Don't take me wrong Fabiano, I also think Mecking has a fantastic positional feel for the game otherwise he would not have been number 3 in the world 30 (!) years ago. I am rooting from him and wish him well. However he is way past his peak. I am afraid this tournament is too strong for him and will be disappointing for his admirers (like myself).

I think Mecking will give his all in this tournament. I think he will have a great result and not be happy to simply draw his games. He has an extraordinary positional feelin and in the end this may pay.

dronavalli is in last place in the poll. chess players are such bigots.

Ed,
Thank you for your words. I just hope Mecking is reading these posts and sees how he is still apreciated even well over his peak form in the seventies.

Wesly So is the heavy favourite (as is reflected in the poll), he is the (next-to) youngest of the group and already highest rated..

I believe, it is a true pity that the organizers haven't put him in the B-group, he could have swapped places with Mecking, whom I predict to have a hard time there.

Howell is the one to beat.....absolutely no doubt

I agree with Jochem. It is actually really weird to see Mecking in the B-group. How did he ever deserve that? No doubt he used to be a great player, but isn't his presence in such a strong group more due to his curious personality rather than his current strength?

ceann,
Wesley So and David Howell met twice before and Wesley wins both games. I expect them to halve the points when they face in Corus. Wesley is the sentimental favorite to win the group.

I agree Mecking is going to have a tough time in Group B. He is still a great blitz player but does not have the stamina and physical strength to play long games in a long tournament due to his age and illness. He won two interzonals in the 1970s and was in the top three behind Karpov and Korchnoi in 1976 rating list I believe but after his retirement from chess due to his illness he was never able to recover his full chess strength. It is going to be interesting to follow his games though. He has become extremely conservative in chess and will be happy to draw all his games. Regretably for him everybody will go for the kill against him knowing that he has one of the lowest ratings in the tournament and tends to blunders after 3 or 4 hours of play.

Why are the comments etc. all in bold? :S

Wesley is great player. Let him play group C. It's great to see how he will do with it.

Hopeflly next time will be promoted to group B.

@Ben
Oops, because I forgot a closing tag somewhere. Fixed, thx.

Mecking on the making......

just do it...........

Why are there players in the C-group that are rated higher than some players in the B-group?

Congratulations Wesley for winning Group C of the tournament!

Go Wesley Go .. galingan mo kabayan... beat them hard . :)

You're doing great...carry on...present victory is now within reach...future glory awaits you. God bless!

i think it's wesley so. he's been at his peak since the olympiad and has recently won the gold in board 1 in a strong asian cities tournament..he is the highest rated player in the group yet one of the youngest...go wesley, lampaso mo sila lahat!!!

?ú

Mecking and Romanishin (and Smislov, Botvinik, Nimzovitch, etc..) are players from the time chess was resolved only by human minds in front of the chessboard. Nowadays players, with their inflated ratings, play with sopercomputing training and assistance before and after each game, and probably the first 20 or 30 moves of each actual "classic" games are known by memory (prepared) by both opponents previously from computer analysis. Maybe that's the reason why some young "strong" masters sometimes cannot find the decisive tactical sequences necessary to materialize their wining position, and you can see in this tournament blunders and missing victories on which I'm sure Mecking and Romanishin would rarely fall, in spite of their aged chess. So, for me, with these old masters, we are having a glimpse of the battle between old fashion profound human mind and the actual "computer adapted" human mind. Are we becoming more fast, but more stupid?

Not at all , not all the young players are so ¨lazy¨ about thinking over the board.
We are as stupid as in the past , but now we have computers to show us why.

Dear Mike,

I cannot but completely agree with you. The chess the Generation of Mecking and Romanishin plays are more kind of a "human" search of truth and beauty, a higher expression of art.

Noone can possibly memorize all relevant variations for the first 30 moves. Sometimes both players have prepared deeply for the same variation, then preparation may indeed go on for 30 moves or more. But this is a rarity. I would guess the average depth of preparation in GM play may be the first 10-20 moves.

Not finding decisive tactical sequences is human. It's the instant help of computer analysis that gives you the impression they are blundering. Try find those variations yourself, without the computer. Try analyze average GM games from the past. They seldom were flawless, just as today.