Wednesday
Sep182013
Women's World Championship, Game 6: More Crippling Kryptowhite
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 11:46AM
In every game so far in this year's women's world championship, the player with the white pieces has underperformed relative to her rating. Fortunately for Hou Yifan, she has limited the damage to three draws in her white games; for Anna Ushenina, the champion for probably no more than another game or two, it has been catastrophic: three losses in three games, including today's. That brings the score to 4.5-1.5, and as the match is best-of-ten Hou needs but one more win or a pair of draws to regain the title she held from 2010-2012.
Reader Comments (6)
Let's hope and pray that the current champion learns her lessons and has a change of heart. I saw less glaring at her opponent in the photographs and videos made available to the public. If one is unwilling to humble oneself, humiliation might produce the right result.
[DM: Uh oh, the Humbl-O-Meter is out again.... I'm with you in preferring humility both as a virtue and as a matter of self-presentation, and tend to root for players who at least come across in that way. However, the degree of correlation between being humble and being the best is certainly imperfect to put it mildly, given that Kasparov was the world champion for 15 years and #1 for around 20 despite a pretty thoroughgoing lack of humility. You've made your point, and let's move on without revisiting it each time there's a possibly low-humility player involved.]
The former Army officer in me says "Roger" and "Wilco".
[DM: I recently read somewhere that no one in the service says "Roger Wilco", or maybe it's that no pilot does. Either one or the other, but the combination is supposed to be redundant. True?]
Now, should Hou Yifan open with 1.c4! or 1.Nf3! to close out the match on Friday?
[DM: Not a bad idea, or even something like a London System or a Torre Attack. Just keep the play going, let Ushenina get into time trouble as she always does, and either collect the point or keep things safe and be in drawing range of match victory in game 8.]
[DM: The following is mostly citing earlier material, with formatting it in a way that makes it clear. So I'll mark the parts that are new.]
The former Army officer in me says "Roger" and "Wilco".
[DM: I recently read somewhere that no one in the service says "Roger Wilco", or maybe it's that no pilot does. Either one or the other, but the combination is supposed to be redundant. True?]
[New material:] "Roger" is a Proword meaning "I understand." "Wilco" is a Proword meaning "I will comply." The common error in movies and elsewhere occurs when you hear "Over and Out." "Over" is a Proword meaning "I completed my transmission and I await your reply." "Out" is a Proword meaning "I completed my transmission and no reply is expected." Correct radio telephone procedure precludes using Over and Out together. [Back to old material]
Now, should Hou Yifan open with 1.c4! or 1.Nf3! to close out the match on Friday?
[DM: Not a bad idea, or even something like a London System or a Torre Attack. Just keep the play going, let Ushenina get into time trouble as she always does, and either collect the point or keep things safe and be in drawing range of match victory in game 8.]
[New material:] Yes, letting the opponent beat herself is a practical way to finish the match. This is especially so if "Chess games are lost, not won."
Well, would 1.Nf3 be best since you can get the London or Torre and still retain the option of the English or Reti?
[DM (Still new material): 1.Nf3 doesn't guarantee a London or Torre - Black might play 1...c5, for instance. It's not a bad move though, practically speaking, as long as Hou is comfortable with it. Except perhaps in the most desperate situation, it's a bad idea to aim for your opponent's weaknesses by playing to an area where you're even weaker.]
Thanks for reminding me why your rating is over 2300 and mine peaked at 2176 USCF. :)
Your comment about weaknesses is insightful.
Looks like it's time to dust off Andrew Soltis' book, Transpo Tricks in Chess: Finesse Your Chess Moves and Win.
2176 is quite respectable, though I'm sure you would have liked to add those last 24 points before dropping off the peak! I was close to 2400 for some time before breaking past it, and it was such a pleasure I dropped out of a tournament I was leading just to make sure I didn't blow it. That was a while ago, but I'm not too far away from a return visit to the "promised land".
I don't have that Soltis book, but in general his "advice" books are pretty good. Thinking of transpositional possibilities as "tricks" that help you win seems to me more a bit closer to salesmanship than truth though. In general, they're about gaining and restricting options, looking for positions you like and avoiding options you don't.
Congratulations to Dennis "The Weatherman" Monokroussos who accurately forecast the course of game seven in the Womens' World Chess Championship. Hou Yifan finally gained an advantage with the White pieces, the former champion mismanaged her time as predicted, and self destructed under the pressures of her lack of time and her faulty position. The result was game, glare/stare, uh, I mean set and match. (Sorry Dennis, sometimes humorous mocking is called for. Please edit or delete the previous sentence as appropriate.)
Losing by a score of 5.5 to 1.5, the pretender is gone. Long live the old and new queen! FIDE please take note of the final score of this match.