Friday, November 14, 2014

Rest day! (in Mumbai!)

Game number three turned out to be a wonderful day for chess fans all over the world and especially India. Vishy Anand beat Magnus Carlsen after a gap of almost four years. Next day in Game four we witnessed a Sicilian and though it was a slow manoeuvring game, it was quite a tense struggle. And after every two games comes the rest day! While the players need it, what should the chess fans all around the world do? There are no pictures of the players because they are too busy in the match to update their facebook or twitter accounts. The lone picture of Magnus Carlsen that I found after game four was the following.

Says the caption: A good way to end game day 4: Enjoying a few good laughs and some good Georgian food with my team. (picture from facebook page of Magnus Carlsen)

For me, the match is also pretty tiring. After watching the game intensely for nearly 5-6 hours I would get down to the work on annotating the games in detail for the android application.(If you are a chess lover and have a android mobile/tablet and you do not have this app, it is high time you download it!) So after four games, it became quite necessary for me to unwind. And what better way than to explore the beautiful city that I live in: the city of Mumbai! 

I understand that the readers are not at all interested in what I did on the rest day :), but the catch here is that in the process of knowing what I did, you will be able to see beautiful pictures of the city of Mumbai!

The best way to travel in Mumbai is through local trains

The population of Mumbai is around 20 million! Such scenes are not uncommon!

Beauty always awaits at the end of the tough journey! The beautiful Marine Drive.

There are only a few things in life that I love more than Pizza. Chess is definitely one of them! The restaurant that we ate this is known as 'Pizza by the bay'. It serves one of best pizzas in Mumbai.

After lunch, we decided to go to this little shop and eat 'Paan'. 

Paan known as Betel leaf is extremely good for digestion. A lot of things are added on the paan which make it simply delicious! It has to be folded and then eaten in one go! If you are in Mumbai, you must try this after your meal.

My wife, Amruta, definitely recommends it! :)


Buying new books is always on the agenda for me! But I saw something very interesting at the Oxford book store. There was a man (in the picture above) who was sitting all alone with three things. One book in which he had carefully written the moves of the Staunton Gambit (d4 f5 e4), a mobile phone in which he was peiodically seeing a game, and a tablet in which he was analyzing. Such was his concentration that he never once looked at me or anyone around him! I did not want to disturb this man and hence just observed him. To tell you the truth he did inspire me with his unflinching dedication towards the game!

Shopping time! The variety of things available at the Colaba market was simply mind boggling! Guess what Amruta, the chess player bought for herself!

Not the My System! but a pocket watch which had a king engraved on it!

The Gateway of India looks very pretty at night

The colours of Indian flag gave the structure a very nice effect. A small historical note: The structure was erected to commemorate the landing of their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary at Apollo Bunder, when they visited India in 1911. (from Wikipidea)

These colourful horse rides, also known as Victoria ride is a must if you are near the Gateway of India

Near the Gateway, is the majestic Taj hotel

Dinner time: The "Bhatura" is a huge 'puri' made of Maida flour which is to be eaten with..

Chole: Spicy chick peas

Final stop: The Chowpatty beach and in the background you can see the array of lights which is also known as the Queen's necklace! 

Happy and refreshed after Mumbai Darshan!

Game number five is going to be one of the most crucial encounters in the match. While Vishy will most probably begin the game with 1.d4, Magnus's reply is not at all obvious. There are so many options available for him, but I would like to put my money on the Ragozin Defense (d4 Nf6 c4 e6 Nf3 d5 Nc3 Bb4). Catch the game live at 17.30 hours on the official website.

Though there is no replacement for the action from Sochi, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Mumbai! (picture from the official website)








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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Carlsen-Anand World Championship 2014 Game 4

Analysis by IM Sagar Shah



My write up on facebook for game 4.


Post by Sagar Shah.


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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Carlsen- Anand World Championship 2014 Game 3

Analysis by IM Sagar Shah









































My write up on the Game 3 on facebook


Post by Sagar Shah.




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Monday, November 10, 2014

Carlsen-Anand World Championship 2014 Game 2

Analysis by IM Sagar Shah



Some of the tweets that I liked for the game two:



















My write up on game two on facebook


Post by Sagar Shah.


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Sunday, November 9, 2014

Carlsen-Anand World Championship Game No.1

Analysis of Game No.1 by IM Sagar Shah

This analysis is mainly done for the World Championship official app. If you have an android device be sure to download the app from here

Here are some of the interesting tweets and comments from Game no. 1 that I found:
















And this is what I wrote about game one on Facebook:


Post by Sagar Shah.







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Saturday, November 8, 2014

Magical Opening Ceremony and Press Conference of Carlsen-Anand 2014

The match between Carlsen and Anand begins today at 15.00 hours. And Anand will have the White pieces.

This is what Magnus Carlsen had to say about it.

As you all would remember, in the 2013 match it was Carlsen who had the White pieces in the first game and began with 1.Nf3. What will be Vishy’s first move today is the question on everyone’s mind but before that let’s transport ourselves to Radisson Blu Resort and Spa where the press conference and the Opening Ceremony of the match were held.


As always the charismatic World Champion drew towards him loads of reporters


On the other hand Anand was seen quite relaxed talking to his wife Aruna

In the press conference, Anand was asked an interesting question by a journalist:  Your charming wife accompanies you to every tournament. Is she a talisman or your inspiration?
Anand in excellent spirits replied with a smile, " Well, she is kind of wife! Obviosuly we are close. She has been accompanying me to tournaments ever since we got married. Recently our son was born and she doesn't come more often now!"
And when Magnus was asked about his Talisman or inspiration, he simply shrugged off the question saying that he was not such a spiritual person!
The million dollar question asked at the Press Conference was who were the ‘seconds’ of both the players. There was a silence for a few seconds as both players waited for the other one to speak. But finally Anand revealed his. And apart from the old ones, there was a new addition.


On the right we have the usual suspects: Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Krishnan Sasikiran. But the big surprise was the man on left: Grzegorz Gajewski. He is a country mate of Wojtaszek (Poland) and he has an Elo of 2643.

As for Magnus he revealed his seconds in the following manner: “There is the Dane and there is the Hammer.” The Russian translator was so confused that she refrained from translating this sentence. But of course what Magnus meant were these two guys.


The Dane is Peter Heine Nielsen and the Hammer is Jon Ludvig Hammer!


The Stylish G-star Raw model

Carlsen was asked at the Press Conference whether he thought himself as the favourite for the match. He put a question back to the reporter in typical Carlsen fashion asking, “What do you think?!”


FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov was the one who began with a welcome speech at the press conference. He also welcomed the guests at the Opening ceremony.


Also present on the dais for the press conference were former world champion Anatoly Karpov and Ilya Merenzon organizer from Agon

The Opening Ceremony followed the Press Conference. It was so less elaborate than the opening ceremony held at Chennai in 2013.


The Masters of Ceremony were former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and People’s Artist of Russia S.Makovetsky

 The Masters of Ceremony spoke in Russian but their words were translated on the live stream into English. That was a very thoughtful gesture on the part of the organizers.
As they rightly said, for the next three weeks the experts and amateurs of the world will be mesmerized by the duel of the two best grandmasters of today! They are not just very different players but very also different personalities which makes their battle really intriguing.


Igor Levitin who is the assistant to the President of Russian Federation read out the words sent by Vladimir Putin


Deputy Minister for the sport of Russian Federation Pavel Kolobkov


President of Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov with Pavel Kolobkov


The great Boris Spassky was there


Antoaneta Stefanova also graced the occasion


The Russian women’s team that had won the gold medal at Tromso 2014 was honoured by the Russian government. From upper left in clockwise: Kosteniuk, Pogonina, Olga Girya and Rublevsky who was the coach of the team


Some spectacular dances were on show…


 Performed by elegant and beautiful dancers


The two players with chief arbiter Andrzej Fillipowicz for the drawing of colours


Magnus drew the black colour and hence the black pieces in game one


 For lovers of the game, chess seems like magic and hence they were joined by a professional magician. The magician has the white balloon of Vishy Anand in his hand.


And from the balloon erupts out of nowhere a white pigeon! Vishy Anand looks extremely impressed


From Magnus’s balloon out comes a grey bird


Tina Kuznetsova who was the finalist of the TV show Golos mesmerized the audience with her singing


The opening ceremony ended with the performance of famous Russian Jazz artist Igor Burtman with his quartet
The first game begins tomorrow at 15.00 hrs local time in Sochi and Anand will have the White pieces. What will be his first move? Your guess is as good as mine!

THE OPENING CEREMONY

THE PRESS CONFERENCE



Pictures from the official website.
This article has been originally published on ChessBase website.
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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The most comfortable way to follow the Carlsen-Anand match

If a poll were to be carried out in the world with the following question:
"Your house is on fire. What is the one thing that you will definitely try to save?"

I think almost 50% of the people would say "Mobile Phone". The point I am trying to make here is that cell phones have become such an integral part of our lives, that a day without it is simply unimaginable.
Yet, if you see chess players they are usually working all the time on their laptops or computers. Are the mobile phones completely useless to them? I don't think so. I feel the answer lies in the fact that there are so very few good mobile applications available out there. But there is one man who has decided to change that.

Asim Periera: single handedly churning out some awesome mobile applications

A look at Asim's facebook cover photo reveals this:


These are all the amazing apps that Asim has made in the past. Of particular note is the last one with an orange knight called the Follow Chess app. You can view all the live games and latest tournaments on that app. And I am in excellent company when it comes to Follow Chess app lovers!

You know this man is doing a great job when he is give a compliment by none other than the great Vishy Anand. You can download the Follow Chess app from here.

So when Asim says that he has come up with an application for the World Championship match 2014 between Carlsen vs Anand, you must definitely pay attention to it.

The app is made by NexM, a company that Asim has created.

That is the logo of the app

In the description, it is mentioned that this is the official app of the FIDE World Championship 2014.

Ok let's dive into the app to see what are its features.

1. Follow Live Games


Just imagine, this scenario, you are in a classroom and the teacher is boring the life out of you. All you can think of is the World Championship match (if you are reading this blog so carefully, you have to be a chess lover! ) . You ask your friend via whatsapp to send you a screenshot of the position. First of all he has to be online, even if he is, you have to download the picture he has sent you! So many hassles! If you have this app: as soon as a move is made in Sochi, it will be updated on your mobile device. And there are two engines (critter and stockfish) installed in this app to help you analyze. You only need to download another small app called "Analyze This" which is totally free to use this function.

2. Instant Notifications


Sometimes these guys (Anand and Carlsen) indulge in a long think. For eg. in the 9th game of the 2013 match, Anand thought for nearly an hour for one move. How do you know that a move has been made? This has been taken care of! There are three options in the settings:
1. Notify me when the game is about to start
2. Notify me when the moves are made
3. Notify me when the the game ends

As you can see, these notifications will come with a small logo on top of your smart phone which means that either of Anand or Carlsen has just pressed the clock! :)


3. Live updates on Home Screen


Convenience can have no limits and the app takes it to the next level. Suppose you do not always want to go to the app to see if a move is made, you can use the app widget and drag the board to your home screen where you can see the moves being updated without having to press any buttons! Super thinking!

4. Tactics by IM Swayams Mishra


The first part was about how to follow the match. But the app doesn't restrict itself to just broadcasting the moves. It also has training material. There are 32 tactical positions, carefully selected by my good friend and also a strong chess player IM Swayams Mishra. The cool thing about these puzzles is that if you think Nde5 is the correct move in the above position (which is the correct move!) then the next move Bxg4 is automatically played. So it is a training much like a real game where the opponent is making the moves. After you have solved the problem entirely, the complete annotations can be seen.

 The creator of the tactical positions: Swayams Mishra. At a rating of 2491 his credentials cannot be doubted!

5. Previous games annotated by IM Sagar Shah


My favourite part of the app! :) Here you will find 37 previous encounters of Vishy Anand vs Magnus Carlsen deeply annotated. Out them 24 have been annotated by me. I particularly like the 10 annotated games of the last World Championship match which have been analyzed in great depth. This feature gives you a lot of material to work with and it goes without saying that after seeing so many games of Carlsen and Anand you will be in a better position to gauge the styles of these two players.

6. Integrated Twitter account


This is a feature I really like. All you need to have is a twitter account. You enter your username and password and the app instantly syncs your device with all the tweets all around the world that has #CarlsenAnand in it! It's simply amazing! There are so many people tweeting, you can really get the inside news! Not to mention you yourself can start tweeting effortlessly! :)

2014 Match games annotated
And Lastly, All the games that have been played will be analysed by the author of these lines and you will get the analysis before the next game begins!

It will not be an easy task but I am up for it! :)

Just in case you were wondering whether this app will take away a lot of your phone's battery, you might want to read this:
The app only does its work when the server notifies it that a move has been made, instead of continuously connecting to the server every few minutes. This saves lot of device battery and you can always keep your data connection ON.

The credentials of Asim Periera cannot be questioned. He had made the 2013 World Championship official app which was extremely well received having nearly 1,20,000 downloads. This year with all his experience, he has just created a much more beautiful app.

You know who Asim Periera is supporting in this match!

The only drawback I can find is that it is not available on any other platform apart from Android.

The match between Carlsen and Anand is going to be a complete chess extravaganza which you just cannot afford to miss.

I am sure you don't want to see the match like this!

And creating an infrastructure like this may not be so easy!

Download the app and see the match comfortably! :)

I am sorry if the last three images disturbed you, I was just trying to make a point! :)

You can download the app from here.
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