BOTW: Magnus, Magnus, Magnus
Thankfully, we do not live in an era when the World Champion retreats into inactivity, only emerging to defend his title. Magnus Carlsen has a busy chess week, and we can all follow it online...
Clock Simul in Hamburg
Nov. 9, 2017.
This year's annual Play Live Challenge takes place in Hamburg, Thursday at 19:00 CET (1 pm EST).
Carlsen plays twelve opponents in a 30 minutes per player clock simul. Screencap above.
Games, with live commentary can be followed on YouTube or on ChessBase:
Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxp8EIm_uJc
http://en.chessbase.com/post/magnus-carlsen-play-live-challenge-simul
Champions Showdown
November 9-14, 2017. (2pm EST)
The St.Louis Chess Club features four rapid matches between eight of the world's top players:
- GM Magnus Carlsen vs GM Ding Liren
- GM Wesley So vs GM Leinier Dominguez
- GM Fabiano Caruana vs GM Alexander Grischuk
- GM Hikaru Nakamura vs GM Veselin Topalov
playing at four different time controls:
- Nov 9: G/30 x 4
- Nov 10: G/20 x 6
- Nov 11: G/10 x 8
- Nov 12: G/5 x 12
Because Magnus is playing his clock simul in Hamburg on Nov 9, his match vs Ding Liren will run Nov. 11-14, with the same format as the others.
Two things worth noting:
- this is not a round robin, but a set of matches; each player faces only one opponent;
- there is no increment in any of the four time controls (expect some ugly finishes).
Live Games
https://www.uschesschamps.com/2017-champions-showdown/information/watch-live
Carlsen vs Hansen
chess.com blitz sessions
On October 26, 2017, Magnus Carlsen played GM Eric Hansen for three hours at 3+0 on Chess.com. Eric recorded live commentary on those games, all of which can be watched on YouTube:
Pt.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU1CYWndQt8
Pt. 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT8yfvPo3Vg
Pt. 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUZP-yV6j1E
Chess.com Speed Chess Championship
Nov. 18, 2017. (10am Pacific, 1pm EST)
Magnus Carlsen plays Wesley So in the second round of the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship. Magnus is the defending Champion, but Wesley is extremely talented, terrifically well-prepared, and freakishly calm... so an upset is possible.
The winner players Alex Grischuk, who eliminated MVL.
The format for the Chess.com matches is 3 hours of online play, broken into four formats:
- 90 minutes of 5+2 blitz,
- 60 minutes of 3+2 blitz,
- 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet,
- one chess960 game in each time control.
Live Games (commentary team TBA, but last time was FM Danny Rensch and GM Eric Hansen)