what happened to her?
her game against benjamin seemed crazy, i thought she was winning but i'm too lazy to actually check lines.

I concur with you swingdoc.

It's too bad they couldnt get a stronger replacement than FM Eckert.

I'm just gonna guess he was the first available, as I imagine a true substitution would be at least around if not 2500 uscf.

I think you're referring to Benjamin-Krush where at a few points Krush def. had an advantage (about +1.2) and then went very wrong and lost.

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2009...ih-update.html

yea i meant benjamin - krush, i guess i got confused with the irina and anna and whatnot. im guessing there was major time trouble involved.

that's unfortunate for anna , i hope she gets better soon

Rumorville: Just read somewhere on the web that it was Kidney Stones.

Yes, Kidney stones.

/Rumorville off

That makes sense. It'd be impossible to play if you were trying to pass those.

I think it's best to have a replacement who is relatively weak. A bit unfair to suddenly throw in a 2500 with 0/3 and have the guys who are doing poorly have to play against them.

I feel bad for Gulko, 0-3

So would you want the strongest possible replacement if Shulman or Kamsky gets sick?

if you want chess to get more popular in the US, bring Carlsen

but to make it fair he'd probably need to get 10 minutes to complete each of his games, no increment.

No, in mid-tourney it should be someone who is relatively weak because they are forced to start with 0 points. Before the tourney begins it should be someone very strong.

Ooooh, gotcha. For some reason I thought the replacement would take over the points. That makes a lot of sense then. Thanks.

curtains rounds 3 coverage is up: http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5300

since it's a Swiss and not an all-play-all event, I don't think this would matter much. It's not like you were guaranteed a game against Zatonskih and got a tougher game "instead".

It would probably only be an issue for one or two rounds, and they could certainly be given 1.5/3 for pairing purposes so it wouldn't make a difference at all.

However since they aren't going to win the tournament having started with 0/3, I do think the best idea is to bring in an improving junior who could benefit from the experience (I don't know if Eckert falls into this category).

That's a great idea, RT. Unfortunately Doug Eckert doesn't exactly fit (he's in his mid-40's I believe). It looks like he was an alternate from the very beginning. I'm curious as to how that was decided.

Well they have to have someone ready to step in before the tournament, and this is probably going to have to be someone relatively local who will be there the entire 9 rounds. I suspect Doug Eckert fell into this category.

Ditto.

nh.

Naka appears to have (yet again) nagging chances in an endgame, this time vs. the reigning US Champion, Shulman.

Let's see if he can pull off this victory in grinder fashion.

Interesting to hear Sutovsky say that Nakamura does not strive for an advantage out of the opening, but rather for complex positions. For this reason, he said, it was not a huge deal to him whether his charge (Kamsky, who is seconded by Sutovsky) faces Naka with white or black.

Just watching curtains' videos and these games, I'm awestruck with how these guys can calculate the variations and put it into the right context to play the right move. It makes me proud to be a human being.

Naka of course tries to play for some advantage as White. He however does not really play the current hyper-theory aiming for an advantage.

The challenge when facing Nakamura is the range of his repertoire. This is more of a problem when facing him as White. Nakamura can play 1. e4, 1. d4, 1. c4 (where he has a healthy 70% score against 2600+ opposition -- he told me that a few months back), 1. Nf3 (Where he is quiet adept playing with the Catalan), 1. g3 (mainly for transpositions or to play certain quiet systems). The amount of energy needed to properly prepare for Nakamura can be downright exhaustive.


US Champs: Nice effort today by Nakamura in trying to win, and by Friedel in defending a very difficult ending.

Akobian also had a very nice win over Becerra. Constant pressure throughout.

Shankland showed good technique in his win over Sevillano.

curtains

We have our main match up tomorrow on board 1.

Nakamura vs. Kamsky

Naka has White and I predict 1. c4 and a victory.


and amplify you have the best avatar known to man. nh

Amazingly I've seen that avatar on other forums. What's it from?