I finished my USCF-CC tourney in last place with 1.0/6 (=2, -4). My rating declined from 1655 to 1632 during this period, despite a win from another tournament.
I now have twelve games active, 6 in USCF, 6 in ICCF, none of which are past 20 moves yet.
The semi-finals of the Colorado Championship are taking longer than I expected. I thought webserver was faster than email, but no games have finished yet. The 2009 Final had the exact same number of games as the semi-finals this year (36) but two games had already finished by this time last year. Still, it's only been 40 days since the start of the tournament. Even if nobody had used any vacation, players could still be on the first time control.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Linares 2010: Preview
Linares 2010 is coming up (actually only a week and a half away). Unfortunately, since it is so close to Corus, none of the participants at Corus will be playing at Linares this year. Apparently they have had some sponsorship problems as well this year, so instead of the tournament being an 8-player double round robin (the only super tournament with 14 or more rounds), it has been downgraded to a 6-player round robin.
Favorite: Levon Aronian. At 2782, he is the highest rated 5th ranked player in history and has been on an upswing lately with having already clinched the Grand Prix top spot with an event to go. Estimate: +3 6.5/10
Also Strong: Veslin Topalov. The top rated seed at 2805, normally he'd be the favorite but with his upcoming match with Anand in less than three months, he will be saving novelties and will probably just be looking to stay sharp and not embarrass himself. Estimate: +1 5.5/10
Alexander Grischuk. Recently won the super-final tournament in Russia and also did well at the World Team Championships, and yet he's actually the 5th seed out of 6. 50% should be considered a victory for him. Estimate: = 5.0/10
Boris Gelfand. Has reached the top 10 again but was disapointing at the world team championships and has already lost 10 rating points this supplement. This tournament is like a fore-runner to the upcoming longer and stronger 2010 Candidates tournament, so it will be interesting to see how he holds up. Estimate: -1 4.5/10
Vugar Gashimov. He's probably the least known of all of the top 10 players (maybe even the top 30) probably because he has not participated in any of the classic super tournaments, although he has done well in the Grand Prix series, which are category XIX tournaments. Scoring 8.0 (tied for the win), 6.5, and 7.5. This will be some valuable experience for him. Estimate: -1 4.5/10
Francisco Vallejo. At 2705, he's quite a bit lower rated than anybody else on the list but he's quite a bit stronger than Smeets and Van Wely, the Dutch players at Corus. A victory for him would be to get not last place, but considering his accomplishments and those of his rivals, it's doubtful that this will happen. Estimate: -2 4.0/10.
How does strength compare to Corus?
Corus Average: 2713 (Category XIX)
Linares Average: 2758 (Category XXI)
However, Top 6 Players at Corus Average: 2767
Favorite: Levon Aronian. At 2782, he is the highest rated 5th ranked player in history and has been on an upswing lately with having already clinched the Grand Prix top spot with an event to go. Estimate: +3 6.5/10
Also Strong: Veslin Topalov. The top rated seed at 2805, normally he'd be the favorite but with his upcoming match with Anand in less than three months, he will be saving novelties and will probably just be looking to stay sharp and not embarrass himself. Estimate: +1 5.5/10
Alexander Grischuk. Recently won the super-final tournament in Russia and also did well at the World Team Championships, and yet he's actually the 5th seed out of 6. 50% should be considered a victory for him. Estimate: = 5.0/10
Boris Gelfand. Has reached the top 10 again but was disapointing at the world team championships and has already lost 10 rating points this supplement. This tournament is like a fore-runner to the upcoming longer and stronger 2010 Candidates tournament, so it will be interesting to see how he holds up. Estimate: -1 4.5/10
Vugar Gashimov. He's probably the least known of all of the top 10 players (maybe even the top 30) probably because he has not participated in any of the classic super tournaments, although he has done well in the Grand Prix series, which are category XIX tournaments. Scoring 8.0 (tied for the win), 6.5, and 7.5. This will be some valuable experience for him. Estimate: -1 4.5/10
Francisco Vallejo. At 2705, he's quite a bit lower rated than anybody else on the list but he's quite a bit stronger than Smeets and Van Wely, the Dutch players at Corus. A victory for him would be to get not last place, but considering his accomplishments and those of his rivals, it's doubtful that this will happen. Estimate: -2 4.0/10.
How does strength compare to Corus?
Corus Average: 2713 (Category XIX)
Linares Average: 2758 (Category XXI)
However, Top 6 Players at Corus Average: 2767
Corus Finishes
Corus finished yesterday
Winners: Shirov started out 5/5 but ran out of steam, going -2 the rest of the way to finish at a still very good 8.0/13. Pretty good for somebody seeded near the middle. Kramnik also managed a solid 8.0/13, including a win over the winner, Magnus Carlsen, who won with 8.5/13.
Also did well: Hikaru Nakamura managed a very respectable 4th-5th with a plus 2 score. Against 2700+ rated players he did less well, 3.5/8, but the overall performance of 2774 is a good sign. He'll be invited back next year. Visi Anand drew his first nine games but won twice in the last four games, including a win over Vladimir Kramnik.
Also rans: Karjakin and Ivanchuk finished in 6th-7th at '+1'. Although Karjakin actually gained some rating points from this finish, it has to be a bit of a disapointment since he was the defending champion. Leko and Dominiguez finished at an even score. Caruana was in 10th place with -2, not bad considering his rating. The lowest rated player, Van Wely, actually scored three wins (more than Anand!) and actually broken even on rating despite a low score (5.0/13)
Disapointing: Nigel Short also scored 5.0/13 but with his recent tournamnet successes this is a little disapointing. Tiviakov and Smeets both finished at the bottom 4.5/13. All three should be demoted to Corus B next year.
Corus B:
The Winners: Anish Giri scored a very impressive 9.0/13 with a 2773 performance. This is higher than Anand's performance at 2768! Making it even more impressive was that he was only the 12th out of 14 seeds. He well deserves the promotion to corus A next year. The German Champion Naiditsch finished clear second with 8.5 with a 2735 performance, and Ni Hua finished third with 8.0 and a 2708 performance.
Also Did Well: teenager Wesley So had a solid performance tied for 4th with '+2', it'll be interesting to see what he can do next year.
Also rans: English player David Howell performed almost exactly to his rating at '-1', hopefully he'll be given another chance next year.
Disapointing: Akopian finished dead last with just one win and 4.5/13 overall. Hopefully this is just a momemntary setback for him, but this means he probably won't be invited back next year to B, and his rating will be too high for group C.
Group C:
Winners: Li Chao grabbed the lead several rounds ago from Ray Robson, but has really put an exclamation point in the last rounds, finishing strong with 10/13! He was the top seed, so his victory wasn't too surprising. It'll be interesting to see how he does in Corus B next year.
Also rans: After a strong start, Ray Robson finished with only 7.5/13 and a 2501 performance, losing to all top four players on the leaderboard. For those hoping that Robson would pass 2600 soon, it looks like they'll have to wait a little longer.
Winners: Shirov started out 5/5 but ran out of steam, going -2 the rest of the way to finish at a still very good 8.0/13. Pretty good for somebody seeded near the middle. Kramnik also managed a solid 8.0/13, including a win over the winner, Magnus Carlsen, who won with 8.5/13.
Also did well: Hikaru Nakamura managed a very respectable 4th-5th with a plus 2 score. Against 2700+ rated players he did less well, 3.5/8, but the overall performance of 2774 is a good sign. He'll be invited back next year. Visi Anand drew his first nine games but won twice in the last four games, including a win over Vladimir Kramnik.
Also rans: Karjakin and Ivanchuk finished in 6th-7th at '+1'. Although Karjakin actually gained some rating points from this finish, it has to be a bit of a disapointment since he was the defending champion. Leko and Dominiguez finished at an even score. Caruana was in 10th place with -2, not bad considering his rating. The lowest rated player, Van Wely, actually scored three wins (more than Anand!) and actually broken even on rating despite a low score (5.0/13)
Disapointing: Nigel Short also scored 5.0/13 but with his recent tournamnet successes this is a little disapointing. Tiviakov and Smeets both finished at the bottom 4.5/13. All three should be demoted to Corus B next year.
Corus B:
The Winners: Anish Giri scored a very impressive 9.0/13 with a 2773 performance. This is higher than Anand's performance at 2768! Making it even more impressive was that he was only the 12th out of 14 seeds. He well deserves the promotion to corus A next year. The German Champion Naiditsch finished clear second with 8.5 with a 2735 performance, and Ni Hua finished third with 8.0 and a 2708 performance.
Also Did Well: teenager Wesley So had a solid performance tied for 4th with '+2', it'll be interesting to see what he can do next year.
Also rans: English player David Howell performed almost exactly to his rating at '-1', hopefully he'll be given another chance next year.
Disapointing: Akopian finished dead last with just one win and 4.5/13 overall. Hopefully this is just a momemntary setback for him, but this means he probably won't be invited back next year to B, and his rating will be too high for group C.
Group C:
Winners: Li Chao grabbed the lead several rounds ago from Ray Robson, but has really put an exclamation point in the last rounds, finishing strong with 10/13! He was the top seed, so his victory wasn't too surprising. It'll be interesting to see how he does in Corus B next year.
Also rans: After a strong start, Ray Robson finished with only 7.5/13 and a 2501 performance, losing to all top four players on the leaderboard. For those hoping that Robson would pass 2600 soon, it looks like they'll have to wait a little longer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)