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Who will win? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Vishy Anand |
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3 | 2.26% |
| Magnus Carlsen |
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30 | 22.56% |
| Kirsan Ilyumzhinov |
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100 | 75.19% |
| Total: | 133 votes | ||
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Fantasy Chess 2014 Begins! We have our first points of the year, thanks to the rating bonuses. The top two stayed the same from the December list, but Hand Knit snuck up to third to grab one bonus point. The current standings: V for Vegas: 3 Flayer: 2 Hand Knit: 1 Everyone Else: 0 Standings and team info can be found here. Tata Steel starts on January 10!
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Jan 1, 2014 17:39
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 21:02 |
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Looks like the two sections have been set, with Harikrishna taking the spot they were offering to Carlsen.quote:GM Aronian, Levon ARM 2803 2 quote:GM Wojtaszek, Radek POL 2711
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Jan 1, 2014 18:17
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My main man Brunello!
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Jan 1, 2014 18:44
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I won a drawing to play in a simul against Magnus Carlsen. Yay! But there are catches: It's this Thursday, in Las Vegas. The allotted time for the games is only two hours, with an hour for awards afterwards. And there's no money for travel or accommodations provided, so it would cost me around $650 just to get there and spend a night in a low end hotel. Add that to food, travel to the airport, lost time at work...and that's an expensive short simul game. This means I'm not going, barring a sudden influx of money that makes me rethink my entire life. It's not a big loss, but I won't get an autographed chess board now.
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Jan 5, 2014 23:38
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That's unfortunate. I would've even shared my secret strategy for beating him: knife under the table
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Jan 5, 2014 23:47
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Sexy Magnus
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Jan 7, 2014 22:41
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I should move to Norway.
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Jan 7, 2014 22:48
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Just realised they got rid of the C-Group at Wijk Ann Zee, which is a shame. I've always liked that 3-tier structure they had. At least the B-Group is still around. As for the fantasy chess game I think everyone will be kicking themselves that they didn't pick Wojtaszek. He's won 2 strong tournaments in December and must be the favourite for the B-Group now. I was considering him but went for Navara instead, foolish!
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Jan 9, 2014 11:51
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Flayer posted:Just realised they got rid of the C-Group at Wijk Ann Zee, which is a shame. I've always liked that 3-tier structure they had. At least the B-Group is still around. Anyone in the B group is looking good, with the Dutch IMs being slotted in there instead of the nonexistent C group.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:14
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gret posted:I should move to Norway.
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Jan 9, 2014 22:41
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Schedlue's up. Aronian was white for Naka, Caruana, and Karjakin, which I guess gives him as good a chance as he'll have to win the tournament.quote:Round 1 - Saturday the 11th
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Jan 10, 2014 23:25
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http://susanpolgar.blogspot.ca/2014/01/rip-vugar-gashimov.html#.UtETcjCLMCk.twitter Vugar Gashimov, who had fairly recently been a top-10 player in the world, died suddenly of a brain tumour. He was seen as a top young player, but had his results fall off sharply due to his epilepsy.
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Jan 11, 2014 10:51
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Hand Knit posted:http://susanpolgar.blogspot.ca/2014/01/rip-vugar-gashimov.html#.UtETcjCLMCk.twitter Very sad. Just saw Nakamura's tweet and the Chessbase article. 
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Jan 11, 2014 17:57
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That was an exciting first day! Caruana laid quite the beating on Gelfand, didn't he?
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Jan 12, 2014 00:06
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Sweet, draw for Harikrishna against Aronian. Good result.
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Jan 12, 2014 08:57
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Brunello won in the B bracket! Seems to be in a decent spot in round 2 so far, too.
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Jan 12, 2014 14:45
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Hand Knit posted:That was an exciting first day! Caruana laid quite the beating on Gelfand, didn't he?
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Jan 12, 2014 14:48
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silvergoose posted:Brunello won in the B bracket! Seems to be in a decent spot in round 2 so far, too. His position does seem quite good. It's a pity he can't get away with taking on e3 because leaving Xue with triple isolated pawns would be hysterical. Meanwhile, Dominguez-Van Wely is through precisely 6 moves. I guess they're both out of prep. fe: Games here
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Jan 12, 2014 15:00
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And by can't get away with you mean JUST WENT AND DID IT. I guess that doesn't mean he's gotten away with it yet though. 
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Jan 12, 2014 15:17
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silvergoose posted:And by can't get away with you mean JUST WENT AND DID IT. I guess that doesn't mean he's gotten away with it yet though. Now we will see the awesome power of the triple-isolated pawns. (But for real with the only one open file and white's death grip on d6 they're actually pretty decent.)
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Jan 12, 2014 15:45
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Hand Knit posted:Now we will see the awesome power of the triple-isolated pawns. (But for real with the only one open file and white's death grip on d6 they're actually pretty decent.) Eh, a draw. 1.5 points out of two blacks, pretty good so far I'd say. Also this draft is making me pay way more attention to this tournament, so good job. 
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Jan 12, 2014 16:45
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silvergoose posted:Eh, a draw. 1.5 points out of two blacks, pretty good so far I'd say. Given that my fourth board is about to go 0/2 I'm not sure how I feel about the draft right now. Also yeah I'm surprised at how little Xue had in that position, given that Brunello's kingside was basically not part of the game. e: Looks like Caruana has 50 seconds for eight moves against Aronian.
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Jan 12, 2014 16:48
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The Gelfand Rapport game is crazy.
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Jan 12, 2014 16:49
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silvergoose posted:The Gelfand Rapport game is crazy. I can't remember the last time I saw a Budapest Gambit at that level. Props to Rapport for trying it.
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Jan 12, 2014 16:51
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So I'm trying to improve my chess game slowly; What was wrong with Gelfand-Rapport 30. Bc7 Rh6; wouldn't it have given Rapport an easy path to taking Gelfand's Rook out easily?
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Jan 12, 2014 17:14
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There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not as strong as you think. After 30. ...Rh6, 31. Rd1 allows the rook to be defended. If 31. ...Rh1+, 32. Ke2 is just fine for White.
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Jan 12, 2014 17:27
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Updated the spreadsheet with our fantasy standings after two rounds. Technically, I shouldn't be able to do this yet...but since I have both Gelfand and Rapport, I just gave myself a point. 
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Jan 12, 2014 19:10
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drat you Fabiano, drat you I've always hated you! You can't give up a point to Aronian! Round 3 is kicking off soon. I'm looking forward to Naka vs Gelfand since I think Naka will go for the kill.
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Jan 13, 2014 11:44
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Flayer posted:drat you Fabiano, drat you I've always hated you! You can't give up a point to Aronian! We have another instance of triple-isolated pawns, this time on the part of Rapport against Aronian. Van Wely-Giri also seems like it could be interesting for how vulnerable Giri is making himself out of the opening.
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Jan 13, 2014 15:14
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I really liked Yu-Timman today, despite Yu's apparent refusal to win by missing an incredibly obvious winning move in the middle game. This 6.c4 line of the Ruy Lopez seems quite tempting.Harikrishna's endgame win over Dominguez was also very impressive.
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Jan 13, 2014 22:33
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A Sicilian stabbed a guy to death over chess, it's unclear if the knife was made out of a bishop http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2538384/Dublin-researcher-39-stabbed-death-following-violent-row-late-night-chess-match.html quote:he has a masters in business ethics, consumption and social responsibility from the University of Siena – Arezzo.
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Jan 14, 2014 00:11
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Hand Knit posted:I really liked Yu-Timman today, despite Yu's apparent refusal to win by missing an incredibly obvious winning move in the middle game. This 6.c4 line of the Ruy Lopez seems quite tempting.Harikrishna's endgame win over Dominguez was also very impressive. No section A games today?
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Jan 14, 2014 17:08
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They're staggering rest days between the two sections.
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Jan 14, 2014 17:53
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Hell yeah another win for Muzychuk!
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Jan 14, 2014 19:14
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God drat it Yu
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Jan 14, 2014 20:43
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My boy Dominguez stomped your little babyface, Flayer. Well, not really. I enjoyed the crazy maze bishop/pawn endgame though.
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Jan 15, 2014 22:27
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That was pretty crazy. The game ended 1 0 right? The live games isn't showing the result. Maybe he timed out.
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Jan 15, 2014 22:34
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silvergoose posted:That was pretty crazy. The game ended 1 0 right? The live games isn't showing the result. Maybe he timed out. ICC is cooperating. Caruana eventually resigned on move 100, with his king out of position and Dominguez about to create a second passer:  I really liked the games of both Dominguez-Caruana and Aronian-Nakamura. Aronian's play felt mechanical, even if the machine itself though he should have taken on b7.
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Jan 15, 2014 23:29
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Modrasone posted:My boy Dominguez stomped your little babyface, Flayer.  I thought that was a draw all the way until right at the end.
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Jan 15, 2014 23:33
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 21:02 |
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Daniel King  
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Jan 16, 2014 00:30
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