Valeri Kim vs. Anand Engineer - U2100 Final

 

Yes, of course I am :).

 

Second, Val's BH servers can be difficult to read.  This probably isn't an issue for his regular practice partners in Seattle, because you can get used to almost anyone's serves (again, unless they are pro or over 2600).  My take is that the kid had trouble reading the serves, so he didn't attack aggressively.  That can happen to anyone (including the pros) and when it does, it always makes you look worse.

 

Third, this being a final, I imagine there was a certain amount of nervousness involved.  That can make errors that you wouldn't  normally see.

 

Finally, videos do make us look a lot worse than we are.  Trust me, if you meet either of these opponents in a regular match, you'll wonder which train that you over (unless, of course, you're also 2100+).

 

It is said that to win an event at Nationals takes a skill level about 200 point higher than the event classification.  So where does that put Val?

 

During the break between the games, I approached Valeri to find out the game count. With a don't care attitude (or little furious) he has told me 'You can't talk to me' now. Hmmm....

 

I think Valeri is serious about his game. That is good though.

 

I think Anand is the US Cadet team.

 

I was little lost there. I came in the middle of the game and when I have approached him to talk, I have thought the match was over and the other chopper boy has won - the boy was writing in the clip board, so I made that assumption wrongly.

 

First of all, I agree with all those saying that this video is probably not fun to watch at all. Unless, you are me or Anand. I personally watched it already a dozen times (lots of moments in slow motion and rewinding a lot too).

 

Here's my vision on the flow of the game. I started the match as I always do. Short heavy underspin or short no-spin serves to the center or forehand, followed by a 3rd ball attack. After figuring out that I deal with a typical "developing kid" game (strong short game with good placement, but not much power in both opening and decisive shots), I decided to let Anand attack first, but from long and low heavy underspin. The plan was to block the 3rd ball to his right shoulder and then get points in counter rallies, but there were almost no rallies, because Anand couldn't read the spin on my serves (especially fast ones down the line or to his shoulder). He was also nervous and rushing a bit, very often going for a power loop instead of a slow and spinny opener. And the absence of rallies is what made this game so little fun to watch I guess.

 

There's also the absence of variety in all those short exchanges, but for this I am not taking the blame :). Why would I go for a different strategy if I was winning relatively easily and in such an important match?

 

In one thing, however, I think most posters are not entirely correct. There're 4 most important things in any player's arsenal. Serve, return of the serve, 3rd ball and 4th ball. 90% of all points at ALL levels are decided during these first 4 balls. And higher difference between player's levels always results in less rallies that get even to 4th ball. If you watch a game where Ma Long plays against somebody out of top 50, you will think that he really has no skills except for the serve and 3rd ball super powerfull attack that he doesn't even know how to vary the spin or placement. I hope you understand what I am trying to say here. If the match in this video was decided in the 5th set, there would probably be some entertaining rallies, aggressive returns of many serves and the whole style of the game changing few times.

 

And to support some posters, I can say that when I first watched the video of myself playing, I was horrified by the crappiness of my game :). But now I know that when Ma Long is watching videos of his matches he is also thinking very often "Why the hell did I do that? That was stupid. Ugh... uglyness" :).