All things chess

[BitBuster]

The World Chess Championship is going to start in a month or so. Frankly, I'm not all that excited. I've never been a fan of Anand or Gelfand to begin with, but their recent tourney results have been so lacklustre that I can't even pretend to be interested in the upcoming battle.

Far more interesting from my POV is the Kramnik-Aronian match that's going to start tomorrow. I expect it to be a fantastic series of games; both players have scored incredible victories in the past six months (between Tata Steel and the Tal Memorial).



Oh, and I suck as a player. The only time I ever seem to win is when my opponent drops a piece. I can usually capitalize on that...otherwise, nah. I'm bad at making long-range plans (not just in chess, but in general). That said, I'm currently clinging to a 1666.5 rating on Chesstempo.com (I'm gambling that most people here are sufficiently unfamiliar with the ELO system to fail to realize just how unimpressive this rating is). It's pretty much my biggest accomplishment in the past nine months.



Finally, here's a quote from Spassky, one of my favourite players (NOTE: may prove inappropriate for younger readers):

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"Which do I prefer? Sex or chess? It depends on the position."

[Flareon350]

Well I was taught how to play chess by my grandpa back in 5th grade (age 10 I think) and I'm relatively good at it though I haven't played in years. I'm trying to set up a contest between 2 friends, in a 3 way chess game battle. Winner gets $20 (I know just 20. Big frickin' wh00p)

[Markus]

I learned chess when I was 8 or 9 years old. I've never been good but I do enjoy playing chess.

Someone here should organise an online tournament .

[Hornlitz]

I always used to play chess with my sister, and... I lost all my games. Except one!!!

Yeah, BitBuster, you could probably beat me too.

[BitBuster]

Winner gets $20 (I know just 20. Big frickin' wh00p)

Hey, it's $20! I wouldn't scoff at that.

Yeah, BitBuster, you could probably beat me too.

Ooh? So certain are you?

*Yoda font*





Oh, and I overslept today, so I missed the first Kramnik-Aronian game. Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed. I must remember to set my alarm for tomorrow morning.

[Markus]

I'm sure you could beat me too, BitBuster, I am the type of player who drops pieces. Also, where do you watch these live games?

[BitBuster]

There are a couple of places; Chessgames.com usually requires premium membership, but Chessdom is a good site for live games:

http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/

The chat tends to be banal in the extreme, and there's frequently lag between the clocks and the "real" game, but it's the best place I've found, and it's nice to have the Houdini analysis (even if it's only based on a few seconds of analysis). Oftentimes, in the chat window, people will post links to the official tournament sites, on which actual live video footage can be found. I remember toggling back and forth between the Chessdom board and the live video feed on the Tal Memorial site...good times.



It looks like the Kramnik-Aronian match has its own website, complete with live video feeds. Of course, it's all in German...

[James]

I'm Jamesa7171 on chess.com if anybody wants a game. 1636 rating at the moment but my sample size for that is a whopping 1 game and I expect it to drop a few hundred points pretty quickly.

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only to rise again after I read up on some theory and get thousand of games of experience on my way to dominating the chess world, obviously

[Markus]

I created an account on Chess.com. My username is Markus24 and my rating 1049 after 1 game (You start at 1200)

[BitBuster]

I'm resisting the temptation to start a chess.com account; I already spent all of yesterday on Chesstempo (when I promised myself that I'd use the time to write the term paper that's due tomorrow), and I really can't afford to spend another six hours per day goofing off with chess...

Must...resist...temptation...