World Cup Baku 10 September to 4 October 2015

[JustinHorton]

What's the state of theory in that line? I thought it had been flogged to death some years ago.

Very large time discrepancy in Giri v Svidler.

[Barry Sandercock]

Eljanov-Karjakin game is interesting. Eljanov has an isolated QP, but Stockfish says he is better.

[LawrenceCooper]

What's the state of theory in that line? I thought it had been flogged to death some years ago.

Very large time discrepancy in Giri v Svidler.

I know there's a sharp line where white takes on c5 and the pawn advances to c6 whilst black takes on c4, b3 and sometimes even a2. Maybe that happens after 13 e4 instead of Re1 which was played. I suspect in the game that the d4-d3 plan is very bad albeit it seemed a logical idea until you see that black either has to lose two pieces for a rook or a pawn.

[JustinHorton]

What's the state of theory in that line? I thought it had been flogged to death some years ago.

I know there's a sharp line where white takes on c5 and the pawn advances to c6 whilst black takes on c4, b3 and sometimes even a2.

Oh yes, there was some line where a question mark attached to Black's seventeenth became an exclamation mark, or something. I even played the line in a correspondence game once.

[LawrenceCooper]

What's the state of theory in that line? I thought it had been flogged to death some years ago.

I know there's a sharp line where white takes on c5 and the pawn advances to c6 whilst black takes on c4, b3 and sometimes even a2.

Oh yes, there was some line where a question mark attached to Black's seventeenth became an exclamation mark, or something. I even played the line in a correspondence game once.

Black seems to have escaped to near equality or at least only slightly worse. Svidler seems to be doing well in the other game albeit white has some practical chances.

[JustinHorton]

Sensational win from Svidler, there, exactly how you want it to go with the Black pieces.

[LawrenceCooper]

Sensational win from Svidler, there, exactly how you want it to go with the Black pieces.

I'm not sure what to make of that game, Giri seemed to throw caution to the wind which isn't his normal style but black certainly seemed to diffuse what looked like some scary threats (until you see the computer assessment) without allowing white any chances.

Eljanov seems back in control, I suspect somewhere around move 26-30 black had chances to reach a holdable position whereas now at the time control white has a passed a pawn and seemingly the more secure king and kingside pawns.

[Barry Sandercock]

Can Karjakin draw his game ? Looks doubtful.

[LawrenceCooper]

Can Karjakin draw his game ? Looks doubtful.

Around move 20 and move 40 I thought white would definitely win, at move 47 I'm not quite as sure as white may need to give a kingside pawn to play for a win. White still has his a pawn though so......

[LawrenceCooper]

Can Karjakin draw his game ? Looks doubtful.

Around move 20 and move 40 I thought white would definitely win, at move 47 I'm not quite as sure as white may need to give a kingside pawn to play for a win. White still has his a pawn though so......

Allegedly a fatal slip from Karjakin on move 60 but finding tricky computer lines is rather difficult with little time, not to mention the pressure of the occasion.

[JustinHorton]

Going for the knight ending instead of the difficult-to-win queen versus rook and knight. Interesting.

[LawrenceCooper]

Going for the knight ending instead of the difficult-to-win queen versus rook and knight. Interesting.

The black knight has landed on b2 again.

[LawrenceCooper]

The perils of taking too much notice of engine assessments:

Chess24 0:00

Chessdom:

Houdini 2.69
Komodo 0.73
Stockfish 0.84

Agreed drawn.

[MartinCarpenter]

I wonder why they haven't plugged these things into tablebases? This sort of thing is known engine issue and they'd presumably at least help to tame it.

[JustinHorton]

I see Eljanov is the latest to not play 9...e3.