Here is the Round 10 game of Wesley So vs. Garry Kasparov of the recently concluded US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016, as explained and analyzed by IM John Bartholomew.
If you’re not yet convinced this is the best blitz game ever played, then I don’t know what else is.
After seven rounds Magnus Carlsen looked almost certain to win the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. But then he lost against Levon Aronian in round eight, endangering his tournament win. But things went his way in round nine. Aronian drew against Pentala Harikrishna while Carlsen defeated Pavel Eljanov to win Norway Chess for the first time.
A true champion knows how to pick himself up after a fall–even from the penultimate round.
The premier computer chess championship TCEC is starting this May 1st with the strongest ever field – 12 engines over 3100 ELO and a total of 32 participants. Live games will be available at the official site of the competition starting at 13:00 CET.
Apparently, humans can’t compete with these computers, the latter now have a world of their own.
The last day of the challenge has finished, and Hikaru Nakamura came out to be the overall winner, followed by Wesley So with a full point behind. Garry Kasparov retained his 3rd rank from Day 1, and so did Fabiano Caruana, the champion of the US Chess Championship 2016, his tailender.
US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016 Final Standings
Wesley So’s round 10 win over Garry Kasparov was hailed by commentators as “one of the finest attacking game since Morphy!”. Here’s the game:
Thus, at the end of this challenge, the Wesley So vs. Garry Kasparov matchup stands at 4.0-2.0 in favor of Wesley So.
Levon Aronian beats Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of Altibox Norway Chess 2016 to catch up with the latter and actually take the lead after tie break.
Wesley So lost his very first game in this tournament/challenge against the legendary Garry Kasparov, but he managed to get back at the latter in their next two matchups (thus, their score so far is 2-1 in favor of So). He even come out ahead of the pack at the end of the day. He who scored 5.0 out of 9 games — tied with Hikaru Nakamura in points but leads after the tie-break was applied.
Day 1 Results: US Ultimate Blitz Chess Challenge 2016
In round seven Magnus Carlsen played against Vladimir Kramnik, one of his predecessors as World Champion. Carlsen seemed well prepared and won a fine strategic game in which he exploited Black’s weak square f5 in textbook fashion. Levon Aronian used his space advantage to harass Black’s king and to win with a mating attack. The three other games were drawn.
With the way Carlsen is playing outstanding chess in recent months, I wonder if he gets to break the 2900 ELO rating barrier anytime soon?