It is Saturday Open Forum. What would you like to discuss? The performance of Carlsen, Aronian, Anand and Topalov in Morelia? Or do you have another topic you would like to discuss?
The forum is yours!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Saturday Open Forum
Susan,
Can you describe any high level tournament you played in where it was noisey?
A couple years ago I played in a chess tournament held inside a fantasy games store. At first all was fine.
Then a few customers began playing a fantasy game, by rolling dice on a small scale model of a battlefield. This was extremely distracting.
An hour later there were 16-20 more customers doing the same. But now their noise blended into crowd noise.
Oddly, I found the crowd noise not distracting at all; until their fantasy games wound down later and only a few customers remained.
Thanks,
GeneM
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the Open Forum. Having seen all of those photos of your recent simul where you kindly shook each participant’s hand to begin…and since this is the cold and flu season…I was wondering: Do you ever use hand sanitizer to ward off any possible germs after shaking all of those hands?
Susan:
You must call to ICC!Their server has problems since 5 or 6 hours ago and probably your live commentary is cancelled.
Carlsen´s performance is described by some commentators as the result of his opponents declining repetition (and a )draw and pushing to hard. Well, on the other hand he ‘should have’ won against Aronian and drew Anand.But there are no “should haves” in chess. Kasparov once won almost all his game with black in a supertourney- perhaps everybody wanted to beat him with white and pushed to hard. But it takes a d.. good player to beat another d.. good player who perss for a win. So Magnus´ performance is just a confirmation that he has stepped into the inner circle. Probably he will stay there, despite some normal setbacks and losses due to his eagerness to win/youthfull optimism. Before Linares I wondered if he had stagnated and reached his maximum level. But not anymore. He lacks the solidity of Leko and Kramnik, but imagine what a couple of years of this pairing will do. Future world champ? could be, if Caissa is with him. if he will be what Kasparov and Fischer were to chess(players)? The talent is there obviously, amongst other great talents. Anyway it will be fun to watch supertourney chess again, now that the drawing-champions are challenged. And perhaps even Leko has to push to win some games. Chess has a great future. And soon there will be a woman, besides Judith, challenging them again. Look to the east.
Dear Susan,
I want to ask several professional questions:
1) What chess opening do you like the most and why?
2) In your opinion, which classical time control is the best?
Thanks and greetings from Israel!
Susan,
Besides Chester, could you recommmand some training CDs for kids aged 4-10? I am coaching a few of them and I like Chester but they got through that quickly. 🙂
Keep up the good work with the Blog.
yan
My ICC is not working either.
Susan!
So… are you invovled with someone or are you still available???
🙂
Chess Fan
ICC works again,with a secondary server but it is working.You can do your comments on the games this night!
Susan,
Can you please tell us your opinion about this question:
Why did Judit reach such a super high level compared to you and Szofia? What exactly is the difference? Did she work much harder at the game? Was she more lucky? Did she have a more rewarding style of play?
I wondered about this for such a long time…
Cause the 3 of you had basicly the same training, but still the difference in level is big. (Szofi = IM, Judit = superGM)
What are the factors that made this difference?
Thx for your opinion on this.
Andy
singular
MAurice Ashley has a great CD ROm to teach Kids and Susan Polgar has a wonderful DVD .
David Macenulty has a good video as well “Chess for Childre”
Hope I can get this chess.fm feed ot finally work, hasn’t worked for days for me
Thank you for the questions! Keep them coming! I will answer them after I finish with my ICC broadcast and blog.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Hi Susan:
When is your chess lesson broadcasting gonna start? (You mentioned something a few months ago).
Why does Gata Kamsky not play in these super tournaments? He did so well in the last one he played in.
Susan can u explain the performance of Carlsen and Topalov compared to the first tournament of the year?
Is it that chess is more than chess?! i believe so…
Amnyway good youll do one of your famous live bloggings, cause we miss them just like you.
have you been mugged again since the deuschland world cup 2006?!!
bye
I’ve lost faith in Topalov. First he blunders to Chucky, then he overlooks a 2-move draw against Magnus. And Kramnik overlooked a mate in 1 against Fritz! Are even the best players we have today prone to these simple blunders? I find it hard to believe that our champions of the past would have done such things. Did any champion of the past (Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Botvinnik, Tal, etc.), during his prime overlook such things?
Do you know of any such games?
Dear Susan,
Have you ever considered competing for the World Championship again?
Also, just out of curiosity, do you ever get the opportunity to play chess with either of your sisters?
With ICC and your visits home, I can’t imagine that you don’t play or study games together.
Thank you.
Tim
Dear FractalChess,
A big problem now is the much faster time-controls!
In go, the ko rule prevents repetition of position.
http://gobase.org/studying/rules/?id=7&ln=uk
This wouldn’t quite work in chess without changing the nature of the game (perpetual check is a logical result; a blockade in an endgame is a logical result).
Would it be possible to adapt some modified version of the ko rule (e.g., no non-checking repetitions) with more than x pieces on the board?
Was there an announcement about the Essay Competition from the Polgar Invitational? Thanks.
GM Polgar,
At school, we’re having a huge debate over whether chess is a sport or not. What do you think? If you agree that it is, how do you justify your position? Thanks!
TO Bill Brock:
Good point Bill, that any ideas about forbidding all 3rd repetitions of a position should all them (as a draw) IF the either puts a king into check or gets a king out of check.
Unfortunately, I doubt it is plausible to further nuance a rule forbidding 3rd repetitions. However, one could argue that forbidding 3rd reps creates an addition kind of calculational strategy.
GeneM
http://CastleLong.com/
*** TO ‘anon 09:30:00pm’:
I do not believe the term ‘sport’ should be arbitrarily restricted to analog activities, like tennis.
Tennis is an “analog sport”.
Chess is a “digital sport”. For instance, it does not matter whether you place your knight in the very center of f3, or whether you place it sloppy so that it touches one edge of f3. From a digital perspective, those two moves are identical (not so in analog activities, where a tennis shot might miss the line by 1 millimeter).
Digital sports have a huge advantage in that you and I can replay great old games in our own living rooms at will. You and I can see exactly what Fischer and Spassky saw during their 1972 WCChamp match (from a digital perspective).
I have seen tennis called a “physical sport” with chess being a “mind sport”. I consider those terms to be fuzzier and less exact.
GOLF:
I would question whether golf is a sport, before I would question chess. To me, a key element of a sport is direct interaction between the opponents. Certainly both tennis and chess have direct interaction. My hit of the ball affects where you run to, and my move Nh4:Bg6 affect your decision to reply h7:Ng6.
But in golf tournaments, one player can finish his round before another has even started his: no direct interaction there.
Golf is merely a contest where, after the contest is over, the player compares his number to his opponent’s number.
All that said, this debate is merely an effort by someone to make other people use a word/label the way he wants it used.
GeneM
http://CastleLong.com/
I’ve met Sofia and she is a wonderful person. However I think her interest in chess was never as intense as Susan’s or Judit’s and she spent more time on other subjects, so her chess rating never went as high. You may have seen her artwork on Susan’s blog and it is great.
Judit’s rating went higher than Susan’s because Judit had Susan for a teacher (Susan is quite a few years older) and not the other way around ;).
Susan,
Here are a few questions:
1) Do you expect China to produce
a world champion, male or female,
in the near future?
2) How well do you believe your
sister will perform at this year’s
World Championships?
3) Are there any young American
players who you think may contend
for a World Championship soon?
Thank you,
Eric Morris
– GeneM, I learn to play in any condition. I can block out the noises and distraction.
– I only wash hands after the simul.
– yevlev, I have no opening preference. I play quite a number of them to make it harder for my opponents to prepare.
I am OK with any time control. I learn to deal with whatever comes my way. That is why I was able to win all 3 World Championships: Classical, Blitz and Rapid.
– I have an animated DVD. You can check it out here: http://polgarchess.com/products/810.php
– We are still ironing out the technical stuff to get my Internet lessons going. I want perfection 🙂
– MayanKing, Gata needs a manager. So do many top players. It makes a big difference. My manager is booking events now for 2009! I have more than I can handle.
– Andy, we did not have the same training and opportunities. I was quite a bit older. I was already a master when my sisters started to play.
Sofia likes many different things while Judit is more focused in chess. It is all about how much efforts you put in.
– JB, Magnus is the real deal. He just needs more big tournament experience.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
– fractal chess, blunders can happen, especially when under severe pressure.
– Tim, I really don’t care so much for playing for the World Championship anymore mainly because of FIDE. There has not been any real cycle in so many years. I do not have the time to train then sit around to wait for them to act.
– Chess to me is part sport, part science and part art. I train physically before any major tournament. I jog and go to the gym. I take my physical fitness very seriously.
– China produced the last few women’s world champions. They are not there yet with the men but they will. I predict in 10-15 years or so.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
HI SUSAN,
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IRVING CHERNEV BOOK , 1000 BEST SHORT GAMES FOR TEACHING AMATEURS.
I’M STUDYING IT NOW.
i think susan could be as good as judit right now. im not an expert with ratings but suspect sometimes women could get ratings lower than they should have just because they dont compete in mens tournaments. she probaly focuses more on her uscf election, her website and chess schools. i am all for women competing against men and doin well as susan and her sisters have shown is possible. i agree with susan that fide takes so long to create matches for world championships that whats the point of waiting around for years to get a title match. there needs to be a title match say every couple years. this should be mandatory so theres a constant challenger waiting to take the title. this applies to both men and women championship matches.
wolverine
Susan, however, I’m sure could have been equally as strong a player as Judit. But, people are different. Susan has dedicated herself, her career in chess, in a way that so few have…education (especially children), improving the status of chess amongst the general public, and still is a strong GM.
The chess community needs more dedicated people like Susan. How many GM’s (male or female) dedicate themself and give so much to the sport of chess?
She has proven to be not only a world champion but a true world class lady.
Susan is one of a kind and I’m happy that we chess fans have such a dedicated representative.
Just think of the many young minds she has touched that might lead to that person to many great things in life.
It is this devotion to the game and spreading chess knowledge to children that is so impressive.
Thank you, Susan, for all of your hard work.
Because GM Susan has been the World Champ several times over, and it might be a “step down” for a former World Champion but…
I would like to see Susan play and win the U.S. Championship. She could probably keep the title for years and years.
Of course, she is so far ahead of the other U.S. champ contenders.
Just a thought….
The changing times
In 1996 Kasparov accused IBM that
“human helped the computer”.
In 2006 Topalov accused Kramnik, that
“computer helped the human”.
Draw your own conclusion.