Hastings International Chess 29 Dec 2014 - 6 January 2015

[Christopher Kreuzer]

12 moves to go. I wonder if Keith will go an extra 25 moves and force the new 75-move rule to be applied?

50-move rule: 5.2e. A player may claim a draw if the last 50 moves have been completed by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.

75-move rule: 9.6b. The game is drawn if the last 75 moves have been completed by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.

[Matt Fletcher]

Out of a collection of over 5 million games, there are over one thousand with KBN v K, but under a hundred with KBB v KN.

What percentage of draws and wins for the KBB v KN examples?

Almost certainly a slightly different database, but I've got 84 total with 47 wins and 37 draws. Haven't checked for ones that 'don't count' ie those where the knight immediately takes one of the bishops or vice versa.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Oh. Agreed drawn on move 118 before any claim had to be made.

[Matt Fletcher]

Out of a collection of over 5 million games, there are over one thousand with KBN v K, but under a hundred with KBB v KN.

What percentage of draws and wins for the KBB v KN examples?

Almost certainly a slightly different database, but I've got 84 total with 47 wins and 37 draws. Haven't checked for ones that 'don't count' ie those where the knight immediately takes one of the bishops or vice versa.

I had a very quick look through and I reckon 11 of the wins and 3 of the draws were immediate, with 2 of the wins and 3 draws not played out at all (there is one very odd one where the player with 2 bishops just takes the protected knight).

So excluding these, it's about even, with 34 wins and 31 draws.

[LawrenceCooper]

I feel that KBB v KN is a very unsatisfactory ending. Properly speaking it's lost, but sometimes you're saved by the 50 move rule. Don't envy the man defending it in the seventh ( or eighth! ) hour of the ninth day, when everyone else is having a drink.

I think we can make an exception for Keith having to find himself in this situation every now and again...

I've seen him win this ending (with the bishops I hasten to add ) against Tony Kosten at Montpellier 10+ years ago. From memory the technique was to prise the king and knight apart and then win the knight.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Yeah. Clearly. The question is *how* to do that. Maybe Keith is showing Largarde in the post-mortem?

[Chris Rice]

Final rankings http://www.hastingschess.com/2015/SMWSite/ (click on rankings at the top of the page). Incredible 2852 performance rating for Zhao but personally I was very impressed with yet another 2600+ (2608 to be precise) from Keith Arkell and a bagful of rating points.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Gudmunder Kjartansson needs 2/2 v 2524 rated opponent in rd 9

Just noticed this, as Kjartansson's finish of 2/2 and overall score of 7/9 would have seemed to be enough:

http://www.hastingschess.com/2015/SMWSi ... /p015.html

However, he played Mark Hebden (2523) in the final round. Does that mean that Kjartansson missed out on a GM norm by one rating point and the overall TPR (even raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) fell agonisingly short?

[LawrenceCooper]

Final rankings http://www.hastingschess.com/2015/SMWSite/ (click on rankings at the top of the page). Incredible 2852 performance rating for Zhao but personally I was very impressed with yet another 2600+ (2608 to be precise) from Keith Arkell and a bagful of rating points.

A mention also for Tereza Olsarova who completed her third WGM norm and therefore the title.

[Paul Dargan]

Gudmunder Kjartansson needs 2/2 v 2524 rated opponent in rd 9

Just noticed this, as Kjartansson's finish of 2/2 and overall score of 7/9 would have seemed to be enough:

http://www.hastingschess.com/2015/SMWSi ... /p015.html

However, he played Mark Hebden (2523) in the final round. Does that mean that Kjartansson missed out on a GM norm by one rating point and the overall TPR (even raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) fell agonisingly short?

Weird - he seems to have played a 2009 as his lowest opponent, raising that to 2200 for GM norms would seem to increase his average rating (and hence TPR) by 21 pts which ought to be enough. There's people at Hastings who know the regs backwards though - so I'm sure if it qualifies they'll know.

Paul

[NickFaulks]

It does look one rating point short to me. Pity, because he's just come off another very unlucky miss.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It does look one rating point short to me. Pity, because he's just come off another very unlucky miss.

His 7.5/9 in the 2014 San Salvador Open?

http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calc ... 2015-01-01
http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_repo ... =103732&t=
http://www.chessdom.com/icelanders-domi ... hess-open/

How close was that? It looks like another case of too many low-rated opponents and hence the TPR was too low? He beat 3 GMs then and drew with another two, but also drew with a 2427 IM when presumably he needed a win there. Ah well, at least he is still the reigning champion of Iceland.

[LawrenceCooper]

Gudmunder Kjartansson needs 2/2 v 2524 rated opponent in rd 9

Just noticed this, as Kjartansson's finish of 2/2 and overall score of 7/9 would have seemed to be enough:

http://www.hastingschess.com/2015/SMWSi ... /p015.html

However, he played Mark Hebden (2523) in the final round. Does that mean that Kjartansson missed out on a GM norm by one rating point and the overall TPR (even raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) fell agonisingly short?

Weird - he seems to have played a 2009 as his lowest opponent, raising that to 2200 for GM norms would seem to increase his average rating (and hence TPR) by 21 pts which ought to be enough. There's people at Hastings who know the regs backwards though - so I'm sure if it qualifies they'll know.

Paul

I believe that the average is 2379.44 but one more rating point would take the average to 2379.55 and therefore sufficient to be rounded up to 2380.

[NickFaulks]

but also drew with a 2427 IM when presumably he needed a win there.

No, it wouldn't have helped, his TPR was already way over 2600 but the average rating of opponents was too low. After beating very low rated players in the first three rounds there was nothing to be done.

[David Sedgwick]

Gudmunder Kjartansson needs 2/2 v 2524 rated opponent in rd 9

However, he played Mark Hebden (2523) in the final round. Does that mean that Kjartansson missed out on a GM norm by one rating point and the overall TPR (even raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) fell agonisingly short?

It does look one rating point short to me. Pity, because he's just come off another very unlucky miss.

I believe that the average is 2379.44 but one more rating point would take the average to 2379.55 and therefore sufficient to be rounded up to 2380.

All the above posters are correct, sadly.