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GobbleDog

World Chess Championship 2021

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Defending Champion: Magnus Carlsen 30 y.o. Norwegian rated 2855 (world #1).  Considered one of the greatest of all time. Became Champion in 2013 and since defended the title 3 times. His style is considered "conservative" as he takes few risks, finding a small advantage and grinding out a win.

Challenger: Ian Nepomniachtchi ("Nepo") 31 y.o. Russian rated 2782 (world #5). Qualified for title game winning recent Candidates tournament. His style is considered "crazy" playing unusual moves and piece sacrifices complicating positions and confusing opponents. His play is exciting and makes for incredible victories, but also devastating losses.

The players have faced 77 times with Carlsen leading  23 to 14, and 40 draws. Most of those consist of blitz chess and many when they were young. They've played 13 classical chess games with Nepo leading 4 to 1, and 8 draws.

Carlsen is the favorite (-350). Games held in Dubai, November 26 to December 14, 2021 - Game 1 commences 7:30 am tomorrow.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/2021-fide-world-championship-press-conference-opening-ceremony

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Game 1 is in the books!  Nepo had the white pieces and opened e4. The game transitioned into a Ruy Lopez opening. Chess fans were expecting early fireworks from Nepo, but it never happened. The queens were traded fairly early and Magnus was able to trade down most remaining pieces.  Neither player gained any significant advantage throughout and there were no major tactical blunders.  On move 43 the game ended in a draw, due to a three-fold repetition of moves.

Game 2 starts tomorrow morning with Magnus playing the white pieces.

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We should do a chess tournament here. I’m not any good, but know how to move the pieces. 

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2 minutes ago, bostonlager said:

We should do a chess tournament here. I’m not any good, but know how to move the pieces. 

Or on the moon. 

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Just now, Mike Isles said:

Or on the moon. 

That is how lazy I am. Didn't bother to read two posts above

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That said. Lots of apps out there that offer free play. We can do a round robin and then playoff brackets. 

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56 minutes ago, bostonlager said:

That said. Lots of apps out there that offer free play. We can do a round robin and then playoff brackets. 

All you Bro. Set it up and I’m in. Probably a first round exit though. 

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3 minutes ago, Mike Isles said:

All you Bro. Set it up and I’m in. Probably a first round exit though. 

I will start a thread here in a bit to see if we have any interest. 

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We could do fantasy chess here possibly.  How hard would that be?  Do the rows have numbers and letters?  I'm assuming not both so we are dealing with rows and columns.  And then numbers.

That sounds like a lot of work to do it fantasy.

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Game 2 is in the books and what a crazy game it was.  Magnus with white played 1. d4 and the position eventually transitioned into the Catalan opening - a very sharp position.  Chess experts felt Nepo played right into Magnus's opening preparation and just like in the first game, Magnus was the first to play a novelty move and put Nepo on the defensive and under serious pressure.  Nepo showed his strength surviving the early attack and then in the middle game Magnus made an sizeable inaccuracy. All of a sudden, Nepo went from hoping to pull out a draw, to pressing for a win.  However, Nepo didn't find the best moves and slowly dwindled away the advantage.  Eventually, most of the pieces were traded away and on move 58, the players agreed to a draw.

Game 3 starts tomorrow. Nepo has the white pieces and must be feeling confident having survived two of Magnus's surprise openings and novelties.

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Game 3 is in the books. Nepo with white played 1. e4 with the position turning into another Ruy Lopez opening, same as first game. The first novelty was played by Nepo on move 15, but wasn't much of a game changer. No player gained any significant advantage throughout and after lots of exchanges on move 41, the game ended in a draw on move 41 due to three-fold repetition. 

There will be a rest day tomorrow and play resumes on Tuesday morning with Magnus playing white.

To recap - Game 1, 2, 3... all draws. Sadly, the last World Championship consisted of 12 games.... all were drawn, before blitz tie break settled it. Chess fans are hoping that doesn't happen again. But Magnus is so good it seems he can draw almost any game, and knows he's the king of blitz. So if it goes to that, he'll probably win easily again.

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Game 4 is in the books. Magnus opened 1. e4 and Nepo responded playing the Petrov Defense, which is considered a rather dry opening - though Nepo with black was mostly hoping for a draw anyway. Magnus was the first to deviate from known book moves on move 18 playing an unusual knight move, which chess engines didn't much like.  It was obviously some weird computer line Magnus had prepared for the event, hoping Nepo would not accurately respond to the new position. But Nepo lived up to the task and eventually a position was reached in which only black could realistically win. As such, Magnus had to bail out and forced a three-fold repetition of moves resulting in a draw on move 33.

Game 5 starts tomorrow morning.  The score is tied 2-2.

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Game 5 is in the books. Nepo opened 1. e4 and the game transitioned into another Ruy Lopez. Magnus was the first to play a novelty on move 13. As the game wore on Nepo gained the tiniest of advantages and definitely had the more comfortable position, but eventually Magnus was able to trade off most of the pieces and grind the game down to an endgame leaving little chances for either player to win. On move 43 the game was drawn due to three-fold repetition of moves.

Nepo is a more unpredictable player, but in this tournament it's been Magnus who's been making novelty moves and taking more chances, albeit small ones. Chess experts predict the games might continue to be fairly drawish and stale, until a decisive result finally occurs and forces the other player to take bigger risks.

The players will rest tomorrow with play resuming Friday morning. The score is tied 2.5 to 2.5.

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2 minutes ago, fandandy said:

I love your summaries.  Is this cut and paste?  

After the games are over I watch "recap" Youtube's by grandmasters and then summarize for Geek consumption. I'm just happy someone is reading them.

I know everyone is sick of yet another draw - so are chess fans.  At the elite level draws are a given, but it's getting ridiculous. According to the experts, the odds of all 14 games drawing like the last Title event are slim to none. So hopefully any day now...

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Magnus will dominate when they get to the Fingal Fingers.  🤨

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Game 6 is in the books and what insanity. Magnus opened 1. d4 and like Game 2 another sharp Catalan was reached. Magnus played the first novelty on move 8 and both were solid throughout middle game. Magnus eventually gave up his bishop pair advantage for a knight, expecting a queen exchange on the next move. The move basically said 'let's trade down, simplify, and possibly draw.'  Nepo (despite playing black) declined and kept the queens on the board at the expense of doubling pawns and weakening his king position. Nepo was keeping his winning chances alive, but also taking a risk.

Eventually Nepo forced Magnus to trade his queen in exchange for two rooks, though the game remained even. Magnus had a huge time advantage throughout, but started going into deep thinks. Eventually he had only 3 minutes to play his final 10 moves, compared to Nepo's 20 minutes (after move 40 one hour is added).

On move 31 Nepo played a serious inaccuracy. Chess engines showed Magnus's lead was suddenly +3.00 after being 0.00+- most of the game and seemed he would finally get a win. But Magnus squandered the advantage with inaccuracies played almost instantly - due to time trouble. Suddenly Nepo had the advantage, but now also in time trouble he played inaccuracies. Eventually both players had less than 1 minute left and were blitzing moves. Advantages swung back and forth as neither player had time to calculate.  Magnus made his 40th move with just 20 seconds left, while Nepo made his 40th move with only 6 seconds left.

At this point, the game was dead even (0.00) and an hour was added. Both players walked away from the board for a few minutes to clear their heads following the time pressure blitz fest. Experts said the game was technically even, but only Magnus had real chances due to the pawn fortress around his king, while Nepo's king was vulnerable. The game continued with both playing solid and as time ticked down the players made quicker moves. By move 80 Magnus had a very tiny advantage with 3 pawns headed down the board requiring excellent (computer like) play for Nepo to defend with only a queen, king and pawn. Magnus grinded on and after Nepo played a few slight inaccuracies, the advantage became a near winning position. By move 130, Nepo's defenses were nearly exhausted and it was becoming clear he would not be able to prevent the pawn promotion. On move 136, Ian Nepomniachtchi resigned. It’s the most moves ever played in a Championship game, which lasted 7.5 hours.

Magnus now leads the match 3.5 to 2.5. Game 7 begins tomorrow morning. With only 8 games remaining Nepo will have to take big risks to even the score. A difficult task against one of the greatest players of all time.

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4 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

Game 6 is in the books and what insanity. Magnus opened 1. d4 and like Game 2 another sharp Catalan was reached. Magnus played the first novelty on move 8 and both were solid throughout middle game. Magnus eventually gave up his bishop pair advantage for a knight, expecting a queen exchange on the next move. The move basically said 'let's trade down, simplify, and possibly draw.'  Nepo (despite playing black) declined and kept the queens on the board at the expense of doubling pawns and weakening his king position. Nepo was keeping his winning chances alive, but also taking a risk.

Eventually Nepo forced Magnus to trade his queen in exchange for two rooks, though the game remained even. Magnus had a huge time advantage throughout, but started going into deep thinks. Eventually he had only 3 minutes to play his final 10 moves, compared to Nepo's 20 minutes (after move 40 one hour is added).

On move 31 Nepo played a serious inaccuracy. Chess engines showed Magnus's lead was suddenly +3.00 after being 0.00+- most of the game and seemed he would finally get a win. But Magnus squandered the advantage with inaccuracies played almost instantly - due to time trouble. Suddenly Nepo had the advantage, but now also in time trouble he played inaccuracies. Eventually both players had less than 1 minute left and were blitzing moves. Advantages swung back and forth as neither player had time to calculate.  Magnus made his 40th move with just 20 seconds left, while Nepo made his 40th move with only 6 seconds left.

At this point, the game was dead even (0.00) and an hour was added. Both players walked away from the board for a few minutes to clear their heads following the time pressure blitz fest. Experts said the game was technically even, but only Magnus had real chances due to the pawn fortress around his king, while Nepo's king was vulnerable. The game continued with both playing solid and as time ticked down the players made quicker moves. By move 80 Magnus had a very tiny advantage with 3 pawns headed down the board requiring excellent (computer like) play for Nepo to defend with only a queen, king and pawn. Magnus grinded on and after Nepo played a few slight inaccuracies, the advantage became a near winning position. By move 130, Nepo's defenses were nearly exhausted and it was becoming clear he would not be able to prevent the pawn promotion. On move 136, Ian Nepomniachtchi resigned. It’s the most moves ever played in a Championship game, which lasted 7.5 hours.

Magnus now leads the match 3.5 to 2.5. Game 7 begins tomorrow morning. With only 8 games remaining Nepo will have to take big risks to even the score. A difficult task against one of the greatest players of all time.

You should write these for the geek club games. 

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4 minutes ago, frank said:

You should write these for the geek club games. 

On move 5, Frank blundered his queen and resigned.

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16 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

On move 5, Frank blundered his queen and resigned.

I see you’re familiar with my work. 

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Could you explain why an hour was added when it was 20 seconds left vs. 6 seconds left?  Does that automatically happen after move 40?  🤔

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In Classical Chess, each player has 2 hours to complete their first 40 moves (otherwise they lose).  Once the 40th move is played, 1 hour is added to their clock (referred to as "reaching time control"). Once the 60th move is played, an additional 15 minutes is added - players also get an additional 30 second increment for every move after move 60.

The 30 increment is to help ensure they won't simply lose on time after a long intense game. In this particular game, both players were around 3 to 5 minutes by move 80, but every move added an extra 30 seconds, regardless of how long it took them to actually play it. So they could theoretically run down to 1 second, but build the clock back up several minutes by playing quickly.

Interestingly when a player runs out of time and loses, it's said "their flag has fallen" or "flagged". This is a reference to the old mechanical clocks which had a little pointer hand (called a flag) which would point down / drop due to gravity, when the clock ran out.  Of course nowadays they use digital clocks, but the saying remains.

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Ok, I missed some summaries so let's get up to date quickly.

Game 7 - Following the longest game of all time, both players did virtually nothing resulting in a quick draw. Magnus leads 4 to 3

Game 8 - Nepo made an early scary move pushing king's pawn, which resulted in nothing. Eventually, Nepo blundered a pawn in a fairly easy to spot combination, and lost his 2nd game. Magnus leads 5 to 3

Game 9 - Nepo played the English Opening - rare at top levels. Unfortunately, later in the game Nepo totally blundered by trapping his own bishop and lost his 3rd game. Magnus leads 6 to 3

There are technically 5 more games, but the match is effectively over. Magnus could show up drunk for the remainder and still wouldn't lose to his title to the filthy blundering Russian. Magnus Carlsen will remain the World Chess Champion until the next title game in 2023. Let's hope America's Fabiano Caruana (world's #4) wins that Candidates tourney and gets another title shot. He gave Magnus a run for his money in the last title match, unlike the abysmal play of Nepo who should probably take up checkers.

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4 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

Ok, I missed some summaries so let's get up to date quickly.

Game 7 - Following the longest game of all time, both players did virtually nothing resulting in a quick draw. Magnus leads 4 to 3

Game 8 - Nepo made an early scary move pushing king's pawn, which resulted in nothing. Eventually, Nepo blundered a pawn in a fairly easy to spot combination, and lost his 2nd game. Magnus leads 5 to 3

Game 9 - Nepo played the English Opening - rare at top levels. Unfortunately, later in the game Nepo totally blundered by trapping his own bishop and lost his 3rd game. Magnus leads 6 to 3

There are technically 5 more games, but the match is effectively over. Magnus could show up drunk for the remainder and still wouldn't lose to his title to the filthy blundering Russian. Magnus Carlsen will remain the World Chess Champion until the next title game in 2023. Let's hope America's Fabiano Caruana (world's #4) wins that Candidates tourney and gets another title shot. He gave Magnus a run for his money in the last title match, unlike the abysmal play of Nepo who should probably take up checkers.

:lol: This is outstanding.

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Game 10) Nepo played for a quick draw showing no fight whatsoever.

Game 11) Nepo with white kept the game even for the first 25 moves, then played several garbage moves leading to a horrific position. Experts wondered if Nepo was effectively trying to throw the match and end the humiliation.  He succeeded. 

Final Score:

Magnus Carlsen 7.5  Ian Nepomniachtchi 3.5

It's the largest defeat in decades of World Championship matches.The legend of Magnus continues, while Nepo will be remembered for elite chess skills combined with the mental strength of an earthworm. He'll carry this embarrassment with him the rest of his life and won't likely ever compete for a title again.

Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen.  Nepo can eat a bag of d*cks.

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On 12/3/2021 at 5:51 PM, frank said:

You should write these for the geek club games. 

He's definitely gifted at this.  I'm reading it on the edge of my seat.  

 

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