighting for a win. One wrong move and now Fabi has lost his advantage, lost all his time advantage, and he probably has to fight for a draw. What a cruel game chess is. Eval is now practically dead even.

Really cool insight from Nakamura about how you have a great position against Magnus after he plays badly and all of a sudden he hits a switch and starts playing every best move possible and your advantage is gone and you don't know what the hell happened. Funny to hear him talk about how upsetting it is to play Carlsen.
This whole series has been so goddamn frustrating to watch. It has been like how Fabiano must feel right now.
 
There's the draw. Fabi has to be kicking himself right now and Carlsen pulls off another great escape. Fabi has 4 games left to do something. I think Carlsen just tries to get to tie breaks from here on out. Rest day tomorrow.
 
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