Sinquefield Commentator

I enjoy all of them.  

Yasser is very good at what he does

Jennifer Shahade?  I have to admit to "the hots' for her, but honestly i think she does ok.  She plays off Yasser very nicely.  

Maurice?  Maurice is the John Madden of chess.  The engine is his telesrator.

I still think Daniel King is the best at commentary.

John Madden was an NFL coach and then a color-commentater for CBS and then Fox, known for his energetic style.

True, Maurice does the Madden thing well IMO but it's the way all these international events are streamed that's poor.  They should take a cue from baseball broadcasts, not the NFL.  In baseball, you have the play-by-play announcer giving the game and the color-commentater, always an ex-player, giving the details.  In chess the pro always leads in the play-by-play and the color is basically left out, or forced to interrupt to contribute.  A better way is for the lesser of the two to call the moves and games while the GM fills in the lines or gives the inside info on the players, and when he needs to chime all he needs to do is tap the p-b-p when he needs to do some color.  Trent and Gustafsson had the proper chemistry (as did Ashley-King) and the rest of the guys should study the tapes.  These shows can be done smoothly if you work at it.

The commentators were just great ; what a change with Reyjavik ... 1972, cold atmosphere, I was in July in NY City and remembered all people playin' everywhere in Central Park, Cloisters arcades (I mean the building itself, comin' stone by stone from Catalunya, Europ) and everybody supposed a big boom in chess because Fisher. 

But the comments were really not giving enthusiasm, nothing to compare with Maurice and Co. They just keep you awake, give u attracted by the game, envy to stay till the end of the night. 

According to an ole philosopher, future in chess is in 960, to raise funds, Bobby did it alone alas, SINQUE ty, billions game ty; to have technical great support zero default, CC does it, worldwide approach , and what french forget and america does well : communication.

All the team was just great communicants. TY.

Veuillez être pertinent, aider et être gentil!

yes Maurice Ashley is great

Yasser is great.  Its a pity Inside Chess is not still around.  I like Ashley as a commentator most times I see him.  Don't blame him for doing the job he was assigned to do.  I don't know why people are bothered by Jennifer's accent.

I am in doubt, that people questioning the commentators style and character, are interested in chess at all. They all provide us with the best chess in the world. And they are pioneers in helping chess survive the computer age. Its not FIDE. Its them!

I like them.  Maurice can get a little over the top about a bunch of wooden puppets on a board at times, but that's fine.  He tries his best in the post game interviews to pull something out of folks who by their nature, aren't exactly the life of the party.  Yasser is serene and wise, and Shahade is the cherry on top.

Btw, speaking the commentators today, did anyone else prefer MVL's position even while the commentators were singing the praises of Magnus's position?  I felt that way today.

The Italian game = the boring game.   Wesley probably wanted to sleep.

I think what he's asking is: are any of the commentators on Cocaine? Yes, Jennifer is on cocaine. Yasser is on some form of sedative, and Maurice, he seems relatively normal. In fact, he's too normal. If you watch all his commentary it's hard to tell one apart from the other. I think those 3 cover the emotional spectrum.

Wesley in his interviews reminded me of Many Pacquioa (boxer).  Thanks to the Lord, etc.  More to life than chess.  Kind of like he's happy for what he's done already, even if he doesn't make it to world championship.  He even talked about how little the challenger gets from it.

Really? You sound like you're talking about someone who's ready to retire.

Well Many was talking about all that thank the Lord stuff and grateful for everything before he lost a boring match against Whitaker for a ton of money.  I'm sure Wesley isn't ready to pack it in.

I'm not one to complain quickly. But my conclusions after watching the very enjoyable coverage is that Jennifer's voice is grating, and she has the kiss of death: she called three winners that went on and lost their games (Caruana, Kasparov (twice) and Liem Le - although she can be forgiven for that one). Also her move suggestions are nearly always off. 

Yasser is great, and I appreciate Maurice - he is a chess jock, that can be fun. One thing that gets me though is that the team will get stuck into variations, essentially trying to convince each other, whilst important moves are being played..

I switched to the German commentary with GM Jan Gustafsson & GM Robert Rabiega, and they were much cooler and more collected although witty. Jan's reaction when Liem blundered his rook was priceless. 

Overal, they're all doing a great job in making chess enjoyable to watch, and I'm really looking forward to the blitz. Especially if Jen is taking a day off...no such hope.

You may get muted very soon...

I have to agree with the OP.   For someone who has as their JOB to speak and have people listen, they should be conscious of their voice.  Would you hire an actor who never took acting lessons?  Would you hire an engineer who never went to engineering school?  Then why would you hire a person with an annoying voice who never went to a vocal coach to get it fixed?

If the tournament organizers feel the need for a "token" female, I think they should consider Irina Crush, or maybe one of the very many well-spoken junior womens players.