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Pick the winner This poll is closed. |
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| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
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2 | 13.33% |
| Ding Liren |
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8 | 53.33% |
| Anish Giri |
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0 | 0% |
| Sasha Grischuk |
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1 | 6.67% |
| Kirill Alekseenko |
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0 | 0% |
| Ian Nepomniatchni |
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2 | 13.33% |
| Wang Hao |
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0 | 0% |
| Fabiano Caruana |
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2 | 13.33% |
| Total: | 15 votes | ||
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 Welcome to the only international sports event which is going ahead, the double round robin tournament to determine who will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the title of World Chess Champion. The event is being held over the next three weeks in Yekaterinburg, Russia. There were two controversies before the tournament started, of course. The first was the organizer’s decision to invite the low-ranked Kirill Alekssenko with its wild card invitation. The choice was not without justification — Alekseenko was the highest non-qualifier in the Isle of Mann qualifying event — but he stands out as the only participant rated below 2700. The second is that Teymour Radjabov, who qualified by winning the World Cup, withdrew in protest because the organizers did not quarantine Wang Hao. Wang arrived from Japan and not China, so the organizers deemed that their protocol did not require quarantining him. (This also seems a bit silly in retrospect, given that Caruana arrived from the US last week.) He was replaced by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.  The games will begin at 4PM local time. This means 7AM Eastern Standard Time in North America, and 11AM UK time until March 29th. The final round starts one hour earlier. Games 1-3 March 17-19 Off day March 20 Games 4-6 March 21-23 Off day March 24 Off day March 28 Games 10-12 March 29-31 Off day April 1 Game 13 April 2 Game 14 April 3 (one hour earlier start) A brief 13-month intermission Games 8-10 April 19-21 Games 11-12 April 23-24 Games 13-14 April 26-27 Follow the moves: Chess24 Chessbomb There will be a number of commentary options on twitch. FIDE has an official account, as does Chess24. There will also be a number of independent accounts doing commentary, like the chessbrahs. If twitch isn’t your thing, FIDE also broadcasts over youtube Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Mar 17, 2020 11:26
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This really feels like a new era. A candidates no only without Anand or Kramnik, but even without 'young' staples like Aronian, Nakamura, So, or Karjakin. To my mind Ding has to be the favourite, but the margins always seem to be so small.
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Mar 17, 2020 11:30
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Drone posted:I didn't watch a ton during the last Candidates... at least, not a ton that I paid attention to (mostly just second monitor background noise). Who are the commentators to look out for as being particularly entertaining/informative, especially for viewers on the lower end of the Elo range band? I think Yasser was with the chessbrahs last time, and they tend to be way more personality-based. The FIDE stream tends to be well to the other side, very much aimed for lifers. I'm a fan of the chess24 stream, since it seems to be a good balance of insight and banter (especially when it's Jan and Peter and they get bored). Chess 24 also is gonna have Carlsen dropping in a few times. Another thing to try might be to just check the chess streams on twitch and see who is broadcasting. It looks like Ben Finegold is broadcasting, and I think several people here really like him. e: Magnus on chess24 now.
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Mar 17, 2020 11:59
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Vachier-Caruana and Giri-Nepomniatchni both looking sharp early, though both moved through theory fairly quickly which can sometimes be a sign of a quick draw coming. e: I'm also invested in how Ding-Wang develops, since I want to be able to play this as white.
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Mar 17, 2020 12:21
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First sacrifice of the candidates goes to Giri who has just given an exchange in a hell of a position. 
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Mar 17, 2020 12:58
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silvergoose posted:What in the gently caress is that position It's Giri so it's almost certainly prepared. If I had to guess, it's that Giri felt that had a big benefit in king safety in that position, and that his bishop pair would be able to exploit that. And with how it has continued, Giri really looks like he wants to exploit the light squares around Nepomniatchni's king. Meanwhile, Grischuk-Alekseenko is on move 12.
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Mar 17, 2020 14:09
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 This position really interests me. There's a sense in which it is quite simple. White has a tremendous knight on c4, and an eventual break with f4. Black needs to keep enough pressure on d3 to stop white from re-organzing, and bring the knight to trade off white's counterpart. And as I'm typing this Ding says "gently caress it" and just plows ahead with f4. e: Elsewhere, Giri may have blundered his queen. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Mar 17, 2020 |
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Mar 17, 2020 15:18
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Sub Par posted:The two games with results today were crazy. Giri playing like a machine and then blundering his queen, and then Ding with a big blunder as well. I was fairly confident we'd see Fabiano come out on top again, and today's results haven't changed that for me. The two draws also could've easily been results as well. Hell of a round one. I wonder if Ding's thrown off by having to gently caress around in a hotel for two weeks before playing, since he really just kind of exploded.
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Mar 17, 2020 18:06
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Sub Par posted:I was wondering that myself about Ding. It was just such bad (for a GM, not saying I could spot the errors in real time) positional chess from Ding. I'm used to watching him just build a commanding position and turn the screws of a flawless endgame so seeing him blow up like this was really unexpected. He played a really good game, but basically just missed black being able to manoeuver the rook to g6. If he sees that he knows he has to prepare f4 and can't just play it, and I really think that's a winning game for white before f4. After Rg6 he's in an awful spot, even if he had a saving tactic (which he missed due to having 30 seconds on the clock).
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Mar 17, 2020 18:36
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Round 2 kicking off. Got my eyes on Wang-Giri, since the line that Giri is playing absolutely tortures me as white and I wanna see how Wang handles it. Vachier-Ding also looks like it has potential with MVL playing an anti-Marshall, and Caruana is obviously going to be looking for the win with white against Alekseenko.
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Mar 18, 2020 12:09
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Ding misses another tactic/calculation line. I think he is officially shook.
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Mar 18, 2020 12:57
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Mukaikubo posted:Alekseenko's been calculating for 30 minutes on how to prevent a knight fork against Caruana. He's gotta be calculating pretty hard on a few options, because the immediate move to parry the threat [15. ...Rb8] seems fairly obvious even to a terrible amateur like me- probably a good sign that the position is really complex once you get into the variations. 15...Rb8 doesn't actually save the exchange. 15...Rb8 16.Nc7 Re4 17.Bd3. Now, I don't know if that's why Alekseenko didn't play it, since it's also not the computer's first-choice line. But it definitely doesn't look like something black would be happy to play into from a distance, especially when you continue the line 17...Bxd6 18.Bxe4 Nxe4 19.Nd5.
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Mar 18, 2020 14:56
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Wang is close to winning now. Not only would he be starting 2-0, he would have wins over two of the tournament favourites.
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Mar 18, 2020 15:47
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silvergoose posted:Did this game give you some thoughts on your lines? You mentioned you play this sort of stuff as black. The opposite. I play this as white and I have a lot of trouble against black. And yeah, the d4 pseudo-sacrifice is definitely food for thought.
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Mar 18, 2020 16:12
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Amazingly, Giri managed to hold against Wang yesterday. Other than a Petroff in Grischuk-Wang, the openings are looking pretty sharp today. Nepomniatchni with the French against Alekseenko, a Slav in Ding-Caruana, and a sideline against the Gruenfeld in Giri-Vachier.
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Mar 19, 2020 12:06
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Ding-Caruana is absolutely wild. Caruana is playing like he's still in prep and has a huge initiative, but Ding has two pawns for his pain. If Ding can stabilize he's probably winning but that's going to be a hell of an ask down a full hour in a position like this. (after 19 moves)
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Mar 19, 2020 13:41
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silvergoose posted:Jesus, the engine is giving wild swings on every move because it can't read ahead enough. They made time control and Ding is cleanly up a piece. All he has to do is not immediately explode against the threat of f5 and he's back in the tournament. What a weird game. It really feels like Caruana prepared the whole way and just followed it through to a loss.
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Mar 19, 2020 15:47
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Opening choices today have strong "four draw" energy. I look forward to being wrong.
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Mar 21, 2020 12:07
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silvergoose posted:That'll help the giri bettors for chess24 premium or whatever. Ding-Giri is very fundamental and is textbook good for white, but because it's so textbook I suspect that Giri knows how to hold it. e: Caruana looks like he has a good grind against Nepomniachtchi.
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Mar 21, 2020 14:28
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Wang-Alekseenko getting sharp, and each are under 10 minutes with 11 moves to time control.
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Mar 21, 2020 15:42
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Openings looking sharper today. Jan is saying in particular that black has some dangerous ideas in the line of the Spanish being played in Grischuk-Ding. We also have a good ol' Najdorf in Alekseenko-Vachier.
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Mar 22, 2020 12:15
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L E T ' S G O
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Mar 22, 2020 12:37
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Caruana starting to look like being in a bit of trouble against Giri. Grischuk-Ding also looks potentially dynamic, though it's moving at the pace of Grichuk's thinking.
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Mar 22, 2020 13:38
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silvergoose posted:Sharp, but drawing anyway?? Any position that is not won is drawn but, uh, I feel like Caruana is gonna have to put in some work to get there.
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Mar 22, 2020 14:06
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silvergoose posted:That bishop pair, despite being on the back line, are sending some serious domination towards the queenside. Right now, the most important feature of black's queenside shittiness is that it makes it too hard for Caruana to close and control the middle of the board. So long as Caruana can't do that, the bishops are going to be very good. Further, so long as he can't do that, white is going to have a much easier time launching an attack on the kingside, since black will have a tough time shuffling over to defend. e: yeah, f4 suggests that Giri's plan is to play Be2, h5, and land a heavy piece on h8. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Mar 22, 2020 |
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Mar 22, 2020 14:10
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 Caruana going with the Alfred E Newman approach to defending his dark squares. e: Jan asking what a soy boy is, not getting any answers, and then saying Svidler would know. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Mar 22, 2020 |
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Mar 22, 2020 15:05
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Wang blundered and exploded against Nepomniachtchi, so Wang is back to even while Nepomniachtchi is up to +2. Meanwhile, it looks like Giri failed to put the game away against Caruana.
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Mar 22, 2020 15:51
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silvergoose posted:Could nepo win the whole thing and make everyone mad?? I would not be mad.
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Mar 22, 2020 17:32
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kalensc posted:Wasn't it Alekseenko that was the somewhat controversial Wild Card over MVL? Yes. Nepomniachtchi qualified through Isle of Mann. Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Does anyone in the field have a chance against Magnus A chance? Sure. I feel like Ding's got the best shot of it, but they're all serious underdogs.
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Mar 22, 2020 21:12
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Some frisky looking openings in the game before the offday.
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Mar 23, 2020 12:10
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I like this little Be2 manoeuvre Grischuk has done to keep the knight out of b5. e: Ding is getting smushed. Not a good tournament for him so far, despite beating Caruana. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Mar 23, 2020 |
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Mar 23, 2020 14:08
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Koskinator posted:I feel like Nepo was considered around the third strongest player in terms of current form behind Ding and Caruana before this started. He was the fourth-highest rated player at the start of the tournament (since passed Grischuk, and actually closing in on Ding), but he was also a full 70 points short of Caruana and holds a reputation for inconsistency. Also Giri doing some work to get blood from a stone here. It would get Giri back up to 50% going into the rest day.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:31
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Giri with the technique to win the knight endgame on move 98.vyelkin posted:Worth mentioning also that I think Nepo is the only candidate with a positive record against Carlsen in classical. Nepomniachtchi is +4 -1 =6, but of those 4 wins, 1 is from the U12 in 2002, 1 is from the U14 in 2004, and a third is from 2011. e: Looks like the fourth win, in 2017, was a straightforward tactical blunder by Carlsen.
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Mar 23, 2020 19:11
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Nepomniachtchi breaks out the Winawer against Vachier-Lagrave, basically daring regression to the mean to come and get him.
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Mar 25, 2020 12:04
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Kangra posted:This should be around the time that players start to push a little harder for points. Could see some more risks being taken. Ironically it looks like the player a full point clear in first who is getting punished for being too risky.
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Mar 25, 2020 14:10
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"How has the first half of your tournament gone" was not the right question to ask there. Alekseenko looked like he was on the verge of tears. e: Wang skips the guaranteed draw to explore some winning chances. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Mar 25, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 15:37
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And with that, Vachier-Lagrave is the tournament leader.
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Mar 25, 2020 15:52
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Um I think they just suspended Candidates. e: https://www.fide.com/news/462 quote:Today, the government of the Russian Federation announced that starting March 27, 2020, Russia interrupts air traffic with other countries without indicating any time frames.
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Mar 26, 2020 10:16
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Sub Par posted:Radjabov got hosed. Hoist by his own racism. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Mar 27, 2020 |
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Mar 27, 2020 13:37
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:33 |
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Carbolic posted:I wasn't following Radjabov's withdrawal that closely. Did he drop out specifically because Ding and Wang are from China? If it was just out of a general concern over the coronavirus, I would say that he was entirely vindicated in that decision. As much as I enjoyed following the first seven rounds, the event should never have been held on schedule. He dropped out because Wang wasn't quarantined. Ding was quarantined because actually came from China. Wang came from Japan, but apparently being ethnically Chinese was enough to spook Radjabov into withdrawing. This was particularly funny when Caruana arrived from I think New York on the 12th, but of course was not quarantined.
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Mar 27, 2020 22:13
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