Thanks Mark, and Happy New Year to you too! 
Pardon our Blunders recap for 12/30!!
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Welcome everyone to the final Chess.com/TV show recap for 2011! Today's Pardon our Blunders aired a little earlier than usual at 8 AM Pacific/11 AM Eastern/4 PM London time, was open to ALL members, and featured in the opinion of our Hosts, the Top 6 Blunders of the Year. Naturally, each had their own way of judging the Top 6, all of which I will go through along with the main 5 topics of the show in the usual PoB format.
Here are the Main 5 topics that were covered today with sidekick links for certain ones:
The Top Blunders will be listed underneath the main topic recaps
Topic #1: Groningen and Hess: Has America had enough of the Naka phenomenon and are ready to look towards another GM to make it to the top? Is GM Robert Hess that new "go to guy?" The tournament started on the 21st and ends today, Robert Hess has a share of the lead with a 7.0/9 with Ukrainian GM Alexander Kovchan, but was edged out in a tie-break by Kovchan. I'm also enclosing the TWIC article about this tournament but should we start looking towards a newer face for American chess now that Naka has pierced the Top 10 and is among the world's Super Elite like Anand, Magnus, Aronian and Ivanchuk? Will a great performance like this from America's "other young stud" GM or will it mean he just enjoys his college holiday break more? Did his decision to go to school alter his "stock" in chess after finishing 2nd to Naka in the U.S. Chess Championships several years back? Does the future hold anything special or interesting for Hess?
Topic #2: Winter Chess Wonderlands: There are many tournaments active right now around the world, many of them holding big names as we just saw with Groningen. The Reggio Emelia tournament, headed by Nakamura, Giri and Ivanchuk, is underway in Italy. There is the Rilton Cup taking place in Sweden, and Donostia, which is in progress in Spain. Which one(s) have you been following either because of the "star-power" involved or just the ones you've been interested in over the years? The Rilton Cup's line-up isn't that shiny, and according to David, those really bad players involved lead to more bloodshed on the board. My kind of tournament.
Topic #3: Naka on playing more chess after London and his future: So, the Kaspy marriage is over and kaput and now Naka is in Italy at the 54th Reggio Emelia tournament and doing quite well according to the crosstable, currently in 2nd with Alexander Morozevich in 1st. The tournament ends January 6th. Naka now just wants to play more games and is inspired to play more chess after the recent London Chess Classic, won by Vladimir Kramnik (
) instead of a 3-peat by Carlsen. Will the future hold a chance for Naka to battle for the World Championship?
Topic #4: The difference between 2750 and 2650 FIDE? Is it all killer instinct and devotion to the game? Or is it solely based on talent? Does starting chess steadily at a certain age also have something to do with the difference in rating? 2650 players are still very strong and as David said, they're still "beasts." 2750, according to them, has more killer drive, study more/opening prep, and a better work ethic. Or is it solely based on talent alone? Do the 2800s merely just study more and prep more or is it just natural talent that separates them?
Topic #5: Beginners - Classical Chess or going "Modern": A book series by Garry Kasparov, "My Great Predecessors" came up in this topic. A series that personally I have two books of and find them absolutely awesome to read and learn more about the history of chess that has brought us to the current times. Are the fundamentals in chess still as important as they used to be or do the newer ideas overshadow them? Does computer programs like Chessbase 11 and engines like Houdini play more in progress of a player today or is it just deeper calculation and more opening prep?
OK, it's now time to go over the Blunders of the Year in the opinions of our Hosts David and Danny. There were 6 Candidates, each of them was ranked by our Hosts differently. David's rankings were quite opposite than that of Danny (no shock there) and it got pretty interesting to see.
Top Blunders:
#4/6 for Danny - #3/6 for David Candidates: “Letting” Gelfand win to challenge Anand
#6/6 for Danny - #1/6 for David: FIDE Not changing their rules to suit Magnus’ demands?
#5/6 for Danny - #2/6 for David - Naka breaking up with Kaspy?
#1/6 for Danny - #6/6 for David: Chess.com not going through with Checkers.com? http://www.chess.com/news/future-of-chesscom-is-checkers-3851
#2/6 for Danny - #5/6 for David: Nakamura, Ivanchuk. Carlsen losing consecutively to Pons at the same tournament (Bilbao)
#3/6 for Danny - #4/6 for David Anand’s chess play or lack thereof all year
Below are some personal blunders for Danny and David followed by their outlooks for 2012.
PoB Hosts Blunders of 2011:
Trusting intern on Kaspy’s return (that April Fool's joke that still burns my blood)
Danny’s attempt to grow facial hair
David’s attempts to reference pop culture
Worst Chess Moment of 2011 for Danny/David:
Danny: 6 consecutive losses at St Louis Norm Invitational
David: Berkeley Blunder
Go to 22...Nb4 and you can see how David is definitely in charge of the game at this point, holding the bishop pair. David then plays 23. Rxg6, sac'n his rook for the bishop, then played a3, kicking the knight to d3, after that, it was all over.
Chess Goals for 2012:
Danny: Play More Chess and win every game played
David: Improve Chess Rating
OK everyone! The recap for this show is over. I hope everyone enjoyed the show and this thread. Leave any comments on topics of interest for you and we'll see you in 2012!
Happy New Year!
-Mark