Musings on chess, and lesser things
A live update (perhaps I should turn to Twitter…): Gelfand wins the second tie-break game to take the lead. Well, to be fair, it’s not over yet – but the victory looks inevitable. Gelfand a pawn up with a better position, and the playchess punters have stated a Fritz advantage of +2 (pretty much game …
I’m watching the tie breaks of the final of the World Cup between top seed Gelfand and former champion Ponomariov. The first rapid game is entering its final stages, and it’s looking like another inevitable draw. This follows four relatively quick and, let’s be honest, utterly boring classical games. I was a little disappointed to …
So after three weeks and 126 players knocked out, top seed Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand and former World Cup champion, Ukranian-born Ponomariov, have qualified for the final. Gelfand’s path to the final has been relatively easy – his victory against Karjarkin looked particularly convincing. Ponomariov, on the other hand, was extremely lucky to beat his …
As Bronsen mentioned, Gashimovwas last night knocked out of the World Cup, losing a pretty appalling tiebreak to Ponomariov. At one stage, he was a clear piece up! The other Azeri, Mamedyarov, also lost to a Ukranian, Karjakin, who is joined by Gelfand and Malakhov in the semi-finals. Vladmir Malakhov is one of the surprise …
Well, we made it back safely and hassle-free on Tuesday afternoon, though work the next morning was a killer. The jetlag is compounded by the unbelievable mental exhaustion I’m feeling. It’s a bit lame, considering I only played two classical games, but I think the lead-up has a bit to do with it. For two weeks …
Wang Yue and his comrade Li Chao are out of the World Cup, because of a cigarette. Both players arrived late to the start of the second tie-break game, which, under FIDE’s new zero-time forfeit rule, resulted in both games being declared lost. I was asked what I thought of this new FIDE rule, which …
According to the official site, Dominguez bowed out in the second round tie-breaks to Caruana, losing 2.5-1.5. Scores were tied at 1.5 each when Dominguez found himself trying to win an ending with rook-and-pawn each. According to the live feed, Dominguez took Fabio’s last pawn (meaning the game could practically be called a draw then …
A bit of a tangent from the World Cup, but I have to write about my mate Jeremy Reading’s recent win on the television reality show ‘Beauty and the Geek’. The series, overwhelmingly popular in the US and UK, teams stereotypical ‘geeks’ with ditzy ‘beauties’, and then pits these artificial couples against each other in …
Fi and I have just landed in Helsinki with, admittedly, a dual sense of relief and sadness. It’s nice to be back in positive degrees territory, and have a shower where you don’t have to worry about getting water in your mouth. But the first thing I did when getting into the hotel room was …