4ncl 2022-23

[Neil Graham]

Does this mean Wessex players can now play for another team?

In answer to Nick's query this is covered in Rule 5. Whilst both Wessex teams are now in Division Four it is not clear if their membership is to continue or whether they are withdrawing one/both teams. Clearly as no one has played as yet there could be 20 players who might be looking for a new squad.

[LawrenceCooper]

An unusual game featuring en-passant three times before the game explodes with a missed perpetual and sacrifices where black allows white to queen with check but has a winning attack: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2023/3/6/2

[Kevin Thurlow]

Wow - great game. I especially enjoy games where someone allows P=Q+

[LawrenceCooper]

Wow - great game. I especially enjoy games where someone allows P=Q+

I saw the position where played ...f5 and then started looking at other games. I was very alarmed when I looked back to see the e5 pawn had queened on f8 with check but fortunately the engine was able to calm my initial panic!

[Jonathan Rogers]

Some interesting first division games this weekend, notwithstanding the number of mismatches (the above game and match being one example). In one of the "real" matches today, Roberson's "win on demand" to salvage a point for the Sharks today was very impressive indeed, and one imagines that even many experienced players might have struggled to convert the full point - again, "on demand" - on board 8 in Gonzaga v Celtic Tigers.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Top two boards in Wood Green Youth v Sharks also worth playing through. Actually the whole match has arguably been the highlight of the season thus far.

[Joey Stewart]

An unusual game featuring en-passant three times before the game explodes with a missed perpetual and sacrifices where black allows white to queen with check but has a winning attack: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2023/3/6/2

That's a great game, I always wonder when I see Jon speelmans games why he was never a 2600-2700 level player as he calculates tactics so brilliantly.

[Alan Walton]

An unusual game featuring en-passant three times before the game explodes with a missed perpetual and sacrifices where black allows white to queen with check but has a winning attack: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2023/3/6/2

That's a great game, I always wonder when I see Jon speelmans games why he was never a 2600-2700 level player as he calculates tactics so brilliantly.

He was 2600+ in 2000 when FIDE ratings history starts; and in 1989 he was top 4 in the world; so in retrospect he has been

[Roger de Coverly]

He was 2600+ in 2000 when FIDE ratings history starts; and in 1989 he was top 4 in the world; so in retrospect he has been

In the January 1989 list he was listed at number 5 with a rating of 2640. Top 4 were Kasparov at 2775. Karpov at 2750, Short at 2650 and Beliavsky also at 2640

https://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198901e.html

It's an unresolved question as to whether ratings have increased because players are just better, or whether there's been an inflationary instablity. But in 1989 the K's were at least 100 points better than the opposition, according to the rating list, which isn't something that Carlsen and his nearest rivals have managed to emulate.

[Joey Stewart]

Kasparov and Karpov were both great players but I feel like they also benefited heavily from heavy soviet funding, hoarded chess knowledge and opening preparation where a novelty could last you a good long while before it was refuted. Poor old speelman would have had to get by on natural talent alone and probably had to pay his own entry fees while the celebrity GMs were flying first class and dining in the finest restaurants safe in the knowledge their team of seconds were fine tuning their preparations.

[Roger de Coverly]

Poor old speelman would have had to get by on natural talent alone and probably had to pay his own entry fees while the celebrity GMs were flying first class and dining in the finest restaurants safe in the knowledge their team of seconds were fine tuning their preparations.

In terms of earnings, I think Western GMs did reasonably well in an era when only a limited number of players from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were allowed frequent travel. Once the Berlin Wall and other barriers came down in the late 1980s, there was a lot more competition from players of similar and higher standards. Western players also had the advantages of a freer press and access to computer tools such as databases.

[NickFaulks]

It's an unresolved question as to whether ratings have increased because players are just better

I've never understood how that works.

[Roger de Coverly]

I've never understood how that works.

Two plausible explanations. One is to ask how many times better is the world champion than a beginner and presume that it increases over time as knowledge percolates downwards. Another is that even beginners get better thus deserving higher ratings, but the difference between a world champion and a beginner remains constant.

I could also argue that for the same relative level between beginner and world champion, players now need to know more to retain the same percentile position. You can see it in openings where positions that were baffling or unknown in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are now common knowledge. For that matter, some players have similar relative and absolute ratings to those when they first became "strong" players, others, who perhaps haven't played or studied continuously haven't.

[IM Jack Rudd]

If you wanted some sort of somewhat objective answer to the question, you could correlate ratings in 1989 against average centipawn loss of those players in that year, and do the same thing for 2022 or whenever.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I was pleased to see people belatedly joining this thread until I realised that it in danger of becoming yet another discussion of rating inflation. No more, please! It should suffice to respond to Joey's absurd comment to say that Speelman was in the world top five and made the semi-final of the candidates' in 1988/9. It is great that he still plays at all.