With one round to go, M. Carlsen, L. Aronian, S. Karjakin, L. Dominguez, T. Radjabov, and S. Movsesian are tied for 1st in the A group.
In the B group, Kasimdzhanov won and has a chance to either catch or overtake Short.
In group C, So has guaranteed himself at least a tie for first with a win over Persson. He has a full point lead over Howell and Giri. The official corus website is www.CorusChess.com.
Kotronias defeated Nakamura and Harikrishna to lead Gibraltar with a 4-0 score. The official website of Gibraltar is www.gibraltarchesscongress.com.
It’s Saturday Open Forum. What would you like to discuss? The forum is yours.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Well, given the forum is open, here’s what I’d like to discuss: the knight as a piece of art.
I think the knight is, without dispute, the chessman (no disrespect, Susan, we can call it chesswoman) that is most often carved/sculpted/designed to be beautiful, artistic, aesthetically appealing.
As a sample, take the two knights flanking Susan in the picture that illustrates this post. Also, if you browse for chess sets, you can basically judge the quality of the pieces by the beauty of the horse.
My question to my fellow chess lovers would be: which is the most beautiful chess knight that you have ever seen?
If you can share a pic link that would be great.
Susan: You should work on getting a big international tournament here in the U.S. – Texas Tech is OK, with the ff: young players [others can offer their choice players].
Carlsen
Karjakin
Wesley So
Caruana
Radjabov
Nakamura
Hou Yifan
Leave out Naka and Radja, rebrand it as teenagers. And have it split into two sections:
A-Group –
Carlsen
Karjakin
Caruana
So
B-Group
Negi
Yifan
Giri
Nhyzhnyk
All-play-all, double round robin. How awesome would that be…
We should have young teen talents here in the U.S.
Some World Champ 11 plus somebody who beat Nhyzhnyk.
Nhyzhnyk?
That name looks like a typo!
Classy.
In response to Minotauro.
The original Staunton knights were said to have been inspired by the Greek sculptor Phideas, who carved the horses heads on the Elgin marbles, which can be found (controversially) in the British Museum.
For my money, the chess set that most captures that sense of power and beauty, is by Frank Camaratta of The House of Staunton.
I have many of his sets, and his collectors edition is without equal in my opinion.
Images available at his website, only a google search away.
@ 3:14, I assure you, that’s his name! It’s very threatening and extrememly Russian…
and @ 2:53, the only US young player I can think of is Ray Robson, and he’s stagnated somewhat recently.
To be honest, I can’t really see this tournament happening in the US; there just isn’t the funding there to attract the players from Europe (not that I think the tournament will actually happen, you realise)
Great idea, Grobsy. But there’s no need for groupings. Just let them play each other twice. The idea is for the up and coming young guns to meet the already established young guns. If the lower-rated players can’t put up a good fight against a Karjakin or a Carlsen, then tough luck.
The Marshall (plastic) set looks good, too, Phil.
And @ pudding-tame, please find it within yourself to shut up.
@ 4:00, the only reason I proposed groupings is so the players could be attracted to the tournament more easily.
The top players such as Carlsen would be far more willing to take time from their busy schedules for a 6-game all play all, rather than a mammoth 14-gamer.
The lesser players, thanks to the tiering system, would also be more easily attracted to the tournament; Hou Yifan for example, though a major draw for sponsors, would still get creamed in top competition, so this way she wouldn’t go and lose rating points needlessly.
Prize money can take care of player’s reluctance. But it would make putting up such a tournament even more difficult, so I guess you have a point there. Still, it would be so much more exciting if everyone can play everyone.
A most striking chess set and knight especially was the one from the Mexico World Championship won by Anand recently. Susan had a picture on this blog and it was very distinctive with the South American image to the knight.
I guess they sold a limited number of sets at the tournament. I think all the players were given a set. But I could be wrong on that. Trying to remember.
If you do a google search on the mexican world championship and then get the dates and scan Susan’s blog here at that time you will find the pictures.
I am not given to desiring sets but I really liked and would grab this knight.
It looks like it ended about Sept 30, 2007. But I don’t find the archives for Susan. Must be here somewhere.
If I remember correctly Susan said there were a few sets sold at $1000 per set. A little pricey but they sold out immediately.
To anon 1:17:
A 4-way tournament among the U-16s Caruana, So, Giri, and Hou will be exciting enough. You can call it the “Young Wizards Academy”. The winner can be the “Harry Potter of Chess”. Hou is Hermione all by herself.
Had a great time at the Texas Tech tournament for Open Activities Night and was very glad you were there! We will see you again on February 7 for the next Knight Raiders Tournament. (I’m trying to get Nicholas Zavala back in the Scholastic section where he belongs — tournament director Chase Watters was too impressed with him and paired him up into the Advanced section! He still scored 2-2.)
Although this is by now an old forum, I will leave this as a draft.
If you, Susan Polgar, wished to play in the Olympiad again, what conditions would you ask for? Let’s talk about playing conditions, training conditions and monies received for participating, and leave out the USCF Executive Board because that seems to be an insoluble problem.
Would you ask your now-husband to be captain again, or would you ask for a new captain? Would you need an analyst to suggest ideas? How many people would you need as support staff, and what functions would they fulfill? How much preparation time would you want to spend at home, and how long in advance of the competition would you want to arrive? And, if it isn’t too controversial, would you give a list of potential teammates whom you feel are well-suited for playing the best players of other countries?
I also wonder a bit about if the tournaments you organize have the playing conditions you would want as a player. Are nine rounds just right or would you prefer longer competitions? I grew up on 16-player round robins (of course, I also grew up on 40-in-two-and-a-half without-increment controls). Prize money and appearance fees are things I know nothing about, but if I started throwing out dollar amounts for place prizes and dollar amounts for point prizes, would you tell me what is reasonable (if guaranteed)? And how about hotel accommodations and away-from-the-board amenities? I used to read much about these in very old Chess Life and Review columns, and wonder what is the right balance between treating players properly and throwing money down a “dry hole,” as they say in the Texas oil business.