Chess World Championship 2018

[saevel25]

Is anyone going to keep tabs on the 2018 Chess World Championship between Carlson and Caruana?

I will probably be doing so on Twitch through ChessNetwork. Also, if you are into chess check out ChessNetwork on twitch and youtube. I've enjoyed the guys videos.

 

[billchao]

This should really be in grill room since chess is not a sport 😜

I used to like playing it even though I was never any good. Never watched it, though.

[saevel25]

2 minutes ago, billchao said:

This should really be in grill room since chess is not a sport 😜

I used to like playing it even though I was never any good. Never watched it, though.

I almost did put this thread in the Grill Room, but I am counting it as a sport ;)

I find having the right commentary helps a lot when watching chess. One of the reasons I recommend the guy from ChessNetwork.

 

[iacas]

Chess is not a sport. It's a game. Not a single athletic move is required.

Topic moved to the Grill Room. 🙂

[saevel25]

6 minutes ago, iacas said:

Chess is not a sport. It's a game. Not a single athletic move is required. 

Precise hand movements?

[Vinsk]

25 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Precise hand movements?

No. Stephen Hawking was a damn good chess player.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

Precise hand movements?

Uhhhh…

59 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

No. Stephen Hawking was a damn good chess player.

I thought of Stephen Hawking when I moved the topic. Brilliant guy, fantastic lover from what I've heard, hilarious at times, but not an athlete. 😉

[p1n9183]

Yes, i will definitively keep track of the games.
I like Pepe Cuenca´s commentaries (Spanish GM) from the youtube channel chess24 and chess24 in spanish.
I never play chess but i like to review matches against the top players, moreover if the commentator is great like Pepe Cuenca.

[nevets88]

If the best in the world of your event can get beaten by a computer, it's not a sport.

[iacas]

1 minute ago, nevets88 said:

If the best in the world of your event can get beaten by a computer, it's not a sport.

Define "computer."

I could make a "computer" (robot) that could out-run someone, depending on how you define both "computer" and "run." 🙂

[allenc]

5 minutes ago, iacas said:

Define "computer."

I could make a "computer" (robot) that could out-run someone, depending on how you define both "computer" and "run." 🙂

@nevets88

Exactly.  There is a machine that can beat every human at most sports.  Certainly simple ones like running, powerlifting, swimming.

Interestingly, although computers can beat any human at chess, they are not the best chess players and don't "know" everything.  What I'm getting at is a strong chess player with the help of a chess engine, if he is adept at using it, can easily beat another stand alone chess engine.  This is true even if the stand alone chess engine is thought to be a more powerful one.

So it's interesting that humans and computers actually have different chess skills that complement each other.

@saevel25

I am into chess and will definitely follow the match.  The first American contender in almost 50 years!   Thanks for the ChessNetwork heads up.

[Eric C]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Chess is not a sport. It's a game. Not a single athletic move is required.

Topic moved to the Grill Room. 🙂

To be briefly on topic, no - I won't be paying attention to the world championship because ... BORING!

But I'm feeling divisive, and while I don't really care (blatant Google ripoffs follow):

According to Wikipedia, "A mind sport is a game of skill where the mental exercise component is more significant than the physical."

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sport as: “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. Moving a chess piece takes physical exertion, albeit not much.

Since June 1999, FIDE (World Chess Federation) has been recognized by the International Sports Federation. Chess was featured as an exhibition sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Thus the topic does not belong in the Grill Room.

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, Eric C said:

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sport as: “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. Moving a chess piece takes physical exertion, albeit not much.

You can play chess on a computer or by speaking what move you'd like to make.

Chess is not a sport.

[Eric C]

4 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can play chess on a computer or by speaking what move you'd like to make.

Chess is not a sport.

True, but the World Championships are done in person with actual chess pieces.  Don't they even have to reach over and smack a clock for certain types of chess events?!  Talk about physical exertion!

Besides which computer games like Fortnight and others have for years had online organized competitions which are considered a sport.  Some of those players make bajillions of dollars.

Chess is totally a sport.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Eric C
forgot to restate my position

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, Eric C said:

Chess is totally a sport.

No. The fact that you have to add “mental” tells you it’s not.

Move on please as this ain’t the topic, and I feel like you’re not even being serious anyway.

[Wally Fairway]

39 minutes ago, Eric C said:

To be briefly on topic, no - I won't be paying attention to the world championship because ... BORING!

But I'm feeling divisive, and while I don't really care (blatant Google ripoffs follow):

According to Wikipedia, "A mind sport is a game of skill where the mental exercise component is more significant than the physical."

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sport as: “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. Moving a chess piece takes physical exertion, albeit not much.

Since June 1999, FIDE (World Chess Federation) has been recognized by the International Sports Federation. Chess was featured as an exhibition sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Thus the topic does not belong in the Grill Room.

Based on that definition Bridge, Cribbage and War are also sports, heck I guess Rochambeau is a sport too. (and maybe global thermonuclear war - in which case WOPR is quite an athlete)

[saevel25]

After drawing 12 games, the World Chess Championship went to extra tie breaker games. A best out of 4 games played under the 25 minutes with a 10 second add for each move style time control.

With the advancement of computer analytics, we are able to tell how good a chess player is doing based on a point system.

Pawn = 1, Bishop & Knight = 3, Rook = 5 and Queen = 9. Though, usually having the bishop pair is more beneficial in the end game than a knight. Below is the evaluations for the games and how much of an advantage the chess players had. Anything about 1 and under is a draw situation. Sometimes even a 1.5 can be a draw situation depending on the endgame.

As the graphs show, there really wasn't a big advantage at any point except for game 1 for Carlsen and game 6 for Caruana.

Carlsen went on to win 3 straight games in the shorten time control format. Each player is ranked by the version of chess they play. In the longer traditional time control Carlsen and Caurana are ranked equally. In the shorter time controls Carlsen has a pretty significant advantage. This is what makes him amazing. The quality of his moves in these shorten time control games. If anyone ever wants to watch a slaughter, catch a high level Lichess blitz format tournament when Dr. Drunkenstein (Carlsen) is playing. He usually wins by a big margin.  

Below is the analysis for the 3 tiebreaker games.

Maybe the most shocking move, or less shocking in Carlsen's mind when he knows he has an advantage in the shorten time control games, is giving a draw to Caurana with the board like this,

The biggest issue is that Caurana was running low on time to get to the required 40 moves that would give him an extra time.

After 11 games of draws, Calrsen offered a draw stating in the interview afterward, “I wasn’t in a mood to find the punch,” Carlsen said by way of explanation after the game.

There is a lot to like here for Black. A safer king, and his pieces positioned to rip open the white's king side.

Still, Carlsen showed why he is the best chess player in the world. At only 28 years old, he might be the world chess champion for a long time.

 

[Zeph]

It was a good championship I think. Would've liked a few wins in the long chess and a bit more interesting games, but that's what you get when you put the two best players in the world against eachother for the biggest title in the game.

 

Carlsen destroyed Caruana in the tie-break and really showed that he's much better at those shorter games. Caruana's biggest strength is calculating lots of moves and finding the best ones, but in rapid he didn't have time for this and couldn't keep up with Carlsen. Being one of the best in the world in rapid and blitz is a big advantage when playing the WC.

 

The WC in rapid and blitz is set for Christmas again this year. There are rumors about Russia, but nothing confirmed AFAIK. That's very nice Christmas days entertainment and is better entertainment since things go faster and more matches will be won.