Like The Chess? Here's An Excellent Chess Channel

[Inyo]

Among my favorite YouTube chess channels is the one operated by Antonio Radić (AKA, Agadmator Chess), who with entertaining interpretive expertise analyzes (on average) at least one game of chess each day--many from current interesting chess tournaments around the globe that feature grandmaster luminaries demonstrating chessic brilliance, including of course current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen: he who hails from Norway--he who will attempt to defend his chess championship status versus challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi (affectionately called Nepo) of Russia in Dubai starting November 24, 2021.

One must note that Carlsen presently holds the triple crown of chess mastery: for example, he is top-rated and world champion in all three time-controlled tournament disciplines--blitz chess (five minute game); rapid chess (game in 30 minutes); and classical time-control chess (first 40 moves in an hour and a half, then game in 30 minutes, with 30 seconds added starting from move one). For the World Championship match, time controls will be as follows: "100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move one." Quoted material from the web page over at https://www.chess.com/club/the-class...m%20move%20one .

While perusing Agadmator's chess channel the other day, I came upon a famous 1858 game that features Paul Morphy (born in New Orleans, Louisiana)--usually considered chess's first unofficial World Champion--a genuine chess prodigy who from 1857-1858, at the age of 20 to 21, eventually crushed with convincing dominance every chess master of his day that he was able to encounter; of course, he wasn't able to play everybody of chessic impressiveness.

Several powerful players in Germany, for example, were beyond Morphy's travel reach (though Morphy graciously paid for Adolf Anderrsen's travel expenses from Germany to Paris for their match in December, 1858--soon after which Morphy returned to the US, under extreme pressure from his parents to do so), and one of England's historic greats--Howard Staunton--famously ducked Morphy one on one, although Morphy did defeat Staunton in the two consultation games they played, where Morphy and Staunton each teamed up with a partner player to create a two on two scenario.

Operative word here is "eventually," because for some peculiar reason or another Morphy, among his acknowledged extraordinarily strong opponents (Louis Paulsen, Adolf Anderssen--who later succeeded Morphy as the second unofficial world chess champion in 1862, after Morphy had mysteriously retired from the game at the very height of his powers--and Johann Jacob Löwenthal, for example), all of whom he vanquished with efficient ease, had especial early difficulties gaining the advantage over a brilliant chess master named Daniel Harrwitz, a dedicated professional chess player who frequented cafes, dispatching all adversaries with a practiced chessic technique.

So the back story here is that while in Paris on a European chess tour in 1858, Morphy challenged Harrwitz to a chess match: first person to gain seven wins would achieve victory. Harrwitz refused at first. But Morphy persistently pursued, refusing to take no for an answer, would not let Harrwitz off the hook, so to speak, wanting to play all the great chess masters of Europe that he could, not wishing to let Harrwitz escape unscathed.

Bottom line: Harrwitz finally agreed to play at least one preliminary off-hand game against Morphy before deciding to enter a match contest. They played that lone skittles game at the Café de la Régence, where in 37 masterful moves Harrwitz beat Morphy (playing the white pieces) with a Philidor Defense. Only after that favorable outcome did Harrwitz eventually agree to the match with Morphy. Conditions were set. Arrangements made. The match began.

And Harrwitz "inexplicably" won the first two games of the match. Harrwitz had thus defeated Paul Morphy three consecutive times, an unprecedented accomplishment versus Morphy in a level game; he once lost three games in a row to a very strong individual against whom he'd perhaps arrogantly given knight odds--that is to say, Morphy had removed one of his own knights from the game--but in that specific case he came back strong to win the next five of six games played, thus winning the match.

An instructive aside here is to note that Morphy is not unique in experiencing difficulties with a single opponent. Several historically magnificent chess players have suffered at the hands of specific individuals whose power over them has constituted a situation tantamount to Super Man encountering kryptonite. Observe please that Bobby Fischer, prior to his domination of Boris Spasky for the world chess title in 1972, had never before defeated BS head to head. Spasky had a 5-0 all time advantage over Fischer before BF triumphed over Boris. Then too, today's World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has in head to head classical chess tournament time activity fallen to his future challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi four losses to one victory, though Carlsen does indeed hold the overall advantage over "Nepo" in rapid and blitz games.

But back to the Harrwitz circumstance. Morphy was far from intimidated; he clearly did not consider Harrwitz a harrowing experience. He told astonished folks sitting at the table, in the aftermath of that third loss in a row (two consecutive match play defeats) that Harrwitz would not win another game.

The prediction came true. Morphy rattled off four wins in a row, drawing the seventh game, then polished Harrwitz off in fine style in the eighth and what turned out to be the final game of the match. Deeply dispirited and depressed, Harrwitz officially quit the match at that point, and so Morphy won the match with five wins, two losses and a draw.

The first video, below, is from Agadmator's chess channel, where Antonio Radić expertly analyzes game four of the Morphy-Harrwitz match. It's the critical game where Morphy finally evens the score versus Harrwitz--two wins apiece. It's a brilliant game, indeed.

A bonus here, before Antonio proceeds to analyze the chess game, is an AI-Deep Learning "animation," created from a high resolution photograph of Paul Morphy, bringing the famed chess champion back to life, in a way.



Here's another quality video from Agadmator's superior chess channel, originally posted to YouTube on June 1, 2021. It's game seven of the second day of the tournament championship match between current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Wesley So at the FTX Crypto Cup (2021), a rapid chess tournament (game in 30 minutes), where the combatants, unable to decide the winner in their previous multiple games, have now entered terrifying territory known as Armageddon.

It's a dead-bang sudden death situation. Winner of this game wins the tournament. The dramatic difference here in chess Armageddon is that it's now a modified blitz game--Magnus plays with the white pieces and receives five minutes on the time clock; with the black pieces, Wesley gets only four minutes to play an entire game, though the gimmick here is that the individual playing with the white pieces must WIN the game. Wesley only needs to draw, or win of course, to achieve the tournament victory.

[Caddy]

Best game ever. Thanks!

[jpd]

Sent this to a buddy that plays at the St louis chess club...

[AX17609]

The Chess24 channel has a whole bunch of episodes in which subscribers to that service play Magnus Carlson in 5 minute blitz games that he narrates. He often plays with reckless abandon as he tries to push his opponent out of pre-planned lines.

[TBman]

I used to love playing chess with my father and other family members. I think I beat my father once, and he was half asleep at the time,

We used to get Chess Magazine and I loved the forced move puzzles included in each issue. At one point I had one of those dedicated talking chess playing computers which was a lot of fun when no one else felt like playing.

Now and then I play with our youngest son and I'm continuing the father can't lose to son tradition,

I should get a program for my PC as the phone apps are too small.

Ever play against someone who claims they can play and then when you castle, they look at you like "What??"

That's when you know En passant is out the window too

[frankmcr]

I used to be interested in chess, stories of the golden age of Morphy, Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer . . . the days when imagination and insight and creativity were the most important characteristics of a great player.

Eventually it evolved into a game of rote memorization - incredibly mentally demanding, yes, but no more interesting to me than watching somebody reciting a thousand digits of pi.

YMMV.

[AX17609]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

I used to be interested in chess, stories of the golden age of Morphy, Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer . . . the days when imagination and insight and creativity were the most important characteristics of a great player.

Eventually it evolved into a game of rote memorization - incredibly mentally demanding, yes, but no more interesting to me than watching somebody reciting a thousand digits of pi.

YMMV.

True of many but not Magnus. Watch him create, and you appreciate that he’s no cyborg.

[deltoid]

I frequently visit Agadmator's channel. I also like a channel called Coffee Chess https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq6...RIvVeF-sJwdaBg

that I visit everyday. It features one blitz game a day of players that are in the 1800 - 2000 Elo range with a quick analysis at the end. It's usually the same 10 or so bunch of guys that like to trash talk each other while playing.

It's usually highly entertaining.

[Glennwillow]

This is cool stuff, Inyo! Thank you!

- Glenn

[Riverwolf]

About 10 years ago I bought a computer chess game to learn from scratch.
It had 100 levels.
Took me awhile but I finally beat level one.
I made it to level three where I stalled out.
Not my game I guess...

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by Inyo

Among my favorite YouTube chess channels is the one operated by Antonio Radić (AKA, Agadmator Chess).

While perusing Agadmator's chess channel the other day, I came upon a famous 1858 game that features Paul Morphy (born in New Orleans, Louisiana)--usually considered chess's first unofficial World Champion--a genuine chess prodigy who from 1857-1858, at the age of 20 to 21, eventually crushed with convincing dominance every chess master of his day.

Among his acknowledged extraordinarily strong opponents were Louis Paulsen, Adolf Anderssen--who later succeeded Morphy as the second unofficial world chess champion in 1862 after Morphy had mysteriously retired from the game at the very height of his powers--and Johann Jacob Löwenthal, all of whom he vanquished with efficient ease.

After re-reading my previous original post in this thread, I noticed that I had neglected to provide some pertinent information regarding a couple of Morphy's famous opponents: Louis Paulsen (born: January 15, 1833, Blomberg, Germany; died: August 18, 1891, Blomberg, Germany) and Johann Jacob Löwenthal (born: July 15, 1810, Budapest, Hungary; died 24 July 1876, Hastings, England)

First off, one must note that Morphy (born: June 22, 1837, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States; died: July 10, 1884, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States) annihilated Paulsen 6-1 (with two draws) in the first American Chess Congress, held in New York in late 1857, where they met in the final match of an eight round knockout tournament to determine the first US chess champion, the individual who would thus travel to Europe to determine the de facto (though still unofficial) World Champion of chess by playing all the great masters of Europe. Of course, not until 1886, two years after Paul Morphy's passing, did Wilhelm Steinitz (born May 14, 1836, Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire--now in Czech Republic—died August 12, 1900, Wards Island, New York, U.S.) proclaim himself the first official world champion of Chess.

According to ChessMetrics, Paulsen was the #1 ranked player in the world during 39 different months between April 1862 and July 1878. Before his match with Morphy in 1857, Paulsen (a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, at the time) had barnstormed the US, demonstrating impressive skill at blindfold chess, regularly playing from 10 to 12 individuals without actually seeing the board. In 1958, Morphy would with superior success play a famous blindfold simultaneous exhibition versus eight of the strongest competitors in Paris--winning six and drawing two.

Here's Antonio Radić's (Agadmator Chess) excellent analysis of Morphy's immortal game 6 versus Louis Paulsen, from the first American Chess Congress, held in New York, late 1857. It's a truly remarkable game, indeed:



Now, about Johann Jacob Löwenthal--the Hungarian great who according to ChessMetrics ranked #2 in the world for seven months through October 1858 to April 1859, and #3 in the world in June 1859; he who had actually lost three straight games to Morphy (drawing one) in 1850 in New Orleans, when Morphy was but 12 years old.

As fate would conspire, Löwenthal was the first chess master Morphy played after docking in Europe in 1858--an oceanic voyage that had reportedly left Morphy reeling with illness, suffering from debilitating physical prostration; still, Morphy agreed to play Löwenthal, as scheduled, having promised his old rival "first dibs," as it were.

Agreed terms for the match: First to win nine games emerges victorious. And Morphy decisively demolished Löwenthal 9-3, with two draws. In the immediate aftermath of his crushing defeat, Löwenthal--a professional chess player (Morphy with consistent dedication avoided such a label, chivalrously using the 100 pound prize match winnings to purchase for Löwenthal's new house a furniture set valued at 120 pounds)--supposedly remarked: "I am convinced that I was vanquished by superior strength."

A side note here is that just days after his defeat at the hands of Morphy, Löwenthal scored one of his greatest chessic achievements: first place at British Chess Association Congress knockout tournament in Birmingham, England, on 27 August 1858, with a prize worth 63 pounds.

Here's Antonio Radić's (Agadmator Chess) analysis of the first meeting between 12 year-old Paul Morphy and Löwenthal in 1850:

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by Inyo

Among my favorite YouTube chess channels is the one operated by Antonio Radić (AKA, Agadmator Chess), who with entertaining interpretive expertise analyzes (on average) at least one game of chess each day--many from current interesting chess tournaments around the globe that feature grandmaster luminaries demonstrating chessic brilliance, including of course current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen: he who hails from Norway--he who will attempt to defend his chess championship status versus challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi (affectionately called Nepo) of Russia in Dubai starting November 24, 2021.

I am undeading this thread in order to supply supplemental information:

The 2021 World Chess Championship is indeed underway in Dubai, where reigning champ Magnus Carlsen holds a 5-3 lead over challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi (AKA, Nepo) in a fourteen game match. Eight games have been played thus far--Carlsen has won two, with six draws (one point for a win, a half point each for a draw).

Here's Antonio Radić's expert analysis of game eight, played yesterday, from his Agadmator Chess channel:

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by TBman

I used to love playing chess with my father and other family members. I think I beat my father once, and he was half asleep at the time,

We used to get Chess Magazine and I loved the forced move puzzles included in each issue. At one point I had one of those dedicated talking chess playing computers which was a lot of fun when no one else felt like playing.

Now and then I play with our youngest son and I'm continuing the father can't lose to son tradition,

I should get a program for my PC as the phone apps are too small.

Ever play against someone who claims they can play and then when you castle, they look at you like "What??"

That's when you know En passant is out the window too

Just tell the other player that it is a pawn's game after all.

Tony

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by Inyo

I am undeading this thread in order to supply supplemental information...

All your posts much appreciated. Many years ago I enjoyed studying famous matches, so all these are great to watch!

[TBman]

Interesting info Inyo, thanks, I enjoyed the read. I have to find a decent game on the PC to play against.