English Chess Forum

This is a holding post to start the thread. I should have substantive information in the morning.

Chess.com report on Kasparov's return to the chess circuit albeit briefly. Looks like he is really looking forward to it. "Thank God this will only last five days!" Kasparov said, reiterating that his re-retirement begins anew after the tournament ends. "I have no plans to come back." Apparently his pre-tournament preparation involved watching the latest Games of Thrones episode.

Kasparov is back to play 27 rated games over the next 5 days. In the rapid he has Black against the four highest rated players and five Whites against the rest. The first round handshake may contain a bit of spice given Karjakin's relationship with Putin. We'll see:

Round 1 of rapid. Kick off 7pm BST:

1 GM Kasparov, G. (0) 2812 — GM Karjakin, S. (0) 2773
2 GM Anand, V. (0) 2783 — GM Nakamura, H. (0) 2792
3 GM Le, Quang L. (0) 2726 — GM Caruana, F. (0) 2807
4 GM Aronian, L. (0) 2809 — GM Navara, David (0) 2737
5 GM Nepomniachtc. (0) 2742 — GM Dominguez Pe. (0) 2739

By coincidence Kasparov is White against Karjakin both in Round 1 of the Rapid today and in Round 1 of the Blitz on Thursday 17th August

The full pairings are attached.

Play starts each day until Friday 18th August at 1900 BST. If there is a playoff, it will be on Saturday 19th August at 1700 BST.

Live coverage will be at http://www.grandchesstour.org and at https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 2017/1/1/1 (the end may change each day).

YouTube links:

Day 1 Rapid 1-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw3rsUIC3RU
Day 2 Rapid 4-6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8X2HkLoXuQ
Day 3 Rapid 7-9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmsfvkmq09s
Day 4 Blitz 1-9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVQiALqGggc
Day 5 Blitz 10-18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJ74aL6fvM

Dailymotion link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ukycz (same each day)

Video of Opening Ceremony on Sunday 13th August: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRkggkCbKAw

David Sedgwick wrote: Play starts each day until Friday 18th August at 1300 BST.

Wouldn't that be 7am in St Louis?

Chris Rice wrote:

David Sedgwick wrote: Play starts each day until Friday 18th August at 1300 BST.

Wouldn't that be 7am in St Louis?

Chess24 is expecting the games to start at 19:00 UK time.

Chris Rice wrote:

David Sedgwick wrote: Play starts each day until Friday 18th August at 1300 BST.

Wouldn't that be 7am in St Louis?

That's Birmingham Summer Time, the one in Alabama.

David Sedgwick wrote:Play starts each day until Friday 18th August at 1300 BST.

Chris Rice wrote:Wouldn't that be 7am in St Louis?

NickFaulks wrote:That's Birmingham Summer Time, the one in Alabama.

LawrenceCooper wrote:Chess24 is expecting the games to start at 19:00 UK time.

Thank you everyone.

I did of course mean 1900 BST, or 1300 CDT (the local time in St Louis).

I have corrected my previous post.

Live feed from YouTube working well.

1 GM Kasparov, G. (0) 2812 ½ - ½ GM Karjakin, S. (0) 2773
2 GM Anand, V. (0) 2783 0 - 1 GM Nakamura, H. (0) 2792
3 GM Le, Quang L. (0) 2726 1 - 0 GM Caruana, F. (0) 2807
4 GM Aronian, L. (0) 2809 1 - 0 GM Navara, David (0) 2737
5 GM Nepomniachtc. (0) 2742 ½ - ½ GM Dominguez Pe. (0) 2739

Le - Caruana end was amazing. 2800 players are ( very ) human.

Great game by Aronian.

Aronian, Levon - Navara, David

1-0

Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz GCT 2017 round 011. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. b3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Bg2 d5 9. cxd5 exd5 10. O-O Re8 11. Ne5 Bb7 12. Qc2 c5 13. dxc5 bxc5 14. Rad1 Qc8 15. e4 Bf8 16. f4 d4 17. Nd5 Nxd5 18. exd5 f6 19. Rde1 fxe5 20. fxe5 Nd7 21. e6 Nf6 22. Rxf6 gxf6 23. Qf5 Qd8 24. Re4 Re7 25. Rg4+ Kh8 26. Be4 Rc8 27. Rh4 Kg8 28. Rxh7 Bxd5 29. Qg6+ Rg7 30. Qh5 Bxe4 31. Rh8# 1-0

NickFaulks wrote:Le - Caruana end was amazing. 2800 players are ( very ) human.

Although I didn't have the commentary on live it's worth playing it back it to hear the commentators applauding black's play, expecting white to resign and then the reality dawns on them that white is somehow winning.

LawrenceCooper wrote:

NickFaulks wrote:Le - Caruana end was amazing. 2800 players are ( very ) human.

Although I didn't have the commentary on live it's worth playing it back it to hear the commentators applauding black's play, expecting white to resign and then the reality dawns on them that white is somehow winning.[/quote

Steven DuCharme wrote:

LawrenceCooper wrote:

NickFaulks wrote:Le - Caruana end was amazing. 2800 players are ( very ) human.

Although I didn't have the commentary on live it's worth playing it back it to hear the commentators applauding black's play, expecting white to resign and then the reality dawns on them that white is somehow winning.

I think you mean the reverse.

No. Why?

LawrenceCooper wrote: Although I didn't have the commentary on live it's worth playing it back it to hear the commentators applauding black's play, expecting white to resign and then the reality dawns on them that white is somehow winning.

I caught up with it after the game had finished when the commentators were trying to find ways of defending Black's position against the mate, even at the cost of a Rook. Usually when you queen a pawn and win material as a consequence, you expect the game to be over in your favour.

Black had to find .. Rf2 (instead of Ke8) in this position ( according to the chessbomb stockfish)

[SetUp "1"]<br> [FEN "5k2/6R1/4p1R1/p3P3/4P3/7P/r5PK/1q6 b - - 0 50"]

On the following move Rg8+ would have been better than Ra7 as .. Rf2 is still a defence of sorts, even though it loses a Rook. The simple Rg8+, followed by R6g7+ seems to force the King over to the b file where Rb8+ wins the Queen.



1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bxc4 Nb6 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Bg4 8. f3 Bh5 9. Nbc3 e6 10. Be4 Bg6 11. O-O Be7 12. Be3 Bxe4 13. fxe4 O-O 14. Nf4 Bg5 15. Kh1 Qe7 16. Qh5 h6 17. Rad1 Nc4 18. Bc1 Rad8 19. b3 Nb6 20. Nce2 Rd7 21. Rd3 Rfd8 22. Rg3 Nxd4 23. Nxd4 Rxd4 24. Nxe6 fxe6 25. Bxg5 Qe8 26. Qxe8+ Rxe8 27. Bxh6 Re7 28. Rg4 Nd7 29. Be3 Rd3 30. Bf4 Rd4 31. Re1 c5 32. h3 b5 33. Rg3 Rf7 34. Bc1 c4 35. Kh2 a5 36. bxc4 Rxc4 37. Bb2 Rc2 38. Bd4 Rxa2 39. Rd1 b4 40. Rg6 Nf8 41. Rg3 Rd7 42. Rf3 Ng6 43. Rg3 Kh7 44. Rg5 b3 45. Rh5+ Kg8 46. Rg5 b2 47. Rxg6 Rxd4 48. Rxd4 b1=Q 49. Rd7 Kf8 50. Rdxg7 Ke8 51. Ra7 Kf8 52. Ra8+ Kf7 53. Rag8 1-0