Hi,

For those interested I've moved this to www.chessbet.blogspot.com as I don't want www.chess.com to tell me off for promoting betting :-)

Go checkout the latest result!

Mike

I did.  Didn't have the time.  Might start again soon :-)

Mike

Have you stopped betting?

Best of luck with Radjablob!

The result gives us £10.91 in the kitty.

I'm looking at a rapidplay bet later today, so for now I'm playing with change and sticking £0.5 on Radjabov to win, at odds of 21/10.

Down to £6.55 in the kitty, so I'm going to go against my rules and bet the pot!

Kramnik to win at 4/6.

It's been a while since our last bet, but with the Amber underway I think I'll have a punt this morning.

Karjakin v Kramnik (blind) looks good.  Karjakin has only scored 0.5/2 whilst Kramnik is on 2/2.  However, Kramnik is suffering in the rapidplay so needs to keep his blind scores up to stay in touch with the leaders.  I think Kramnik will be strong in this and have taken a bet on that.

At 17/10, we have £2 on Kramnik winning his blind match against Karjakin today.

I've been busy this week, but expect more next week!

Current £8.55 with £2 on Anand for the blind/rapid tourney!

Yes, I did!  Unfortunately.  The "big" loss took the kitty down to £7.55, but then the Topalov match win took us back up to £8.55.  This is our first time in "the red" so a nice litle long-term bet is on the cards.

The 2009 Melody Amber, in Nice, starts on 14th March.  A blindfold/rapid tournament.  Kramnik, Anand and Morozevich do well in this, but my money is on Anand.  At 11-4 to be the outright winner a nice little £2, should be fun.

What's your kitty looking like now? Did you bet on the Topalov-Kamsky game?

No play between Topalov and Kamsky today, so no bets on that today.

A bet on the Topalov and Kamsky drawing at 8-13 looks good. Kamsky needs a win, but has the Black pieces.  If he over stretches it'll be lost, so a solid game by both leave Kamsky the White pieces in the final game.  A big bet of £6.50 on this, because I don't think Topalov will want to push too hard knowing that he needs to hold a draw in the last game.

Thanks, Joe, but ultimatly the bookies will win - we just need to have fun along the way.

Today, I placed a £0.50 bet on 2 Black wins today. 6 Doubles = £3.

The 4 strongest players wewre on Black, but with Anand struggling and 2 games already drawn, that's £3 gone.

£14.05 in the kitty.

Nice to see a fellow Brit beating the bookies! Keep up the good work.

I forgot to mention the odds above, which were 8-11.

The result gives us a return of £8.58 and a kitty total of £17.05.

Whilst the game was in progress I placed a bet Topalov to win the match.  The odds were and I placed 1-2 and I placed just £2 on this.

It's important to remember that whilst are kitty is up 70.5% our bet size should not increase by this amount.  The most you should ever bet is half your kitty!

I'll have a look at Linares and possibly place a small bet on that tomorrow.

To prove my bets aren't reported after the event.  Here's today's bet!

I've placed £4.97 on the Kamsky v Topalov game going to at least 39 moves.

My reasoning is that the first game only went to 36 moves, because it was the "nervous" first game.  The second game went to 32 moves because of the open play and the 3rd game was decided a little early (a draw after 37 moves). The 4th game went well past 38 moves (77!) were Kamsky got his victory to bring the score back to 2-2.

Both players have just had a rest day and will be looking for stability (I hope).  Topalov is the better player (IMO) and has the White pieces, so will play for a win (especially after getting beat in the last game). Kamsky will try and force a draw.  I think this game will be a little longer.

Let's find out!