Estimate a strength for the two players in this game.

Estimate me an ELO or ECF grade for the two players in this game? Let's see who can get closest based on adding together the sum of the differences between your guess and grade for each player.

There are some terrible bluners there, especially by white who appears to give up after dropping the pawn!

White: About 160 ECF
Black: About 200 ECF

And I would guess it was a rapidly game (30 minutes each) rather than a slower time control.

You might want to shift those estimates down in light of the first clue. It was slow time controls, over the board G90.

OK, in that case 140 for White and 112 for Black (!) I thought Black played very well and White had a plan or two, but missed tactics. The fact that White didn't resign several moves before the end makes me think that even 140 might be too high, but I'll stick to that guess.

White was a state Class B champ and went to A player a few years back. White is currently 1820ish after a lifetime high of 1899.
Black was a fortunate 1300 player.
Nice job R. 😉

White made some seriously bad blunders there. Both strategic and tactical. His refusal to play the thematic Ne1 followed by f3 was the root of most of his problems. I'd say he was rated 1400-1500. It is much harder to guess blacks rating, with such a superior position good moves are found more easily, he was never really tested. I only found two possible mistakes 11...Nxe2 trading blacks best piece for whites worst and I think 13..f5 is stronger than Nf6. If I had to guess I'd say black is rated 1500-1600, but this is one of his better games.

Originally posted by Data Fly
OK, in that case 140 for White and 112 for Black (!) I thought Black played very well and White had a plan or two, but missed tactics. The fact that White didn't resign several moves before the end makes me think that even 140 might be too high, but I'll stick to that guess.

Yes sorry. A bit of a red herring there. White actually resigned on move 24, but it was easier to complete the pgn with checkmate than resignation. I'll provide the answer when I get in from work tonight, I'll just give Carlsen the chance to make a guess on his rest day 🙂

Black is either an IM or using computer:: patzers would have played ...f5 earlier.
ELO 2500
White can be any granny with crochet and knitting in her lap whilst she is killing time with online chess, or talantløss chess lover who just followed books.

Take a bow KnightStalker. I'm not sure if the rest of you are mixing up your white and black estimate or have guessed that the black player was me and are taking the piss by grading black lower than the white player despite the fact he won! Either way, even if I reverse your guesses, KnightStalker was almost spot on.

White was 1400, Black 1600.

I was black. The reason I asked is that white is certainly improving rapidly at the moment, and I, the black player am putting in some effort to improve too. There is obviously some lag in ratings, and my ECF rating has actually decreased, but I am certain that I am sharper and know more than I did two years ago! Just the basic endgame knowledge I have, compared to zero knowledge last year must have added 100 points to my ELO.

We've both had some (for us) spectacular results recently. And I have not lost a game this season in the 9 I have played so far for my club. The feedback is pleasing. And the place Knightstalker is wrong is that whilst I was very happy with my game here, I didn't cherry pick a good performance, I think this is the level I play at around 75% of the time now, and the times I don't is usually for some reason other than chess.

Originally posted by KnightStalker47
11...Nxe2 trading blacks best piece for whites worst and I think 13..f5 is stronger than Nf6

When I played 11... Nxe2 I did consider that I was exchanging a good piece for a less well placed one. But my intention in doing so was that if I did not then the bishop could escape on the next move, and by doing so I hoped to exchange a possibly temporary advantage (good knight) for a hopefully permanent one (bishop pair vs knight and bishop) with the position about to open up.

Does anybody here think that is sufficient justification? Or do you still consider it a weak move?



Anyway. For the correct guess Knightstalker, I'd like to buy you a christmas present. If you choose a chess book from amazon or some such place and PM me the link, along with your address I'll get it shipped to you by christmas.

I'm just about to look through my win the following night, once I've done so I'll also post that to this thread.

I had black again, my seventh black in nine games 🙁 This time against a 1500 player.

Having looked through it, and run it through the computer I played a lot worse than I thought, but at least I got to use some of my new endgame skills this time.



I'll try and justify the blunders, if you disagree with my thoughts or have any advice, please feel free to share.

10..... exd4
Because my opponent had not castled I considered it a good idea to open up the centre. Though I usually play better with this opening when the centre is shut. I should probably have poot my Rook on e8 or Queen on e7, knowing what to do following the e5 break is one of the things I get wrong in this opening

15. ... Be6 this was straight out stupidity, I absent mindedly picked up the piece whilst thinking, no idea why. Then I held my finger on it over the e6 square. I should probably have moved it back to d2 instead but decided I was happy to exchange and double up on the e file

22. ..... Nd4 Intending RxN, BxR, QxB and thinking I was okay to swap my two minor pieces for a rook, whilst if my opponent captured in the wrong order I'd be clearly better. However, Fritz has pointed out to me that this is a losing move.

Very lucky to survive then, but took my chance and saw things (the big exchages down the e file) clearly following the completely unnecessary 26. g3, and then got some endgame practice.