Today the traditional Wijk aan Zee super tournament will begin.

No Anand and Kramnik this year, but other than that all the world's elite players are there. Games start at 13.30 CET (5.30 EST). Live transmission at http://www.tatasteelchess.com.

I'll be rooting for Ivanchuk, I hope he is okay again after that last tournament in Italy. I'll also have an eye on Navara, who seems to be a really nice guy.

Groups B and C are also very strong tournaments. In group B, Timman is playing! I'll also watch Tiviakov and Vocaturo. In group C, our German women No. 1 Elisabeth Paehtz is playing. And I hope Anne Haast does well: she totally outplayed me this summer in our game.

Anyway, I am excited about the tournament...

amazing side note: Only one russian is playing the A-group and it's Karjakin who switched federations only a couple of years ago.

If current form is anything to go by, group C is more of a question of O/U on Sadler's score, i'll put the line at 10.5. This guy has been totally killing the kind of opposition he expects at Wijk since his return, winning almost every open he took part in.

Predictions: A Magnus B Potkin C Sadler.

Ivanchuk-Nakamura played a 21-move draw where it just seemed like neither side had any real positive ideas on what to do with the position.

carlsen is looking strong in the first round

I think my favorite game so far in the first round is Gelfand-Giri.

Giri has an extra pawn and a reasonably solid position. Gelfand has a really pretty bishop pair that is firing at all kinds of air on the queenside, and a whole bunch of time trouble looming (12 minutes for 17 moves as of right now).

Lahno-Ernst is pretty cool but I have a thing for nice prepared spanish attacks.

Think Giri will ship this easily.

Kamsky? Although he switched federations a long time ago.

That was an awesome game. Kingside Ruy Lopez attacking wins = real chess. Everything else is a poor imitation.

I think Gelfand can hold this. He's down a pawn in a RRB (same color) endgame, and it's probably theoretically lost, but it looks really hard to me for Giri to make progress.

Agree! Took a quick look at most of the games, this one was def. my favorite. Will be rooting for her the rest of the tournament.

3 pawns :P

But yeah at the time you made that post I was not that sure aswell. Didn't really understand the killer knight / white bishop trade from Giri.

48.Re7 looks like a blunder to me though and houdini agrees. Giri gonna ship.

Also I think both Anne Haast & Lisa Schut will have a hard time in group C. (But tata is awesome at letting them play obv. best chess tournament in the world)

Anne Haast made the biggest mistake that I saw this round, not playing 22.....,Bxh3. No idea what she was thinking, missing 25.Qxf8 seems to easy.

Fun to watch some chess games btw, do you watch on the tatasteel site or is there a better way to watch the games with live commentary on ICC or something?

I let my ICC membership expire and now I *really* miss the commentary. I'm just watching on their site.

Yeah I really liked the ICC broadcasting of big tournaments aswell but I don't want to renew my membership because poker and chess do not cooperate imo (playing a few bad games of chess = too tilting to be able to play poker rest of the day)

I remember a chess radio a few years ago though, if that still exist or someone knows another site to watch the games please enlighten me.

Ohw and

Is it possible for Carlsen to not crush?

He constantly turns drear looking positions into simple methodical destruction.

It's just amazing how far ahead he is of the rest of the world and he seems be just getting further ahead every day. I sure am stoked to see Gelfand compete for the title of world champion!

'ok, at some point I gave him drawing chances, but ok, he's a strong player he deserves it'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIwpV...ature=youtu.be

This!

What rating do you guys think Carlsen will peak at? 2900? Kasparovs 2851 record is in danger already
http://chess-evolution.com/live_rating.php

If you're considering "live ratings", I'd guess around 2890; two players that also might get above 2850 in the future ( or at least have a decent shot ) are Caruana and Giri, but it's too early to tell if either of them will get close to 2900. I would say it's very difficult to maintain a rating above 2850 since one would have to beat strong 2700+ GMs regularly.

Such impressive play by Magnus indeed. Sadler-show also getting underway in group C

Aronian just sacced his queen for a rook, bishop and pawn against Nakamura. Should get interesting.

Carlsen is really really really good.

Major +1

It appears Carlsen was very correct to break ties and stop getting coaching/training from Kasparov.

All your pieces in 1 quarter of the board against the worlds #2 and still having the advantage. (probably)

Naka did it.

Edit: well, not so sure about the advantage part. Turned houdini off because I wanted to do my own thinking but this game is obviously way to difficult for me

Naka is black there.

Awesome game by van Wely btw against Topalov, he found a lot of precise tactical moves between move 40 and 50 and now puts the pressure on Topalov when it looked the other way round at first.

An amazing victory by Aronian. His piece coordination worked together so well after the sac. Lots of really incredible chess lately.

I was refering to position after 32....,Qxe6, thought it was funny all of Nakamura's pieces were in his own kingside quarter and thougt he was playing for the win at that time.

Aronian destroyed him though. Awesome game.

Van Wely draw now but he looks very strong and well prepared, pretty sure he will be 2700+ again after this tournament.

Lahno is really good at Ruy Lopez attacks but not so much at rook endings.
Harikrishna gonna crush B group though.

Fun games today, got me all excited, will visit Wijk aan Zee one of the next days.

Let me echo how awesome that Aronian game was. Traded his queen for a rook and a bishop, and just crushed it.

LOL, Aronian : complex unclear game, only at that moment when he captured on c5 and took e6 (the exact position that I'm talking about) then I already had the feeling I have a clear advantage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu1b2...ature=youtu.be



Think I'm done in this thread now.