Chess.com Pro League

checknraise

Just to let everyone know, chess.com have started a online league which starts tomorrow.
There are 48 teams and over 100 GM's registered to play. An Irish team has signed up to play Dublin Desperados, the team is made up of mostly Gonzaga players. Dublin's first game starts at 7.30pm against Lagos.

There is $50k up for grabs with $20k for the winning team, $10k for second and various weekly prizes of $200 including best game, best move etc. Many of the worlds best are playing including Carlsen, Nakamura, So and MVL.

The time control is 15minutes with a 2 second increment and live commentary will be available by a host of titled players. Lawrence Trent and Anna Rudolf will commentating on Dublin's first match. There will be live commentary on all the matches from 2pm GMT until Midnight.

The games can be followed on chess.com/tv or twitch.tv/chess

Full schedule https://www.chess.com/article/view/2017-pro-chess-league-schedule

Tim Harding

After two rounds Dublin Desperadoes have two 4-0 wins against Lagos Leatherbacks (weakest team in their division). Third games starting soon. (Each of four players on team plays each of the opposing game in 15/2 rapid games.)
GM Maze ("Mazetovic") pulled off an endgame swindle in his second game and won a lost position. Also playing tonight are Alex Astaneh Lopez ("Astaneh"), Stephen Jessel and Stephen Moran.

The Dublin team won 14-2 so lead the Central Division on game points.
They are obviously going to have much tougher matches in future.

Apparently there is a rule that on any one night the average of four players cannot exceed 2500 so teams with many blockbuster GMs cannot play them each week.

checknraise

I have to say I like the format, hopefully the event is successful.
Dublin Desperadoes next match is next Wednesday against Hamburg who are quite strong.
Title
Player
Elo
Status

GM Rasmus Svane  2552 Local

GM Niclas Huschenbeth  2548 Local

IM Jonas Lampert  2500 Local

IM Dmitry Kollars  2491 Local

Dirk Sebastian  2454 Local

IM Aljoscha Feuerstack  2449 Local

IM Jonathan Carlstedt  2438 Local

IM Georgios Souleidis  2407 Local

Malte Colpe  2394 Local

FM Julian Kramer  2321 Local


There are exceptions with regards the rating cap, a 2700+ player only counts as 2700 and 10 extra points can be added to the cap for each woman that plays.

sodacat11

Is this tournament actually being played online? If so, how is cheating prevented?
I tried to watch some of the coverage last night but the graphics weren't great and it wasn't easy to see who the contestants were. I gave up after about three minutes. Maybe it was just my pc that was at fault but I wasn't overly impressed.
Roll on Gibraltar, always the best tournament to follow online even if we do have to suffer the childish Harry the H pawn stuff.

checknraise

Chess.com have their own systems in place to detect cheating on top of that if they suspect anyone of cheating they can insist a player plays with a webcam or have an approved person watch their games live.
There is always the possibility of cheating especially when it is online but nearly every player competing is a serious player and their reputation should be worth allot more than a few online rating points. 
I would recommend to follow the games on twitch, if your internet is not the fastest you can reduce the definition of the stream which will reduce any lag or buffer.

Tim Harding

sodacat11 wrote: »

Is this tournament actually being played online? If so, how is cheating prevented?

Yes it is online but chess.com keep their anti-cheating systems secret, so who knows how successful they were on this occasion? Perhaps a lot of analysis of games will go on after the event.

I tried to watch some of the coverage last night but the graphics weren't great and it wasn't easy to see who the contestants were. I gave up after about three minutes. Maybe it was just my pc that was at fault but I wasn't overly impressed.

Yes it was difficult to follow but this was the first week and maybe things will improve next Wednesday. The graphics were illegible on my PC too but I eventually found pages that listed the teams and the players in action yesterday.
Eventually I had one window open with the commentary and occasionally switched to visuals on that; usually they followed the games by MVL, Bacrot, Gawain Jones or Keith Arkell. When the Desperados meet one of those teams we may see them get some commentary.
In another window I would select "Live Chess" to get a board to follow, and select one of the Top Players (icon near bottom right) and "rapid". The window then showed the higher-rated players who were online and playing rapid games. It wasn't possible to find Stephen Jessel or Stephen Moran (too low down in the list I guess) but I did see bits of games by "Mazetovic" and "Astane". Admittedly I only learned how to do this by reading some of the chat room suggestions; the commentators didn't tell you and in general chess.com needs to up their presentation big-time. I probably won't try to watch again until the Dublin team is meeting one of the big teams: London Lions or one of the French squads. Presumably Sam will play in those matches?

Roll on Gibraltar, always the best tournament to follow online even if we do have to suffer the childish Harry the H pawn stuff.

You don't have to wait for Gibraltar; Wijk aan Zee starts on Saturday.

checknraise

We should have a full squad to pick from for our future games, Gonzaga had an Armstrong match yesterday which clashed.
I have no difficulty watching any of the streams online but I watch everything through twitch and not chess.com. For Dublin's next game the plan is to have one of the squad who isn't playing to commentate on the teams games.
The top 6 of each group qualify for the play offs, although slight underdogs Dublin have a realistic shot of making it.

checknraise

Hamburg tonight who will provide much tougher opposition.
Dublin team is Maze, Lopez, Jessel and O'Donnell
Hamburg team is Svane, Lampbert, Kollars and Souleidis
Match kicks off at 7:35 GMT.
In other news former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov has agreed to join the Desperados and will make his debut in next weeks match while Maze plays in Gibraltar.

zeitnot

Are the games available anywhere?

checknraise

Games can be downloaded from TWIC or from chess.com. The chess.com link below has a link to everything you would need.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/pro-chess-league-guide

checknraise

Dublin lost a nail biter of a final round to Hamburg.

Heading into the fourth round scores were level at 6-6, Dublin proceeded to outplay their opponents in 3 of the 4 games and appeared to be cruising towards a win.... Lots of drama in the final few games. Plan is to upload a video to youtube in the next day or so - should be entertaining!
The last moments of the stream can be viewed through Alex Lopez's twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/astaneh/v/115675326?t=7m45s

cdeb

Is the plan to grow this tournament?

Just wondering how weak the tail is? Gonzaga are obviously quite a strong club - would it be suitable for other Armstrong teams? Or clubs with juniors? Can you choose what night to play matches on?

Sound slike something that could be a bit of craic of a club night - but no point if you're going to get hammered every week of course.

Tim Harding

cdeb wrote: »

Is the plan to grow this tournament?

I expect so. It's a big venture for chess.com in their commercial rivalry with chess24, playchess etc. So it may depend on whether it makes them money in the long run. At present they are probably happy to attract new members.

cdeb wrote: »

Just wondering how weak the tail is? Gonzaga are obviously quite a strong club - would it be suitable for other Armstrong teams?

The team from Nigeria that Dublin Desperados played the first week looked fairly weak, but as teams have large squads and only four play each week it is hard to tell. Nearly all players are probably 2000+ with many titled players, so not much of a tail.
Teams are allowed a "free agent" who is not a local player but maybe only one can play each week. Desperados/Gonzaga pretended Jessel and Astaneh Lopez were local which frankly is a bit of a con, but probably other teams are doing similar things.

cdeb wrote: »

Or clubs with juniors? Can you choose what night to play matches on?

With play starting about 7.30pm and finishing about 10pm it's not suitable for juniors, and you cannot choose when to play. All matches are on Wednesday evenings.

cdeb wrote: »

Sounds like something that could be a bit of craic of a club night - but no point if you're going to get hammered every week of course.

I think every player has to be on their own with a fast broadband connection, though I suppose those not playing could watch together with one of the team so long as they don't give advice/ distract the player? You had better ask one of the Gonzaga people what the exact rules are.
I wouldn't mind playing myself once or twice, as I like the rapid time limit, but the likelihood of getting hammered is quite high. Your board 4 for example has to play all the opposition team during the evening so you could end up getting crushed by LyonBeast (Maxime Vachier Legrave) with the whole world watching.

checknraise

The majority of the teams are extremely strong. There are 48 teams in total and Dublin are seeded approximately 36th with a rating average on the top 4 boards of 2440 or so. That was before Ponomariov joined tho!

Absolutely the plan is to grow the tournament. Chess.com want every big city/country to be represented. Ultimately the goal is that the league and teams will be able to attract sponsorship that will allow the league to grow.

I did get a suggestion of playing a match from a pub and trying to get a crowd down to watch but of course no point if you're going to get hammered!!

cdeb

Sounds perfect for older juniors in fairness. Standard aside. Might look into it.

Tim Harding

cdeb wrote: »

Sounds perfect for older juniors in fairness. Standard aside. Might look into it.

Not if they are supposed to be doing homework? Seriously though, there may not be a chance to enter for another 12 months if the league is annual? Also this is the pioneering effort and the format could change next time.

The arrangements for following your team would have to seriously improve to maintain interest, I think.

cdeb

Sure that's when our club night is. Fits in perfectly. If the standard drops of course

checknraise

Don't agree with the comment regarding Alex and Stephen being a con.

We were advised by chess.com to use a Dublin team name, Ireland is a small enough country where we could have had a team if we wanted.

When applying chess.com look for the strength of your team e.g. who are your titled players/top 4 etc, they will also look for your activity on social media e.g. youtube,twitch& twitter.

If there is interest from the wider Dublin community I will advertise it more but it was all rushed together fairly quickly.

prey

checknraise wrote: »

Dublin lost a nail biter of a final round to Hamburg.

Heading into the fourth round scores were level at 6-6, Dublin proceeded to outplay their opponents in 3 of the 4 games and appeared to be cruising towards a win.... Lots of drama in the final few games. Plan is to upload a video to youtube in the next day or so - should be entertaining!
The last moments of the stream can be viewed through Alex Lopez's twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/astaneh/v/115675326?t=7m45s

had a league match so missed seeing this live
looks to be a great new and worldwide event
kudos to all involved in the Dublin team -for enterprise and for being competitive here
also highly entertaining video of the tragicomic Rd2 finale
good/objective as it was -given the format this team may just need the Irish Rapid/Blitz champion at the board

checknraise

Ponomariov makes his debut for Dublin this week. Games start at 7:35pm Wednesday.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/pro-chess-league-week-3-pairings-8310

Tim Harding

checknraise wrote: »

Ponomariov makes his debut for Dublin this week. Games start at 7:35pm Wednesday.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/pro-chess-league-week-3-pairings-8310

That looks like an interesting match all right with average rating very close. The Cannes team's third board is Cornette's wife I believe.

prey

still early in the inaugural event but looks good
looking at the board pairings the 2500 average rating limit in scheveningen format goes a long way to level the playing field if you can field a side close to 2500 average - eg Dublin v Cannes tonight: the Irish side would be unlikely to match the Cannes top 4 but as Cannes cannot play their top 4 the declared lineups suggest a close match
field not quite level of course: the strong sides have the option of loading the top 3 boards - optimal lineup may well be 3 very strong gms with an underrated but hot blitz player on #4
the fast time controls also a factor: the rapid/blitz ratings relatively recent and show wide variations and anomalies such as an inactive 2500 gm who has been parked in the world blitz top 10 for some time without ever facing his rivals -refer earlier post

Tim Harding

Desperadoes lead 2.5-1.5 after first games in which everyone played their opposite number in the other team. Ponomariov drew with Cornette; Alex Lopez won. I didn't see the other twp games. Next games up in a few minutes.

Tim Harding

They seem to be having huge server issues at chess.com. Ponomariov agreed a GM draw, maybe for that reason? Astaneh frozen after 14 Rfd1, Cannot get the other games (imsc and bulletvinik). Will leave it for tonight I think.

Draw in Astaneh's game too after huge lag on Black's last move. The commentators don't seem to be aware of this problem though they knew there was a big crash a few minutes ago.

Tim Harding

It seems that both those games (and many others) were restarted where they stopped, but commentators don't have clear information. Still I have no idea about Sam and Conor's games.

LATER: Astaneh drew after 41 moves. Ponomariov still his Benko Gambit pawn down in the ending; commentators are following.
...
Ponomariov has now drawn also.
The scorecard on the commentary page is showing the match level so either Sam or Conor may have lost; I cannot find their games so am definitely stopping watching now.

Can one of the team please post a report at the end of the evening?

checknraise

Dublin lost another close match 7.5 - 8.5 to the strong Cannes team.

Ruslan Ponomariov will be analysing his games on Alex Lopez's twitch channel tomorrow from 2pm GMT tomorrow.

twitch.tv/astaneh

Tim Harding

It's the inter-league round in the Chess.com Pro League tomorrow (Saturday 11th), where all teams play a side from a different division.

Dublin Desperados meet Seattle Sluggers [NOT Seahawks] starting 1130 PST which I think equates to 1930 here.

With Gonzaga presumably taking their A team to England for the 4NCL crunch matches, the Desperados have two new recruits this week, Ioana Gelip (who will play GM Sargissian first) and Mel O Cinneide. Alex Lopez and Ruslan Ponomariov are the other Desperados this week.

In the first game the board 1 of each team plays the board 4 of the other, and so on, so that the board one players meet in the last game.
Pairings are at:
https://www.chess.com/news/view/pro-chess-league-week-4-pairings-5499

It should be fun if chess.com can avoid the technical hitches that marred one of the previous rounds.

A lot of top GMs are in action at various times of the day. At a good time for us (apart from clash with rugby) the Montreal ChessBrahs play the Norway Gnomes starting 0740 PST (=1540 GMT) which should culminate around 5/6pm in a game between Carlsen and Caruana.
Starting at the same time, the match between Saint Louis Archbishops and Marseille Migraines will finish up with MVL v Wesley So.

Tim Harding

Caruana v Carlsen should start soon.

Drawn. Wesley So v MVL coming up later, then the Desperados this evening.

LATER: Check out So's brilliant Bc5!! to win the ending against Vachier-Legrave.
Desperados will be playing Seattle, the only unbeaten team in Pacific Division, so it's a tough pairing.

Tim Harding

Tomorrow evening (Wed 22 Feb, approx 7.30pm GMT) the Dublin Desperados play their last match in this league, against Abuja Rockstars from Nigeria, a match they may be able to win.
The line-ups can be seen here:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/pro-chess-league-week-7-pairings-6043

Tim Harding

Semi-finals tonight, fantastic tied rapid match just ended (7.45pm Irish time) between Montreal (top board Caruana) and ST Louis (top board Wesley So).
In a few minutes they play the four rounds again at blitz (3 mins+2 sec).

After that the Norway v STockholm match featuring Magnus will be played. A great evening's entertainment.

8.45pm: They tied again and are now going to a blitz tiebreak.

The Norway match was originally due to start at 7.30pm and they say it will start very soon.

The final will be tomorrow.