Aug-12-19 Saemisch vs Reti, 1925 
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| Kirth Gersen: Although I should admit 20.Nc6 Bxc6 21.Bxc6 Rbc8 does regain Black's pawn, but White should be better because his kingside pawn structure is actually better than Black's due to the e5 pawn, whose advance to e4 requires support by ...f5 and consequent weakening of the king. |
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May-24-19 Dubov vs Giri, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: Eyal, you suggest that Dubov’s brillaincy wasn't all prep because he played the suboptimal 18.Nxc3, but I'm not so sure, because lately people have flocked to the Lasker/Carlsen approach of "better to play against the guy in front of me than against his preparation". Maybe ... |
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May-17-19 V Akobian vs Nakamura, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: Although the rook ending was interesting, my favorite part was the sequence from 12.f4 until the rook ending was reached on move 29. It was after move 20 until it became clear that Black was not overextending and would keep, if not his extra pawn, at least better pawns with ... |
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May-14-19 Topalov vs B Amin, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: The frustrating thing about rapid games is that they are often quite decently-played until move 30-50. Here, after 50...Kxd7 White has played a masterful old-school closed Spanish, dutifully sacked a piece on the k-side, won it back, is 3 pawns up for almost nothing ... |
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May-13-19 Nepomniachtchi vs B Amin, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: 32.Qf7 is particularly aesthetically pleasing because it seems so quiet, yet threatens both mate and win of the queen, only one of which can be answered. |
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May-13-19 Ding Liren vs Nepomniachtchi, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: Playing over this game, the strangest part is that Black refused to chase away the queen with 26...Rb7 or 27...Re7. In rapids there's always the chance he was down on time, but probably he examined both ideas and rejected them. Since he was lost shortly thereafter it's ... |
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May-02-19 Aronian vs Caruana, 2018
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| Kirth Gersen: Nobody has said it yet so I should add: definitely the best pun-of-the-day we've seen for awhile. |
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Apr-30-19 GRENKE Chess Classic (2019)
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| Kirth Gersen: I remarked on Carlsen-MVL that Carlsen's conditioning is a major factor but am too lazy/uninterested to do the stats work (are you still around Frogbert? Plz do my homework for me etc. etc.) Perhaps his monstrous performance here is likely a combination of chance and superior ... |
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Apr-29-19 Carlsen vs Vachier-Lagrave, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: Peter and Jan seemed to think ...d5 around move 13 was MVL's intention and it didn't work. There must have been something concrete he had in mind and realized too late it was an illusion. This sort of thing is why people make quick draws in the last round, otherwise you risk an |
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Apr-29-19 Vachier-Lagrave vs V Keymer, 2019
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| Kirth Gersen: It's very instructive to watch Peter Leko commenting on his protege's games on the chess24 broadcast; after ...Qd3 he said (paraphrasing a bit) "it's simply impossible for me to take such things seriously when analysing from the Black side" and indeed, Keymer lost precisely ... |
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Kibitzing
