It feels a bit funny talking about the summer chess season as I'm sitting in the middle of an Australian winter. But I've become used to being on the periphery of the chess world. Australian chess has improved hugely since I've arrived inasmuch as there are more higher quality tournaments around the country, and the general quality of chess at the top level has risen. When I first arrived in 2005, Australia was ranked about 60th in the FIDE countries list, while now we sit in 44th position. This has been achieved by a talented group of youngish players, as Australia's top 10 has only 2 players born before 1990. We are all hoping that our team can put in a good performance at the upcoming Olympiad in September.
The Olympiad will come after what appears to be a great summer season. I'll be posting more games from classic books, and analysis of events here in Victoria, but I'll also be following some international events as their are some that really excite me.
- The 2018 US Junior Championships start in a few hours and both the boys and girls tournaments will be great with plenty of fighting chess.
- Dortmund and Biel are the traditional summer festivals in Europe, and both tournaments have top 10 players and some talented lower rated players (not much lower rated!). I have to admit that I've been left a bit cold by the the elite chess series of tournaments we've had, as the same players keep coming up against each other. It is good to see some new faces challenging the elite.
- Danzhou might just be the most exciting tournament of the summer, especially for us in Australia as the time zone means that we'll be able to see quite a bit live. A stunning young field led by 24 year old Yu Yangyi, the current number 14 in the World while the new, 20 year old, Polish number 1, Duda coming up against 19 year old Chinese sensation Wei Yi. Even the oldest player in the field, Bu Xiangzhi, is interesting as he is the man who knocked World Champion, Magnus Carlsen out of the World Cup last year!
- The British Chess Championship is a tournament I always follow as I knew many players involved. Sadly, I personally know more players in the over 50 tournament than the Championship nowadays, so I'll be watching the results of some of the other events at the tournament. This year the Championship is being held in Hull which is where I went to university, so it has even more meaning to me.
- Sinquefield Cup dominates the second half of August, and it has absolute elite fields competing in sections for blitz, rapid and classical chess time controls. It will be probably the last chance to see a Carlsen-Caruana clash before their World Championship clash. While this is the most elite event of the summer, it isn't the most exciting for me. Saying that, I'll be following it much like many chess fans throughout the world.
It's great to follow elite tournaments, and easier to do so than ever before with websites such as chess24, chess bomb, TWIC, etc. Of course, watching isn't a substitute for playing, but analysing the games of others is an impsrtant skill to learn, and trying to analyse games in progress is a great exercise, like a 'guess the move' type of thing, but in real time.
You'll probably be hearing some more about these events on this blog over the next couple of months!
Showing posts with label chess24. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chess24. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Chess Fever Fortnight
Yesterday the first round of the Chess Olympiad started in Norway. This event will take my spare time over for the next 2 weeks, which means this blog is switching back to chess only for a while. Like most observers in the chess world, the Olympiad holds a special place for me.I will be following the results and games of a number of teams in the events. The event has plenty of coverage across the internet, but undoubtedly top site for coverage is chess24.
Firstly, I will be hoping that Australia can put up good results. My adopted country has been good to me, and I'm a firm supporter of the teams, especially as I know most of the players personally. The men's team start the event from a lowly 60th position in the seedings. However, the 2012 team was also outside the top 50 at the start of the event, but finished just outside 30th place, so hopefully good team spirit will bring us some good results. A young team, the Australians will certainly gain invaluable experience whatever their result. In fact, after their first round 4-0 win over the US Virgin Islands, the Aussies will have about as big an experience as is possible, playing defending champs, Armenia. The Australian women's team also won by 4-0 against Kenya. I was pleasantly surprised to see Sally Yu's name in the team list as I knew she had not been selected originally and I'd missed the news that she had found a place in the team. However, the downside is that our top player, Arianne Caoilli, will not be playing. Still, the women's team will also hopefully finish above their initial seeding of 51st.
I'll also be following the country where I was born, England. The men's team are pretty strong on paper, starting in 10th position in the seedings, and can hopefully bring some team spirit to the event, and challenge for a podium spot. The women's team start in 39th place, and features an old friend of mine in Ann Marie James, who I hope will have a great event. Both the men's and women's teams started with 4-0 results which is a great start, though not unexpected.
While these countries hold the most interest for me, I usually follow some other teams to make things more interesting. Of course, the top teams, and those near the top of each round will be of interest. But at the lower down the seedings, I'll be following some teams: Scotland and New Zealand have to be followed, just to make sure they don't finish above England and Australia respectively :D; I'll keep an eye on the Irish side, and no doubt will get some reports from Alex Baburin in Chess Today; Palau, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands are islands not too far from Australia, while Hong Kong I visited this year; finally, I will be following Bhutan who I think have the best flag in the event, though Swaziland's flag is also pretty cool. In fact, for a short while it looked as if Bhutan had produced the shock of the first round with a 4-0 win over Luxenbourg. However, the results had been recorded wrongly on the site, and in fact it was the other way round.
Saying that, the coverage of the first round was remarkably smooth. Usually, the first round is full of errors, impossible to see because of lag or overuse of the site, and slow on producing the games. However, the results were mostly correct, the live games coverage generally good, and pgn files have already been put out, while an excellent bulletin can be found on the chess24 site.
Firstly, I will be hoping that Australia can put up good results. My adopted country has been good to me, and I'm a firm supporter of the teams, especially as I know most of the players personally. The men's team start the event from a lowly 60th position in the seedings. However, the 2012 team was also outside the top 50 at the start of the event, but finished just outside 30th place, so hopefully good team spirit will bring us some good results. A young team, the Australians will certainly gain invaluable experience whatever their result. In fact, after their first round 4-0 win over the US Virgin Islands, the Aussies will have about as big an experience as is possible, playing defending champs, Armenia. The Australian women's team also won by 4-0 against Kenya. I was pleasantly surprised to see Sally Yu's name in the team list as I knew she had not been selected originally and I'd missed the news that she had found a place in the team. However, the downside is that our top player, Arianne Caoilli, will not be playing. Still, the women's team will also hopefully finish above their initial seeding of 51st.
I'll also be following the country where I was born, England. The men's team are pretty strong on paper, starting in 10th position in the seedings, and can hopefully bring some team spirit to the event, and challenge for a podium spot. The women's team start in 39th place, and features an old friend of mine in Ann Marie James, who I hope will have a great event. Both the men's and women's teams started with 4-0 results which is a great start, though not unexpected.
While these countries hold the most interest for me, I usually follow some other teams to make things more interesting. Of course, the top teams, and those near the top of each round will be of interest. But at the lower down the seedings, I'll be following some teams: Scotland and New Zealand have to be followed, just to make sure they don't finish above England and Australia respectively :D; I'll keep an eye on the Irish side, and no doubt will get some reports from Alex Baburin in Chess Today; Palau, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands are islands not too far from Australia, while Hong Kong I visited this year; finally, I will be following Bhutan who I think have the best flag in the event, though Swaziland's flag is also pretty cool. In fact, for a short while it looked as if Bhutan had produced the shock of the first round with a 4-0 win over Luxenbourg. However, the results had been recorded wrongly on the site, and in fact it was the other way round.
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| Bhutan's flag has to be one of the coolest! |
Saying that, the coverage of the first round was remarkably smooth. Usually, the first round is full of errors, impossible to see because of lag or overuse of the site, and slow on producing the games. However, the results were mostly correct, the live games coverage generally good, and pgn files have already been put out, while an excellent bulletin can be found on the chess24 site.
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