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Wesley So vs Alireza Firouzja
Tata Steel Masters (2020), Wijk aan Zee NED, rd 4, Jan-14
Queen's Gambit Accepted: Classical Defense. Main Lines (D27)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 5 OF 5 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jan-14-20  not not: So plays like Petrosian. do nothing and let second player to come up with idea, wrong idea!
Jan-14-20  Gypsy: <not not: So plays like Petrosian. do nothing and let second player to come up with idea, wrong idea!>

Yes, So does resemble Petrosian quite a bit. (In terms of style, of course) And yes, Petrosian won many a game because his opponent played a "wrong idea". But let's not make a mistake in our assessment of Petrosian style! Petrosian never just "did nothing"; instead played powerful and deep strategic schemes, but such that they were slow in developing. In the mean-time, he depended on his prophylactic measures and tactical skills to keep him out of more immediate troubles. And that is how he won many games: when his opponents, in fear of being slowly ground down, decided to "go for it".

Jan-14-20  Ulhumbrus: If after 15...e5 the pawn is going to become a target - and in the game Black concedes the bishop pair in order to reduce the pressure on it - one alternative is 15...Rfd8 getting the king's rook out.
Jan-14-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  ajk68: 46. a4! what a great move.
Jan-14-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  AylerKupp: <kamotekayo> The "outcast" have been banned from posting in the So page because the So supporters cannot tolerate anything less than 100% So worship. I know.
Jan-14-20  ndg2: This is a fine positional win by Wesley. After 7..cxd4 I would have taken with the e-pawn, but Wesley shows that the humble 8.Nxd4 still contains some venom due to a cramped black queen side. The natural looking 15..e5 is understandable, but once black has to give the LSB to protect e5, it becomes clear that the white's remaining bishop pair will always account for something.

It's astonishing and instructive how fast black's position crumbles afterwards, especially after the white king advance to black's queen side (under temporary pawn sac).

I cannot help but to think that chess960 has influenced Wesley here. In FR you often don't do that much, just standing good (especiallly with the bishops) and watch your opponent self-destruct.

Jan-14-20  Carrots and Pizza: <not not: So plays like Petrosian. do nothing and let second player to come up with idea, wrong idea!>

As is so often the case. It takes great patience to make little moves that slowly improve your position. The computers do this all the time and it looks like they're just pushing wood (sometimes they are) but we can learn a lot from this approach. Let the other guy create weaknesses and then start playing aggressively again.

Jan-14-20  ambongtumbong: <torrefan: The drawing machine vs. the tactical genius.> based on the result of this game who is the drawing machine and who is the tactical genius? just for clarification.
Jan-14-20  Jambow: I would say that from move 25.Qd3 Wesley has started to work towards his end game plan with two Bishops vs Bishop and knight with his king being more active. His follow up play was precise getting his passer next to his king free while his dark square bishop stops blacks passer.

This quality of play beckons me to believe that Wesley will probably be back in the 2800 club again before too long.

Jan-14-20  kamotekayo: aylerkupp pal, then you know nothing.
Jan-15-20  The Kings Domain: Good win by So. His solid opening gave his pieces space which helped secure him victory.
Jan-15-20  SugarDom: Enjoy it for now. Nobody can stop the rise of the New Kid on the Block - the Persian Phenom.
Jan-15-20  tuttifrutty: Nice win by the FRC champion.
Jan-15-20  Ulhumbrus: < Carrots and Pizza: <not not: So plays like Petrosian. do nothing and let second player to come up with idea, wrong idea!>

As is so often the case. It takes great patience to make little moves that slowly improve your position. The computers do this all the time and it looks like they're just pushing wood (sometimes they are) but we can learn a lot from this approach. Let the other guy create weaknesses and then start playing aggressively again.> This suggests that the computer –as did Petrosian – carries out a complicated plan slowly instead of carrying out a simple plan quickly.

Jan-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  AylerKupp: <<kamotekayo> aylerkupp pal, then you know nothing.>

Well, in this case I do know. I'm banned from posting in the Wesley So page because the webmaster was told that I "Wesley to do badly because you hated his fans." And that this was "was provocative to the fans who un (sic) the site and while Wesley also struggles with some Filipino fans this is a tribal thing that we cannot control. They are an emotional and quick tempered people."

The first statement is utter nonsense since I dare anyone to provide a link to a post where I said that I wanted So to do badly. I have never wished So (or any other GM) anything but the best of luck in any of the events he has played in and I also dare anyone to provide a link to any post where I said otherwise.

And I never hated his fans although I did made fun of them when they spouted nonsense like So being tied for second place in a tournament when he was ½ point behind the leaders when there were 3 or 4 players with higher scores. I also apparently "dared" to correct posters at his page when they made factual errors, even though I usually provided a link to the source of my information.

But apparently his fans are "an emotional and quick tempered people" as though I was somehow responsible for that and therefore must be "punished" for it. Apparently "members wanted a safe place to have a positive and uplifting fan club and felt that your comments were almost exclusively negative and demeaning to Wesley." This in spite to my providing multiple links to posts where I did nothing but praise So and wish him well. But I was told that the webmaster was too busy to check the links I provided. Apparently the webmaster took the word of influential So fanboys who did not want anything that was 100% supportive of So to appear on his page, and made no attempt to verify otherwise.

Yes, I have the emails from members of his team to prove what I said above. So please provide us with any information you have to the contrary. And I am not your "pal".

Jan-21-20  Pulo y Gata: "pal" is a play on Kupp pal =kupal which in their language refers to that smelly thing that gathers on a man's genitals when he does not wash for days or weeks.
Jan-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: <AylerKupp> It's great that you keep saying how you don't care about posting on the Wesley So page, as otherwise people might mistakenly believe that you care about posting on the Wesley So page. Except you can't post on the Wesley So page, after you were banished from the Wesley So page.

I suspect it had something to do with this:

<Sorry, but I characterize any extreme gushing fandom which has no basis on fact as "deluded". If the shoe fits, wear it.

As far the "Great Banishment of May 2015", you're right; I was not very knowledgeable about it since I didn't (and I still don't) care much about it one way or the other. Now that thanks to [Amulet] I am somewhat better informed, I think that it was a big mountain made out of a small molehill. This "ever present malice" is not very real and it is mostly a figment of yours and very few others' imagination who think that anyone that is not (fanatically) pro-So is automatically (fanatically) anti-So. And that is just not the case.

As far as the rewriting of his bio being between So and [chessgames.com], you're right. But no one other than [chessgames.com], including you, tells me to drop it, no matter how nicely, if I don't want to, as long as I adhere to [chessgames.com]'s posting guidelines. After all, it's something that happened, and it might be of interest to others. I'm just expressing my opinion, as I am entitled to, that I consider it a mistake by [chessgames.com] to have apparently caved in to unreasonable demands by So and others, and that the site is worse for it.>

Wesley So (kibitz #211006)

Perhaps you viewed your contribution as *enlightened commentary* while Team Wesley took it as *quarrelling*. Five years after the Great Banishment of May 2015, that page functions like normal, and that name player still visits us here.

I warned you to drop it and I was right.

Go Wesley.

Jan-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  saffuna: <It's great that you keep saying how you don't care about posting on the Wesley So page, as otherwise people might mistakenly believe that you care about posting on the Wesley So page. >

The Wesley So page is not for discussion of the player and his career, as are virtually all others. It is a Wesley So admiration and cheerleading page, and those who don't admire or cheer face or point out inconvenient truths risk being banned.

Jan-22-20  wordfunph: <that smelly thing that gathers on a man's genitals when he does not wash for days or weeks.>

Smegma, which in the tagalog language is "kupal."

Jan-22-20  wordfunph: The So page is an exclusive resort for a cult, with its idol, its high priest and its members-fanatics. You can visit like a tourist but if you say anything negative at all about their idol, you will be banned for life.
Feb-07-20  jerry crus: And <Wordfun> is the former high priest right.You wrote my name that im from cavite remember
Feb-07-20  torrefan: That's not what a high priest does. A high priest is one who, when he tells you to sit, you sit. Wordfunph was just a checker.
Feb-07-20  Everett: I'm not sure if I've ever posted on the So page. I like his chess tho, and wish him luck.
Feb-07-20  iking: <jerry crus: And <Wordfun> is the former high priest right.You wrote my name that im from cavite remember> ... the "high priest" por excellence, vanished forever.... <tpstar> is the man.
Feb-07-20  torrefan: <Everett: I'm not sure if I've ever posted on the So page. I like his chess tho, and wish him luck.>

The type of post the cult likes. Just don't explain why you don't post there as you'll risk being banned.

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