2020 Chess World Championship Candidates Tournament
It's not quite a "sport", but if you're dying to follow some competitive gaming, the 2020 Chess World Championship Candidates tournament is currently ongoing in Russia.
This tournament happens every two years in March and pits eight of the best players in the world against each other in a round-robin format to determine who gets to challenge the Chess World Champion later in the year. Right now the world champion is Magnus Carlsen from Norway. The tourney spans from 3/17/20 - 4/4/20. Details can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidates_Tournament_2020
I'll admit to sucking at chess, but ever since I came across Magnus Carlsen's "blitz banter" games on YouTube one day, I've really gotten into hearing how the best player in the world thinks during a game of chess. Something interesting to watch if you're bored sometime. Here's a 5 minute example of one of his blitz games...
(A blitz game is a chess match where each player has 3 minutes cumulative to complete all moves.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvymp9pbE3U
The coronavirus can go like the ways of the dinosaurs.
I've been watching some of this. You can gamble on it too!
Carlsen (and everyone in this tournament playing for the right to play him) is just other-worldly.
I am somewhat decent at chess, my LiChess rating is in the 60% percentile or so. But I inevitably get destroyed when I play someone 100-200 points better, and they get destroyed when they play someone at a higher level, et cetera. It's incredible the level at which the best play the game.
I went to Michigan with a guy who was a US grandmaster IIRC. He could literally name the people in the US who were ranked higher than him. Anyway, I was a decent player and we played one time. He won easily. This is not surprising.
But I should also note that he was:
(1) very drunk
(2) NOT LOOKING AT THE BOARD. He was crashed on my couch while I was at a table across the room where he couldn't see it. He just had the board and the moves pictured in his head and never needed to actually see it to play.
My wife used to be the top female in Indiana (hasn’t played competitively in years). She was calling out Magnuss bad moves as he was in those blitz videos. Pretty hot. I might have to jump her later.
Knight takes Queen.
Gang bang!
Michael Wilder. A good guy and stronger than most grandmasters.
Blindfold chess is not so hard for strong players. He'd beat 99% of tournament players blindfolded.
Huge chess fan myself but not super good or anything. I’ve beaten King’s Crusher (for those who watch streaming), which is about my limit in ability.
Chess24 has the best coverage IMO. Magnus recently bought a large stake in that company along with chessable, which was owned in part my John Bartholomew....he has great streams, very educational.
If anyone is interested in watching a good player (FIDE rating 1939) walk through chess games - including the current Candidate's Tournament games that he finds interesting - I strongly recommend agadmator: https://www.youtube.com/user/AGADMATOR/videos
I watch daily and enjoy it even though I'm not amazing at chess. He's very relaxed and doesn't really edit his videos (one time he got up to answer the door when his mailman knocked on it) but I find it to be part of the charm.
I second the agadmator rec. He’s got the biggest following of any chess channel on YouTube for good reason, his videos are great for beginners and experts.
March 19th, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
Hello everyone!