Jun-19-04
 | | Gypsy: Topalov employs a boxing stratagem--he lets his oponent to punch himself out. After 21 moves White has a game-winning structural advantage on Q-side. Black K-side counterattack should not ammount to much, as long as White is sufficiently vigilant. I expected to see 25.Qg2, terminating Black attacking efforts, but Topalov plays a "rope-dope" for the next five moves. After the slow transfer Qc3-d2-e3-f2-g2, White finally forces the exchange of Queens and shows all of remaining Black forces miserably missplaced. Black can offer no meaningful resistance to White rooks. |
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| Jun-19-04 | | Bobsterman3000: I think Abulhul fought well considering he was giving up more than 700 rating points. A 41-move positional loss to an elite GM is not too shabby of a result, all things considered... |
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| Jun-19-04 | | boordgamer: It is shabby, dont bring weak plans to the elites table. How else do GMs beat people like this, they position play their $@! |
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| Jun-19-04 | | Bobsterman3000: <boordgamer> I am curious -- so you would have broke the game open, or countered Topalov with some novelty? If not, what better course of action would you suggest? In my estimation it would be beneficial to get a closed or pawn-locked structure when fighting a player so far out of your class. |
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| Jun-19-04 | | boordgamer: <Bobsterman>put it this way, Abulhuls attack was premature and unthought out and it got refuted with positional gain for Topalov and then the inevitable win of a pawn.1-0 |
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| Jun-19-04 | | dragon40: Well Abulhul probably weighed his chances against Topalov and had already decided that he was not going to beat that super GM, so he was "hoping" to get lucky! WE have seen it happen before, but it isn't an excuse but perhaps to Topalov's opponent there was no other way?! In either case it is irrelavent..Topalov will draw easily as Black and cruise into the next round...simply! :) |
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Jun-19-04
| | Gypsy: <Topalov will draw easily as Black and cruise into the next round...> He could, but I think he will win again. He just knows ~700 ELO points more about chess. |
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| Jun-19-04 | | dragon40: <gypsy> You are probably right, but if his opponent can survive the opening and has a decent middlegame, Id not be surprised to see a draw!
Plus he will be black, but he is as dangerous with Black as he is playing White so we will wait and see ! |
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Jun-20-04
 | | acirce: Does this event influence ELO ratings? Topalov is going to win in any case of course. I just thought that it would be misleading to do ELO counting in cup events like this since you can win many matches in a row but you can only lose one. |
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Jun-20-04
| | Gypsy: <I just thought that it would be misleading to do ELO counting in cup events like this since you can win many matches in a row but you can only lose one.> Kind of an ELO Ponzi-scheme?! But I do not see how we can, long term, exclude such games from being counted; the cup format is too gripping to disappear. |
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Jun-20-04
| | acirce: <Kind of an ELO Ponzi-scheme?!> I didn't get this. Ponzi-scheme? |
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| Jun-20-04 | | Swindler: <acirce> A Ponzi-scheme is what we Swedes call a "pyramidspel", after an Italian named Ponzi who invented it. |
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Jun-20-04
| | acirce: I see, thank you. |
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Jun-20-04
| | acirce: Abulhul is putting up good resistance in the second game too. |
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Jun-21-04
 | | Geronimo: A ponzi scheme is where you get investors by promising huge returns. You take the money invested to pay off previous investors, who think that they're getting profits instead of just new cash. You take the "proof" of these "profits" to convince new suckers to invest more, which then goes back to the last round of investors, etc. The scheme tends to collapse after a while because you need more and more cash to cover a bigger base of "investors". These types of cons defraud folks of millions and millions of ducats every year. Sometimes banks get involved, i.e. the schemer convinces a bank to loan tons of money on the fraudulent proof of previous profits. The crooks then abscond with the biggest round of investment and the bank loans and live happily ever after in the South Pacific somewhere.... I fail to see how this relates to cup play at all. |
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Jun-21-04
| | Gypsy: <I fail to see how this relates to cup play at all.> Just by its basic pyramid-scheme mechanism, where many loose a little (at the base of the pyramid) for a few (at the top of the pyramid) to gain a lot. In this case, Elo points, <Geronimo>. (No pump-and-dump humbuck is required in a Ponzi scheme when its pyramidal structure can be created by other means.) |
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Jun-22-04
| | Geronimo: <Gypsy> Something tells me we could get along just fine! LOL |
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Jun-22-04
| | Gypsy: <Geronimo> Always pleased to find new friends. |
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