Ivanchuk! Ivanchuk! Ivanchuk! He is the current headline in chess at the moment. Can he sustain this winning streak? What is your prediction?
1. He will score 10-0.
2. He will coast the rest of the way.
3. He will self-destruct and finish second behind Topalov.
4. He is unpredictable and no one can predict what will happen with him.
Here are the matchups for round 6.
Ivanchuk, V – Radjabov, T
Topalov, V – Aronian, L
Xiangzhi, Bu – Cheparinov, I
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Of course it is number 4, but I hope it is number 1 and will be urging him all the way.
Streak will end with next game. It’ll be a draw.
I think he will coast to victory… Still if he loses to Topalov in round 7 there will only be 1/2 difference… we’ll see what happens in Round 6 though.
I’ll be pulling for Chucky, but he’ll have to keep his nerves in check. Perfect so far! Maybe he’s possessed with Fischer’s spirit – notice he switched his chair!
He won’t make 10-0 but I think he will have a fine 2nd half (one or two wins, maybe one loss, but not more) and thus win the tournament with a still impressive result.
He has shot up to provisional number 3 in the ratings in 5games! http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php
4.
go chuck, jb.
Of course, it is number 4.
Yet, this time he will make it 🙂
Ivanchuk needs to win 1 or two games still because Topalov is doing well too. Cheparinov can also always give a free win to his “boss” and split the 1st prize money that should be awarded only to a Bulgarian.
10-0 would be incredible. This means that Chucky will gain 50 Elo-points… in one tournament…
Up to now he has got 25… fantastic.
My prediction is that he will finish on 8 points.
I suspect that in “must win” situation Topalov will lose against Chucky in round 7.
“2. He will coast the rest of the way.”
Can anyone translate the use of “to coast” here into German?
Or discribe in other words what this one is going to say?
Thanks!
Jochen
Chucky will win with only half a bottle of Vodka left! Amazing!
“To coast” means that Ivanchuk will win this competition without making serious efforts in rest of the tournament.
“to coast”
I likely comes from driving a car, or bicycle. To coast means not using the gas pedal in a car or not pedaling on a bicycle and thus the wheels are just turning because they have enough speed or because they are going downhill. Thus moving the vehicle forward doesn’t require as much energy.
What this means in chess is that he is likely to win the tournament without much effort, so he will not be using as much effort.
Big thanks to anonymous 4:34 for the long explanation and big thanks to pitor, too. I thought of something like that but I have never heard that expression before (and didn’t find anything in the dictionary).
This blog is always good to learning something. 🙂
to the coasting point:
Fotunately with the no drawing rule Chucky can’t secure the first place with 5 quick draws like others would try (*) in his situation (and probably most of his opponents would be happy about a draw as almost only Topalov may catch him and the others are weaker or have black against him; with Topalov losing some games by overpushing positions it would probably give a simple (but boring) tournament win for Ivanchuk).
But as I’d think he wouldn’t do so extremely even if he could…
I hope for a good back round for Ivanchuck, about 8 or 8.5 points should be possible.
Go, Chucky!
Best regards
Jochen
(*) as unfortunately seen in the past too often
He will definitely coast. Heaven forbid he should self-destruct and Topalov should win! What a tragedy that would be!
Ivanchuk!
@jochen
>>>Fotunately with the no drawing rule Chucky can’t secure the first place with 5 quick draws like others would try
A super GM can play a line that is drawish and they also can play attacks that have perpetual checks and get a draw this way.
Gary did this to Karpov with 17 successive draws and a bit later in the 1984 world tourament 15 successive draws. This wore Karpov down (Karpov lost 22lbs) by play drawish lines.
Unpredictable, of course.
And it can happen to more stable players than Ivanchuk.
Reuben Fine got to 5.5 out of 6 against considerably stronger opposition at AVRO 1938. He then lost 3 out of the next 5, with 2 draws!
I hope that he keeps winning- it is harder to start winning again once his streak has stopped- it sort of slows down usually. Like Kasparov in Wijk after 7 wins (but he only scored 3/6 in the rest), or Karpov in Linares 1994 (not such a good example: he started 6/6, then drew Kasparov, then got 4.5/6 which is much more impressive than Kasparov did in Wijk but still a significant drop in rate.)
It is just that you want to keep the roll going as long as possible- and then perhaps coast once it is stopped (it is too hard usually to restart another roll).
He even sort of continued his winning streak in the rest day: they played football and he was voted man of the match!!
But Reuben Fine still shared 1st place (with Keres) in AVRO tournament.
Sorry if it is a forbidden advertisement:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
This is one of the best uniligual dictionaries. Jochen here you can find everything.
Joke!!!! Joke!!!! Joke!!!! Joke!!!! Joke!!!!
“Reuben Fine got to 5.5 out of 6 against considerably stronger opposition at AVRO 1938.”
Stronger!!! Hah Hah !!!!!!!!!!
??? What on earth are you on about??
Fine’s 6 opponents were Alekhine, Capablanca, Botvinnik, Euwe, Reshevsky, Flohr.
Ivanchuk’s 5 were Topalov, Aronian, Radjabov, Bu, Cheparinov.
That’s 4 present, past and future World Champions for Fine versus one past and likely no future World Champions for Ivanchuk.
Please explain why you think Fine’s group are not considerably stronger than Ivanchuk’s group [allowing for Fine’s group to be caught up with current opening theory and knowledge etc.]!
“But Reuben Fine still shared 1st place (with Keres) in AVRO Tournament.”
Yes, but with a mere ‘+3’ from 14, which is quite a comedown from ‘+5’ from 6.
And he was second on tiebreak.
It is not at all inconceivable that Ivanchuk will also share first place (with Topalov) [with ‘+3’!?] and be second on tie-break.
OK pair them up
Alekhine – nothing for Aronian
Capablanca, Botvinnik – Topalov is far stronger than both together
Euwe – out to Cheparinov
Reshevsky – not a problem for Radjabov
Flohr – Bu would smack him
These old guys were not just bad at openings, they knew little about chess overall compared to today.
I already said that you must allow Fine’s group to catch up on opening theory, etc. You chose to completely ignore this.
Allowing above:
Alekhine would beat Aronian something like 7-3 in a 10 game match.
It is highly doubtful that Topalov would win even one game against either Capablanca or Botvinnik in a 10 game match.
The Euwe of 1938 would beat Cheparinov 6-4 at least.
Radjabov would not stand a chance against Reshevsky! 6.5-3.5 to Reshevsky.
Flohr would utterly outplay Bu positionally.
In fact, the current crop of players apart from Carlsen is pretty weak. Look at all the ridiculous blunders, and downright poor play. Kasparov hardly ever made blunders like this. Nor did Fischer, Karpov, Alekhine, Capa, Botvinnik, etc.
The weakness of current players is why Carlsen is slicing through them at just age 17!!
Spiderman beat Topalov 6.5-3.5 at least and Mickey Mouse would demolish Cheparinov 7-3 by better clicks in the end. Euwe (of 1938) might stand a chance against Dark Father, still a close call. Euwe of 2008 will lose on time, failing his first move.