Look again. We both have d, f, g, and h pawns.
Ubik vs. Hikaru - Free the King!
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u were put into zug kinda! im playing him to im down a pawn u did great considereing hes #3 in da world
umbrella_corporation wrote:
i looked again. still not symmetric.
he means at the end??? they both have locked up pawns
cool that you did so well. What was the time control?
The pawns look symmetric to me. I'm not sure what's so bizarre about the position though.
Poor ol' Ubik!
umbrella_corporation wrote:
not symmetric pawn structures
+1
Also, black is simply winning in this position.
After 33. Bb4....I was virtually shut down by his bishop, dominating both my knight and my king who had no way to escape.
All I could do was watch helplessly as his king wandered all the way around the board.
Ubik42 wrote:
After 33. Bb4....I was virtually shut down by his bishop, dominating both my knight and my king who had no way to escape.
All I could do was watch helplessly as his king wandered all the way around the board.
Yeah, after 32. Nc3 that was bound to happen against anyone over 2000, much less the 3rd best player on the planet. Still a pretty good showing though. I feel like if I played Hikaru I'd find a way to selfmate myself in 1.
Somebodysson wrote:
cool that you did so well. What was the time control?
3 day a move, but we finished the whole thing over 2 days.
The reason I pointed out the material equality and the pawn symmetry is because on paper that seems seems drawish. But actually it was complete dominance.
yep. You made sense to point out the material equality and symmetric pawns; complete dominance is right, more like straightjacket. Still, cool you did so well.
Good effort Ubik, i think i would have not made much better myself, 12...Nxe4 also came as a surprise to me and his ending technic was, of course, flawless.
What a situation: Only a bishop and a pawn blocking a knight and a king!
(We were partners in "Fantastic Fives", you were the only one so far able to "steal" me a point - two draws)
Yeah this is a weird phenomenon where in a sense it seems like you "came close" to holding the draw against the higher player, but if you asked Hikaru he would probably say he had millions of ideas of how to try to win in the "drawish" position -- which is an observation you seem to have already made. Sometimes it can seem like we're close to holding a game simply because the game is very closed and slow, when perhaps in reality we only succeed in delaying the inevitable.
Still though... dude... you managed to survive that long in a non-blitz game without losing a piece or getting mated, or even losing a pawn... even considering the closed nature of the position... I still feel like that has to be an extraordinary achievement! Players that good can create tactics "almost" out of nowhere -- I would be really proud if I were you.
Of course considering the low stakes Hikaru was probably playing nowhere near his full strength, but even a fraction of his strength is terrifying!
I was very impressed with your game against him! And he definitly was a bit more accurate against you
What an impressive game of both of you! 33... Bb4 is awesome. If you have that pattern at your disposal! A remote pawn and a bishop to shut up the complete defense.
I was wondering if 34. h4 with the idea to walk the king to h3 and then play g4 might have helped you out of that trouble?
LoekBergman wrote:
What an impressive game of both of you! 33... Bb4 is awesome. If you have that pattern at your disposal! A remote pawn and a bishop to shut up the complete defense.
I was wondering if 34. h4 with the idea to walk the king to h3 and then play g4 might have helped you out of that trouble?
maybe...I played bf5 because I was afraid that after ...g6 I would have no way to defend the knight once his king started moving.
But, given how passive I was there, advancing the pawn would probably have been a better way, since the other was just a slow death.
Elubas wrote:
Of course considering the low stakes Hikaru was probably playing nowhere near his full strength, but even a fraction of his strength is terrifying!
Yes, I have no illusions I played against his best game! He was moving pretty quickly from what I could tell.
dervich wrote:
Good effort Ubik, i think i would have not made much better myself, 12...Nxe4 also came as a surprise to me and his ending technic was, of course, flawless.
What a situation: Only a bishop and a pawn blocking a knight and a king!
(We were partners in "Fantastic Fives", you were the only one so far able to "steal" me a point - two draws)
hah...I didint realize that! Yeah you are undefeated. It didn't do me much good, looks like I am in 15th place.
And yeah 12...Nxe4 came out of left field for me too.
So why do I put "ending" in quotes?
Look at the game and find out why! I would say this is the most bizzarre position I have been put in as a chessplayer.
I was White, Hikaru was black.