Mig 
Greengard's ChessNinja.com

Linares 09 r10: The Panda Roars

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"Though the Giant Panda is often assumed to be docile, it has been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than predatory behavior." -- Wikipedia

The Sleepy Panda might look harmless, but if you get into his cage and try to steal his bamboo shoots you're in for a serious mauling. Magnus Carlsen pushed only to find Wang Yue can push back hard. In Linares round 10 the Chinese player launched a beautiful kingside attack that Carlsen couldn't handle in his time trouble. It started with the exchange sac 24..Rxb6 and tactical operations didn't cease for another 20 moves. Wang Yue missed a silicon crusher with 33...Bc8+! 34.Ka6 Bd7! and astoundingly there is nothing White can do about the black queen coming back to chop off his king's head. "Very hard to see" according to Fabiano Caruana, kibitzing on the ICC. To say the least! With seconds left Carlsen missed his last best chance with 38.Qd7 and White only survived the control to be stuck in a losing endgame with two rooks vs an active queen and extra pawns. Wang Yue cleaned up accurately to score his first win of the event and his second in as many months against Carlsen. A wonderful attack.

Another favorite also had trouble with white. Vishy Anand was outprepared by Dominguez in the Cuban's favorite Grunfeld. Even Peter Svidler sounded impressed by Black's new idea with 12..Ng4 and 13..Qb8. White navigated the tactical waters well enough to emerge with a tiny endgame plus but it never looked like much. Ivanchuk played the Petroff against the leader and Grischuk followed a plan of his countryman Jakovenko with 17.g4. All of his pawn pushing looked like it might land Grischuk in some trouble but he found enough against Black's open king to earn a perpetual check at the end.

Radjabov was the second player to score his first win today, doing it with a kingside fianchetto opening that one kibitzing German GM called "junk." But as I always say, it's not the fight in the opening, it's the fight in the players and Radjabov was feeling ambitious with white today. He grabbed the chance to lunge his d-pawn deep into enemy Armenian territory when Aronian failed to clip the button on d5. That left Black with an awkward jumble of pieces and Radjabov was quick to exploit the empty black kingside with a piece sac on h6. Black couldn't accept but was down a clear pawn when the smoke cleared. Aronian played the four-rook endgame like a sleepwalker, allowing doubled rooks on the seventh and putting up surprisingly little resistance.

So Grischuk, despite four draws in a row, has improved his position on the crosstable nicely thanks to a little help from the cellar dwellers. Carlsen and Aronian fall back to 1.5 behind with Anand and only Ivanchuk remains a full point back. Dominguez is now in the cellar alone and the only player without a win. And that's what a 2700 performance will get you in Linares these days! +3 has been enough to win Linares three years in a row. Can anyone bring Grischuk down?

On with the Zohan himself tomorrow, GM Ronen Har-Zvi. Round 11: Grischuk-Radjabov, Ivanchuk-Carlsen, Wang Yue-Anand, Dominguez Aronian.

45 Comments

I don't wish to fixate on jet lag, but it appears to work both ways.

Notice Wang's poor start in both Linares and Corus, and to a lesser extent in the Grand Prix, and some speedup near the end.

Conversely, at the Nanjing supertournament, the presumably well-rested local, Bu, shot out to an early lead picking on sleepyheads, and lost several at the end to better adjusted super-GMs to finish at 50%.

Btw, Wang is fat and out of shape, someone tell him no 21yo should have that kind of gut.

hcl - I bet Wang really cares about your opinion of his figure. Does it become an issue with you when Carlson gets smashed, flattened and crushed?

Go Wang, and have a McDonalds vanilla shake to celebrate your much-deserved win!

In today's set of chessbase pics Wang no longer looks blinkered, but nevertheless remains puffy, shows a double-chin, and in general looks the lump. Nothing a workout routine couldn't fix.

Contrast with the lean, muscle-toned look of Grischuk, Radjabov, or Dominguez, here:

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5258

Did Wang have a blog? I'll go there and tell him myself.

Thanks Mig, great report once again! Only one or two typos - if anyone wondered (I did before looking at other sites), Wang Yue's "silicon crusher" was 33. - Bd8+ 34. Ka6 Bc7! ,:).
And BTW, Chessbase (the German site) commented that Wang Yue looked 'bored' on the picture they gave .... .

the german chessbase got the wrong photo

I was watching Anand's match live, and I did think that Anand was going into a critical line, but although it looked dangerous I could see after some time that he had the tactics under control. I saw though how effortlesly Dominguez drew, and wondered why he went into such a long forced line if that was all he was going to get out of it. Mig's post makes some things clear; so it was Domiguez who sprang the surprise... I think he's playing really well and mixing it up very creditably with the big boys.

Man, Anand is sleep walking through this tournament. Dare I say it, he's doing a Kramnik!

Poor Carlsen :-))) within one tournament his name will be on the receiving end in future instruction manuals on how to play rook endings, and the art of attack.

About jet lagging. Until the time when Asia will hold more regular super tournaments, Wang Yue (and other Asian super GMs) should think about moving to Europe where almost all the super tournaments are held. You don't want to be affected by jet lagging every time you get invited.

Or you can travel early and go sightseeing first.

rdh--

I know what you're thinking, but stop it right now! d_tal is not draging in Kramnik's name to be a troll. d_tal is NOT trolling! NOT TROLLING! NOT! Kramnik is bad bad bad. Whenever somebody says bad don't you right away think of Kramnik? I mean be honest. So whenever anything bad happens it is all right to start talking about Badnik oops I mean Kramnik. Ha ha ha. See what I mean? And please be so kind to stop trolling on d_tal before you even start for his post about Kramnik which was extremly humorous and intelligent!

d_d_tal

What an idiot you are.

But then again everybody on this board know that.

Some people seem to have an amazingly short memory, so here is a recapitulation of some earlier Linares rounds:
Round 1 Anand-Radjabov 1-0 (an impressively smooth affair, and some people here and/or elsewhere already declared him clear tournament facorite)
Round 2 Anand-Aronian 0-1 (a spectacular and entertaining game, kudos to both players) ... and "shy_guest" on Chessvibes aptly commented: "So now Aronian is leading the tournament. Should we now say he is winning the event ... or would that be a trifle premature ... ?"
Round 4 Anand - Wang Yue 1-0 (Kramnikian in the best sense of the word ...)
Round 6 Carlsen - Anand 1-0 (impressive rook [and minor pieces] endgame by Carlsen)

Maybe this broke Anand, and he realized that he somehow lost his form and now inserts a few short draws - deceiving for spectators and chess fans, but rather normal strategy. And as far as Carlsen is concerned: So he also had good and bad days, at this moment his 'historic' first win against Anand has similar _short-term_ effects as Kamsky's first ever win against Topalov !?

BTW: While it is not (as) premature to suggest that Grischuk will win Linares, he still has to face Carlsen, Anand and Aronian (all of them dangerous on a good day).

In the same site, there is also Kamsky´s interview:
¨he(Topalov)is a great tactician he keeps posing me problems , he really actually deserved to win this match...¨
Great Gata , i hope he gets another shot for the title soon enough, really cool guy!

hard for anand to win now!

@Manu chill out dude, Topalov is good but he'll bow to Kramnik's grandeur. Just wait to Amber...

Quite an interesting interview with Gata - apparently his team (felt they) had to play music during all of their analysis/preparation time, to thwart Bulgarian eavesdropping.

Thomas you are right, I was speaking prematurely. However, the jury's out! Lets see what he does with his remaining games. I think the loss to Aronian was also quite painful btw.

Hi Mig,

I think you are tolerant of most things on this blog, except identity theft? I suspect there is a guy, an out and out troll, who prefaces other posters' handles with d_, and posts using multiple aliases. eg: d_d_tal, d_manu, d_korchnoi etc. Any chance you can check the IP and verify this? Somebody who is too pathetic to even own up to an identity is not worth replying to.

" I think the loss to Aronian was also quite painful btw."
Interesting question, what has worse effects for one's self-confidence and future play?
1) losing a crazy game with lots of opportunities for both sides, including opportunities to go wrong [Anand-Aronian]
2) losing a one-sided game after suffering and struggling for six hours, to no avail [Carlsen-Anand]
In any case, Anand may well repeat the opening he played against Aronian, but not the one against Carlsen - unless he likes to suffer, having (Kramnikian?) masochistic tendencies ... .

The bonus question is: What are the effects of saving a draw with study-like endgame play (and maybe some help from the opponent) after quite some suffering [Ivanchuk-Anand]?

That would be nice .

I wonder if there wasnt any other method to prevent that , as Gata said you can get really tired of listening music all the time.

What I don't see is how using clearly different nicknames qualifies for an identity theft.

Oh my god , trolls have feelings AND lawyers.

Just as in a cabaret anyone can imitate George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Frank Sinatra ... everyone knows it's not the same, real, original person - even if there may be remarkable similarities (if the job is done well).
Personally I think d_manu did or does a pretty good performance, I can laugh about it (but Manu apparently can't). d_d_tal was a rather lame copy IMO.
And if d_Thomas starts posting, I may or may not like it - but I certainly will not ask Mig to check (and block?) his IP address! ,:)

Oh my god , trolls have feelings AND lawyers AND dumb groupies.

I m against blocking any person , just curious to know who this troubled soul might be.
IMO it disrupts the comunication , but as the cheerleader said it can be fun too.

The d_manu post a few posts above is an obvious identify theif which DOES disrupt comunication. d_ means you're speaking as a fan of the guy like d_tal or d_korchnoi or d_manu. I would NEVER tell manu to chill.

Signed the one and only original d_manu.

Just as Topalov has feelings, lawyers, a manager and fans ... which does not make him a troll (anyway a widely used but poorly defined term in this forum)
[chesshire cat, Manu or anyone else - don't worry, I will stop now on this topic]

Would you work for me? Since your writting is better than mine , i can give you the general ideas for my posts and then you can do the writing.
I can send you a mail with key words like :¨hate¨ , ¨Kramnik ¨, ¨pls Thomas dont talk to me (or about me)¨ , and you start from there.
You can keep your D_manu for yourself and write mine too!
What do you think?

HAHAHAHAHA man the panda part was hilarious, I laughed so much, thank you!

Better yet we are going to commit mass suicide. Any further posts from us are identity thefts from dead men. Goodbye Kramnik-who-sucks. Goodbye noble Veselin. Goodbye, cruel world. AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH....uh....

I love the smell of freshly flung monkey-poo in the morning. It smells like... vicitudes. I was beginning to think folks had forgotten how to fling lately.

noyb, you dont know how we have missed you, nobody can fling it like you!

Using multiple aliases is identity theft. Its a simple subterfuge to avoid taking responsibility for posts, and garner fraudulent interest and support. For example, say junior posts something, and then posts a follow-up under another alias, to show that his post has support, even though its a darn fool post. That is pathetic. If you want to be clever, do it by being clever in your post, not by using multiple aliases. For example, internet chess servers do not allow multiple aliases, for obvious reasons, unless there is a clear division of responsibility, such as using one account to play, and another to teach or administrate or something.

Thomas: "Just as in a cabaret anyone can imitate George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Frank Sinatra ... everyone knows it's not the same, real, original person - even if there may be remarkable similarities (if the job is done well)."

Only you could make such a parallel. Try thinking about it for a bit, and see if you can spot a difference with this situation.

"Only you could make such a parallel."
Thanks, I take this as a compliment ,:) even though it is probably not meant to be ... . Actually, other people accused me of 'stating the obvious', and for me that quote still rather falls under that category. Of course there are differences, but for me they are not that relevant - maybe you can clarify what you mean (IMO, posts can become a bit longer if that improves clarity).
Now stating the obvious: Things would be different if someone used _exactly_ the same identity. Then still all YOU could do is complain, but you would have me and everyone else (so I assume) on your side.
There are some cases where this could still occur by accident:
1) someone posting under his true name Alexei Shirov, but not having a GM title [if that person knows a little bit about chess, he should be aware of the confusion he creates]
2) someone posting under his true name Greg Koster [if he is new on this blog, he may be blissfully unaware of the fact that this name is already occupied ....]

What Mig could do: limit this blog to registered users ... who either can blog only from one IP address or have to enter a password every time. Do we want this to happen ???
Even then similar but not identical usernames would, at the very least, be hard to filter out. Could I, Thomas, forbid others to post as d_Thomas, Tom, Tommy or Thomas2 ??

Finally, if part of your annoyance is because other people borrowed or stole your "d_concept"- maybe take it from the sunny side, take it as a compliment? ,:)

oh gosh! I give up. Only thing I can say is, read my post again. Mig has a simple rule: Pick any alias ("any, even your own name") and stick to it. Is that so hard to understand? Or its benefits? Maybe you weren't around when these discussions took place with regard to various events. Mig does view this seriously, or at least used to.

Thomas, seriously, sometimes less is more. Sometimes thinking before posting is also good.

You are asking for a fondue in McDonalds , and he is not even the manager.

Yep, I wasn't around during earlier related discussions. So I don't know when they occurred, why (which events?), what was the evidence for people posting with multiple aliases? Only Mig can know for sure if he keeps track of IP addresses - and apparently this time he doesn't see a problem, at least not yet.

Concerning d_manu and d_d_tal, there are three possibilities:
1) The posts were written by Manu and d_tal [I would rule this out, it would be "too trolly to be true" behavior to subsequently complain about things written by yourself.]
2) The posts were written by one or several persons who usually take another identity. No netiquette, but not such a big deal either in my opinion.
3) The posts were written by one or several persons who didn't post before.
And (both of) you can rule out option 1) for sure, but you cannot even distinguish between 2) and 3) ... .

@d_tal: I rarely use such words, but it is rather arrogant to suggest "thinking before posting" just because you don't like any given post.
@Manu: Feel free to make fun of me if it makes you feel better, I don't mind ... but then I also retain the right to reply to your posts.

Talking about arrogance, you are the one who wanted people to tailor their english to your taste. I merely want you to think and look at discussions that have gone on before, in order to avoid rehashing the same old thing ad nauseum. Frankly, I think quite often your posts are just for the sake of posting. These particular posts say nothing new, are verbose, and only contribute to general tedium in my view. Of course you have the right to them, feel free to write essays all day long. Just saying that if you decrease the quantity, and improve the quality, people might be more inclined to pay attention. And again, before you say it, yes this is just MY opinion.

"you are the one who wanted people to tailor their english to your taste."
I cannot blame you for pointing this out, as I also occasionally use my long-term memory in my own posts ... . But I pointed out that these were isolated incidents, so is the present discussion BTW (at least as far as d_d_tal is concerned).
I recently learnt a new word: "subterfuge" - apparently +- synonymous to "shenanigans" (already known to me because it is one of Mig's favorites). And as long as things become clear once I use an online dictionary, no problem!

"look at discussions that have gone on before"
But this is still odd IMO, as you referred to a discussion from months or even years ago. Even if I had been around at the time I may have forgotten ... but I am 99% sure that I wasn't around because I still don't have even the faintest memory.

I tried to read your points 1 through 3, and you confuse what is really a VERY simple issue: either these were written by one person or not. If it is, clearly its a case of misusing identity. This is what I asked Mig to check. But I think he can't be bothered.

Regarding the question of whether YOU (i.e Thomas) consider using duplicate aliases is acceptable, I simply ask you to re-read my posts above. I just know you will want to have the last word here, but in all probability, I wont be reading it. All the best.

It's a healthy post. Thanks for your work, I have bookmarked your site. http://vacationbooking.co/

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    This page contains a single entry by Mig published on March 2, 2009 5:53 PM.

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