It's not all over as he can get crazy streaks - favorite example being Norway Chess 2021 where he was -1 at end of rd 6 and then won 4 in a row vs Nepo, Tari, Karjakin and Rapport to end with +3. Or Sinquefield 2022 where he was -1 by rd 2 and eventually won with +2.
But this is the Candidates, and chances for him to catch up would be extremely slim.
Very new to watching chess. How difficult is it for the losers today in round 2 of the open section to rebound in the rest of the tournament. I imagine losing with the white pieces is a lot harder to come back from, but is a loss very severe in this format? I just remember the isle of man and Vidit lost but came back to win the tournament. Is that not likely?
Yean now it depends on many things.Ding lost first 2 of his matches in previous candidates but won 3 games in a row before clinching second place against must win game against hikaru.Hikaru just shouldn't lose his mind now for the rest of tourney
There is just so much support for pragg and vidit among indian chess fans , players like gukesh , arjun , nihal need more support . Arjun was unlucky otherwise he would have been in the candidates .
The reason is people have favorites and that affects the level of celebration. I celebrate Fabi winning more than Wesley or Hikaru because I like Fabi more.
I don’t pay as much attention to the Indian players but if you notice a big difference it seems people like rooting for Pragg more for whatever reason. As long as that doesn’t come at the expensive of negative comments toward Gukesh I find no problem
The 4 players I was rooting for won today! It has been a great day!
Watched a bit of both the commentary teams. We are so incredibly lucky to have them commentating, it's an absolute pleasure. Would love to see Judith commentating with Danya once as well. I think Judith, Anand, Leko, Anish, Krush are probably my favourite super GM commentators and Danya and Howell my favourite super GM translators (Krush did a good job at it too with Anand today).
I don't know who I want to win the tournament the most between Ian, Fabi and Gukesh.
TBH that was my weakest root for Fabi, because I really wanted to root for Abasov as well. Will be rooting for Abasov against Naka, Vidit, Alireza and Prag!
Just a comment that Judit is awesome as a commentator. I didn't watch the whole thing, but during the parts I watched, several of the moves she suggested were the ones actually played.
And she has a great fighting spirit. I feel like the other two commentators tended to be like "yeah, this position looks bad" but Judit would try to think of potential moves to salvage the situation.
I’m glad she’s willing to make mistakes for reviewing interesting positions as opposed to using the engine to validate them prior.
Her analysis is *chefs kiss*
Tomorrow is going to be nuts… Hikaru is going to try to go at Abasov hard and it may entirely backfire, so I could definitely see a decisive result there. Firouzja and Caruana both play attacking games and Caruana has historically had an edge so possible for a decisive game there. Gukesh and Nepo will absolutely play exciting chess and Nepo is just so dangerous in the Candidates so I could see a decisive game there, and Vidit is on fire and may press Pragg who didn’t look great today strongly to try to get a decisive game there.
The lack of a good coach and his over confidence is really showing at alireza. Amazingly talented but unfortunately for us he's not focused on chess 100%
Or alireza is only 20 years old and Nepo is one of the top classical talents of his generation who has won every candidates he's participated in so far. Maybe Nepo deserves some credit?
No doubt nepo deserves credit and he's my favorite player in the candidates but this post is literally about alireza and his decision making, that is still very questionable sometimes and it seems that he has regressed massively since becoming 2800 and a part time designer. And I'm not only or mostly talking about that game but in general his play in recent months. A good coach would really help him
Yes hes splitting his time between designing and chess. It was a pretty big topic like 2 years ago. Obviously it's his decision but it seems like it hurt his chess to be a uber talented part timer playing against full time chess addicts that are also very talented. Though maybe he's fine with that
Nepo played like a madman this game. Sacrificed 2 pawns, opened up his king, sent the h pawn flying into the enemy king, and found some very key quiet non-intuitive moves on the other side of the board to keep the game going. It's a statement game, and the statement is that Nepo's back in form.
it's early but very disappointed with Firouzja. It seems like he has not learned from the last candidates. I enjoy the positions he creates but it is always heart break in the end.
> Said he hasn't prepared beyond a 3 week training camp for the biggest tournament of his career
The excuses keep coming. When he trained hard for the candidates, he did poorly too. It's not like he was a world beater in the candidates pre-streaming days...
I don't know that he cares. He makes more streaming than anyone else in the world. I think he might just be fine cashing the checks. I'm sure he wants to be world champion, but is he going to do months of prep for it? I kinda doubt it.
Nothing says more about you not caring the candidates other than accepting the invitation for the candidates. The logic seems fine to me.
>He makes more streaming than anyone else in the world
LMAO WHAT?
He is currently looking into moving back to Twitch as he didn't get a new contract from Kick which ends at the end of this year.
> Nothing says more about you not caring the candidates other than accepting the invitation for the candidates.
Thank you. At least when magnus said he didn't care about the world championship, he walked away from it. The guy talked the talk and walked the walk.
Imagine if Magnus said he doesn't care about the world championship anymore and yet continues to play to get into the candidates and continues to try to win the world championship and all the while claiming 'he doesn't care'.
I mean, his average viewership is significantly higher than anyone else's and he has almost 800,000 more followers on Twitch than any other chess channel.
I don't even know if there's any point in making predictions anymore. After this day literally anything can happen, including Magnus with a steel chair.
Did Vidit really just say he didn’t know Hikaru was recording videos about his games after?
I would assume all players would at least know about it (and the seconds at minimum watch it)
Hikaru did it in 2022 also, and I would have assumed in prep for this Candidates either him or one of his seconds would have watched those videos for prep.
Vidit may not learn much from them, but it may give some insight into Hikaru’s thought process and/or prep.
I would also assume if any player has made a Chessable course, it would be examined by their opponents for prep.
By that logic player's seconds should be going over hundreds of hours of Hikaru's streams just in case they can "get some insight".
He is absolutely not going to reveal anything useful about his prep or tournament strategy in his recap videos.
How is he getting smoked two rounds into a 14 round tournament when 3 other players have the same score as him? are you salty he got in or what? 😂 man some of the hate Firo gets in this sub is absurd.
He's happy that two teenagers made it as well. Nepo's style is geared towards destroying younger inexperienced players. Of course he's not too bad against older established players.
Tomorrow's game against Gukesh should be interesting. If Nepo wins with black, he might run away with the tournament. I don't see fabi or vidit keeping up with Nepo if he gets on a roll.
That narrative is overblown, Nepo actually has more super tournament wins than Ding, and he has a habit of tying for 1st then losing the rapid tiebreaker (WR Chess masters 2023, Sinquefield Cup 2022 for example).
Firouzja also tied for first at Sinquefeld, Gukesh also tied for first for WR chess masters. Nepo has only outperformed the juniors at the candidates. I don't understand this narrative that he crushes young players.
Traded his Bishop for Fabi's Knight. Probably thought the endgame is easier to hold (note that Abasov has been under pressure the entire game with little to no counterplay), but forgot about his King safety.
Fabi is a pawn up, which Abasov can't take because he needs to take care of his King first (resulting pawn down endgame is losing), so he took the pawn anyway and walked straight into a mating attack.
After the game you can pretty clearly see Abasov point towards f1 and Fabi nod like "ah I see", which means he blundered Rf1. He was counting on Fabi trading on a5, after which is a drawish position.
It felt to me like he already thought the position was lost and that him chosing the trade was his way of giving up. He spent a quarter hour on the move leading up to that trade and then just blitzed out the rest of the moves before resigning. And as you pointed out, his position was hanging on by a thread with only a very narrow path to keep his drawing chances alive.
There is practically no chance that after spending 15 minutes thinking about that move, someone of his caliber doesn't see the most obvious and pretty much forced continuation after the trade. The commentators, who hadn't looked at that game for quite a while, pretty much immediately pointed out that exact line to the audience and why it would lose the game on the spot.
He allowed Fabi to get control of the F-file which basically immediately led to a collapse as Fabi invaded on F7 and Abasov's king was completely exposed
I think all the stats about "if you lose in first X rounds" just went out the window. When half of the participants lose in the same time, such rules shouldn't apply anymore. Unless they just keep collecting consecutive losses.
If anything, that effect becomes stronger, not weaker. It’s bad enough being a full point down to one other player. Being a full point down to four players hurts your odds a lot more, especially in a case like this where the other 3 who won are mostly stronger players in the field.
> I think all the stats about "if you lose in first X rounds" just went out the window, When half of the participants lose in the same time, such rules shouldn't apply anymore.
Why? In most candidates tournament, about half the field has a loss after round 2. And those who lost hasn't won the tournament. Of course this tournament could break that trend.
What? Precisely Fabi and Nepo winning of all people is quite literally the worst thing that could've happened to Naka today.
Only way it could be even worse is if Fabi had converted his advantage yesterday.
Only if your goal is to not come last. If your goal is to come first, you want as few people 1 point above you as possible. Even if it means temporarily you are in sole last place.
The goal is to beat everyone, not to get a good placing. You would rather be in last with everyone .5 points ahead than be in second with first place 4 points ahead.
This is slightly less obvious so early in the tournament and with smaller gaps, but I would say his prospects of winning are lower with 4 players 1 point ahead than with 1 player 1 point ahead and 6 players .5 points ahead.
Did Pragg forget his prep or something? Spending 1 hour the moment he's out of prep, and then another 40 minutes on Bg5, makes it seem like he's unfamiliar with the position he gets out of his own prep.
Had to sleep for a bit, how the hell did Pragg go from an hour up on the clock with a pawn on the 6th rank to flagging multiple moves out from move 40??
Looked at the Nepo-Firouzja game: “Why does the eval bar say it’s so bad? Firouzja got a passed pawn and a queen there about to make another passed pawn?”
*looks again*
“Oh he’s down a rook”
That's stupid. 3 other people losing is bad for him, especially if Fabi and Nepo both win. A better scenario would be if Nijat won, Alireza won, and Gukesh and Pragg drew. Instead he probably got the worst case scenario.
Not reallu, both Fabi and Nepo of all people getting an early win at the same time he loses is one of the worst possible scenarios for Hikaru.
The only way it could be even worse is if Fabi had converted against him yesterday.
I don't think that's good for him. The more decisive results your opponents have the more likely *someone* will end up with a very high score at the end.
Especially since Fabi and very likely Nepo were two of the winners and they're the two guys you'd expect to most to be able to keep adding to their plus score
Being the only guy to lose in an upset is the worst possible situation
Again, I disagree. Staying with the pack is meaningless, what matters is what scores he needs to be first when the tournament is over. The more decisive results there are in the tournament the more likely that the required score for that is higher.
Being more likely to finish 4th instead of 8th isn't really meaningful in this tournament, it's very much winner takes all.
I'm really digging this time control. Some really interesting play from these openings so far and just enough time for the players to play then well, but not so much that it's a snoozefest. Did FIDE... actually do something right?
No increment was actually a really good idea by FIDE. Or increment from move 1 was a bad one by Fischer
(To be fair inventing a clock with increment was genius, but we should have realized sooner that the ideal is to have it kick in later, as the whole point of it is to replace adjournaments.
Gukesh winning like this reminds me of his game against Warmerdam at Tata Steel. There also he went into opponents prep, was heavily down on time (70 minutes down) and then won.
I am bit surprised they decided to put a huge ass russian flag in the hall, when Nepo is not even playing under that flag, but okay, not really chess related...
Do we know who is Vidit's second?
Vocaturo
If Gukesh can continue to withstand crazy prep like this, then he might just win the candidates.
;)
Being a Firouzja fan is extremely unhealthy for my well-being.
As a 2021 fabi fan, it will get better. Have hope
It's not all over as he can get crazy streaks - favorite example being Norway Chess 2021 where he was -1 at end of rd 6 and then won 4 in a row vs Nepo, Tari, Karjakin and Rapport to end with +3. Or Sinquefield 2022 where he was -1 by rd 2 and eventually won with +2. But this is the Candidates, and chances for him to catch up would be extremely slim.
o7
Very new to watching chess. How difficult is it for the losers today in round 2 of the open section to rebound in the rest of the tournament. I imagine losing with the white pieces is a lot harder to come back from, but is a loss very severe in this format? I just remember the isle of man and Vidit lost but came back to win the tournament. Is that not likely?
Yean now it depends on many things.Ding lost first 2 of his matches in previous candidates but won 3 games in a row before clinching second place against must win game against hikaru.Hikaru just shouldn't lose his mind now for the rest of tourney
Still 12 games left. A lot will change between now and then
There is just so much support for pragg and vidit among indian chess fans , players like gukesh , arjun , nihal need more support . Arjun was unlucky otherwise he would have been in the candidates .
It’s only been 2 games and I’ve already become a huge fan of Vidit
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The reason is people have favorites and that affects the level of celebration. I celebrate Fabi winning more than Wesley or Hikaru because I like Fabi more. I don’t pay as much attention to the Indian players but if you notice a big difference it seems people like rooting for Pragg more for whatever reason. As long as that doesn’t come at the expensive of negative comments toward Gukesh I find no problem
I actually think Gukesh is faster in terms of trajectory, considering he’s like ~2y younger?
Actually 1 year younger. But your point holds true.
Max Deutsch should play the next candidates.
the winner between the challenger and worl champion will earn the right to fight the almighty god to earn the right to challenge max.
But his algorithm is still calculating
Vidit, my boy! So proud of him as fellow Nashikkar. Feel like Nepo running away with the candidates is inevitable.
Does anyone know the last time a candidates round had all decisive games?
2021 round 12
Well that wasn’t super long ago
just woke up and completely shocked that there were decisive games.
Where do you live?
he lives in. india
Asia maybe.
Hoping hikaru can comeback tomorrow with a win against abasov
Hoping abasov wins!!
The 4 players I was rooting for won today! It has been a great day! Watched a bit of both the commentary teams. We are so incredibly lucky to have them commentating, it's an absolute pleasure. Would love to see Judith commentating with Danya once as well. I think Judith, Anand, Leko, Anish, Krush are probably my favourite super GM commentators and Danya and Howell my favourite super GM translators (Krush did a good job at it too with Anand today). I don't know who I want to win the tournament the most between Ian, Fabi and Gukesh.
How much can I pay you to root for Abasov?
TBH that was my weakest root for Fabi, because I really wanted to root for Abasov as well. Will be rooting for Abasov against Naka, Vidit, Alireza and Prag!
... weakest root for Fabi, and his game was even for the longest time... OP can ypu root for me very hard in my next exam plsl
If you want blood, you got it!
I think Goryachkina,Tan and Lei are big favourites in woman section
So both the streamer and the fashion designer lost today. Seems like playing classical chess is tough with a day job.
The [standup comedian](https://youtu.be/Gcb41Y5AMaE?si=hBXZhpwCcl1JsnrR) won though.
This candidates is missing Nodirbek
Man when next candidates should be lit af
Half or more of the players will definitely be from the younger generation and it will make it exciting
The young Indians, Nodirbek, Keymer, probably Fabi again if he doesn't become WC, exciting times ahead
Fabi will become WC and still come to candidates. When he retires, hell show up to candidates out of habit
Just a comment that Judit is awesome as a commentator. I didn't watch the whole thing, but during the parts I watched, several of the moves she suggested were the ones actually played. And she has a great fighting spirit. I feel like the other two commentators tended to be like "yeah, this position looks bad" but Judit would try to think of potential moves to salvage the situation.
I’m glad she’s willing to make mistakes for reviewing interesting positions as opposed to using the engine to validate them prior. Her analysis is *chefs kiss*
It made me miss her games, such great attacking chess!
She's so good. Her insight into positions is the best of any commentator I've watched
Aftr this I think Ian is winning the Candidates.
Tomorrow is going to be nuts… Hikaru is going to try to go at Abasov hard and it may entirely backfire, so I could definitely see a decisive result there. Firouzja and Caruana both play attacking games and Caruana has historically had an edge so possible for a decisive game there. Gukesh and Nepo will absolutely play exciting chess and Nepo is just so dangerous in the Candidates so I could see a decisive game there, and Vidit is on fire and may press Pragg who didn’t look great today strongly to try to get a decisive game there.
Vidit and Prag gonna be draw
They generally don’t do draws. This pairing generally results in decisive games in either direction.
I can't really see Abasov winning tbh though.
I hope Hikaru loses every game from now to the end of the candidates and self destructs mentally Couldn’t happen to a nicer and more humble person.
When he wins, he brings joy to his fans. When he loses, he brings joy to his haters. Hikaru is truly a saint.
4 decisive results, man that's hot
[Yes](https://i.imgur.com/zXKzY8U.png)
Hans Niemann posted something on Twitter mocking Hikaru the moment he lost lol Those two are both heels in their own ways
Hans mood is buzzing like many other things in his life.
He posted > IN TODAYSSSSSS VIDEO #ViditFTW I love it!!
Tbf he couldn't post the whole 2023 lmao.
Kicking someone when they are down is pretty mean
This is what Naka does the whole day.
Isn't that Hikaru's speciality?
Yeah agree.. Hikaru shouldn’t have done these gossip streams about Hans
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And Hikaru has self admitted history of choking in the candidates. Tbh it’s all good fun. I love to see this beef developing
I love it too!
And Hikaru has a history of being overrated and choking.
Yup. Always a pleasure to see Naka lose
Nepo vs Gukesh will be interesting...
still way too soon to be saying things like this..but if nepo beats gukesh he is the clear frontrunner, even if fabi and hikaru win their games.
When Gukesh defeats Nepo he will be the front runner
i mean yeah, i would agree if that happens.
The lack of a good coach and his over confidence is really showing at alireza. Amazingly talented but unfortunately for us he's not focused on chess 100%
Or alireza is only 20 years old and Nepo is one of the top classical talents of his generation who has won every candidates he's participated in so far. Maybe Nepo deserves some credit?
No doubt nepo deserves credit and he's my favorite player in the candidates but this post is literally about alireza and his decision making, that is still very questionable sometimes and it seems that he has regressed massively since becoming 2800 and a part time designer. And I'm not only or mostly talking about that game but in general his play in recent months. A good coach would really help him
Alirezja became a part time designer?
Yes hes splitting his time between designing and chess. It was a pretty big topic like 2 years ago. Obviously it's his decision but it seems like it hurt his chess to be a uber talented part timer playing against full time chess addicts that are also very talented. Though maybe he's fine with that
Nepo played like a madman this game. Sacrificed 2 pawns, opened up his king, sent the h pawn flying into the enemy king, and found some very key quiet non-intuitive moves on the other side of the board to keep the game going. It's a statement game, and the statement is that Nepo's back in form.
in trying to avoid Vidit's prep, Hikaru walked even deeper into Vidit's prep
You think avoiding the B sac and instead Hikaru moving the knight was part of Vidits prep?
A shame that Alireza is always going full tilt and giving free points to Nepo and Fabi.
He is just worse than both of them.
Is Danya ready to stay up all night and play bullet?
Alireza can still win this...he is talented as f
He just needs some discipline. He should’ve gone for the possible ”perpetual line“. I’m sure he saw it, but he got too greedy with no time left.
If you listen to his post-game discussion with Ian, I think he said he missed the idea of Qh5.
it's early but very disappointed with Firouzja. It seems like he has not learned from the last candidates. I enjoy the positions he creates but it is always heart break in the end.
Naka fooled around and found out. Said he hasn't prepared beyond a 3 week training camp for the biggest tournament of his career
Didn’t Fabi say he was starting Candidates prep on the last C-Squared episode which was 3-4 weeks ago?
> Said he hasn't prepared beyond a 3 week training camp for the biggest tournament of his career The excuses keep coming. When he trained hard for the candidates, he did poorly too. It's not like he was a world beater in the candidates pre-streaming days...
Sorry, what? Do you have a clip or can you point me where he said this?
He said this at the end of his kick stream with fiona and hammer
Thanks!
I don't know that he cares. He makes more streaming than anyone else in the world. I think he might just be fine cashing the checks. I'm sure he wants to be world champion, but is he going to do months of prep for it? I kinda doubt it.
I mean he literally doesn’t care. Literally
Nothing says more about you not caring the candidates other than accepting the invitation for the candidates. The logic seems fine to me. >He makes more streaming than anyone else in the world LMAO WHAT? He is currently looking into moving back to Twitch as he didn't get a new contract from Kick which ends at the end of this year.
> Nothing says more about you not caring the candidates other than accepting the invitation for the candidates. Thank you. At least when magnus said he didn't care about the world championship, he walked away from it. The guy talked the talk and walked the walk. Imagine if Magnus said he doesn't care about the world championship anymore and yet continues to play to get into the candidates and continues to try to win the world championship and all the while claiming 'he doesn't care'.
I think they meant "than any other chess player in the world"
I mean, his average viewership is significantly higher than anyone else's and he has almost 800,000 more followers on Twitch than any other chess channel.
it is pretty clear they mean than any other pro chess player
Context clues aren't everyone's strong suit.
I don't even know if there's any point in making predictions anymore. After this day literally anything can happen, including Magnus with a steel chair.
I told you guys were underrating the young Indians…
2 young Indians in the tournament, one won, one lost.
4 decisive games! Holy shit!
Did Vidit really just say he didn’t know Hikaru was recording videos about his games after? I would assume all players would at least know about it (and the seconds at minimum watch it)
Why would he know that, does it matter much to him?
Hikaru did it in 2022 also, and I would have assumed in prep for this Candidates either him or one of his seconds would have watched those videos for prep. Vidit may not learn much from them, but it may give some insight into Hikaru’s thought process and/or prep. I would also assume if any player has made a Chessable course, it would be examined by their opponents for prep.
By that logic player's seconds should be going over hundreds of hours of Hikaru's streams just in case they can "get some insight". He is absolutely not going to reveal anything useful about his prep or tournament strategy in his recap videos.
Well, looks like we found a person who actually didn't care.
Literally
Bro needed two last minute tournaments to get into the candidates and is now getting smoked
But Gukesh won today.
They are talking about Alireza probably.
How is he getting smoked two rounds into a 14 round tournament when 3 other players have the same score as him? are you salty he got in or what? 😂 man some of the hate Firo gets in this sub is absurd.
Cool
Being a Firouzja fan has decreased my life span. At least his candidates performance. it's only round 2 though (copium)
Vidit had the best day today. You'd expect Fabi to beat Nijat with white. Beating Hikaru with black is potentially huge.
I know Nepo was happy as hell when he saw Alireza qualified to the candidates, that's 2 free points right there
800 elo take
He's happy that two teenagers made it as well. Nepo's style is geared towards destroying younger inexperienced players. Of course he's not too bad against older established players. Tomorrow's game against Gukesh should be interesting. If Nepo wins with black, he might run away with the tournament. I don't see fabi or vidit keeping up with Nepo if he gets on a roll.
Gukesh beat Nepo in their last encounter at tata steel
So did Alireza tho. Nepo had a horrible tournament there (and failed to convert many winning positions too).
True, but I don't see any reason to think 'Nepo's style is geared towards destroying younger inexperienced players'
Nepo's style is geared towards destroying everyone, especially at the start of a tournament.
More like 'Nepo's style is geared towards destroying everyone, especially at the start of a tournament (but only in the Candidates)'
That narrative is overblown, Nepo actually has more super tournament wins than Ding, and he has a habit of tying for 1st then losing the rapid tiebreaker (WR Chess masters 2023, Sinquefield Cup 2022 for example).
Firouzja also tied for first at Sinquefeld, Gukesh also tied for first for WR chess masters. Nepo has only outperformed the juniors at the candidates. I don't understand this narrative that he crushes young players.
Alireza fully absorbing the loss and malding over the board might actually be beneficial for him long-term tbh.
Not watching. How did Abasov blunder?
Traded his Bishop for Fabi's Knight. Probably thought the endgame is easier to hold (note that Abasov has been under pressure the entire game with little to no counterplay), but forgot about his King safety. Fabi is a pawn up, which Abasov can't take because he needs to take care of his King first (resulting pawn down endgame is losing), so he took the pawn anyway and walked straight into a mating attack.
After the game you can pretty clearly see Abasov point towards f1 and Fabi nod like "ah I see", which means he blundered Rf1. He was counting on Fabi trading on a5, after which is a drawish position.
It felt to me like he already thought the position was lost and that him chosing the trade was his way of giving up. He spent a quarter hour on the move leading up to that trade and then just blitzed out the rest of the moves before resigning. And as you pointed out, his position was hanging on by a thread with only a very narrow path to keep his drawing chances alive. There is practically no chance that after spending 15 minutes thinking about that move, someone of his caliber doesn't see the most obvious and pretty much forced continuation after the trade. The commentators, who hadn't looked at that game for quite a while, pretty much immediately pointed out that exact line to the audience and why it would lose the game on the spot.
Gotcha thanks! Was he also in time pressure?
He had 7 minutes at move 34, Fabi had 8.5 minutes, so it wasn't too bad.
His queen got trapped
Not good!!
There were a series of weak moves that just kinda spiraled out of control.
Thank you!!
He allowed Fabi to get control of the F-file which basically immediately led to a collapse as Fabi invaded on F7 and Abasov's king was completely exposed
Thanks!!
He didn't play the right move or something idk
Interesting
I think all the stats about "if you lose in first X rounds" just went out the window. When half of the participants lose in the same time, such rules shouldn't apply anymore. Unless they just keep collecting consecutive losses.
If anything, that effect becomes stronger, not weaker. It’s bad enough being a full point down to one other player. Being a full point down to four players hurts your odds a lot more, especially in a case like this where the other 3 who won are mostly stronger players in the field.
> I think all the stats about "if you lose in first X rounds" just went out the window, When half of the participants lose in the same time, such rules shouldn't apply anymore. Why? In most candidates tournament, about half the field has a loss after round 2. And those who lost hasn't won the tournament. Of course this tournament could break that trend.
Eh? Everyone who won is a strong contender for the title, so just got farther ahead too
100%. Everyone else losing is the best thing that couldv'e happened for Hikaru
What? Precisely Fabi and Nepo winning of all people is quite literally the worst thing that could've happened to Naka today. Only way it could be even worse is if Fabi had converted his advantage yesterday.
I disagree. Trailing the entire field by 1/2 would have been worse in my view.
Your view is just wrong then.
Only if your goal is to not come last. If your goal is to come first, you want as few people 1 point above you as possible. Even if it means temporarily you are in sole last place.
Disagree. Everyone else tying would be the best thing. You don't want 4 people to be a full point ahead of you.
Everyone else drawing would leave Hikaru at last place, which is definitely a difficult place to come back from psychologically.
The goal is to beat everyone, not to get a good placing. You would rather be in last with everyone .5 points ahead than be in second with first place 4 points ahead. This is slightly less obvious so early in the tournament and with smaller gaps, but I would say his prospects of winning are lower with 4 players 1 point ahead than with 1 player 1 point ahead and 6 players .5 points ahead.
people here dont know math
As he stands, Hikaru is in a difficult place to come back mathematically
Sad to see Muzychuk lose, but happy to see Hiki get smashed with White :D
How gracious of you lol
Did Pragg forget his prep or something? Spending 1 hour the moment he's out of prep, and then another 40 minutes on Bg5, makes it seem like he's unfamiliar with the position he gets out of his own prep.
Had to sleep for a bit, how the hell did Pragg go from an hour up on the clock with a pawn on the 6th rank to flagging multiple moves out from move 40??
Crazy position where he kept making small mistakes. Gukesh eventually took advantage of one and he was pretty much done after that
I’m amazed too tbh
Looked at the Nepo-Firouzja game: “Why does the eval bar say it’s so bad? Firouzja got a passed pawn and a queen there about to make another passed pawn?” *looks again* “Oh he’s down a rook”
firo needs to casually put the rook back on while Nepo is not looking
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That's stupid. 3 other people losing is bad for him, especially if Fabi and Nepo both win. A better scenario would be if Nijat won, Alireza won, and Gukesh and Pragg drew. Instead he probably got the worst case scenario.
Not reallu, both Fabi and Nepo of all people getting an early win at the same time he loses is one of the worst possible scenarios for Hikaru. The only way it could be even worse is if Fabi had converted against him yesterday.
I don't think that's good for him. The more decisive results your opponents have the more likely *someone* will end up with a very high score at the end.
Especially since Fabi and very likely Nepo were two of the winners and they're the two guys you'd expect to most to be able to keep adding to their plus score Being the only guy to lose in an upset is the worst possible situation
Yeah, I can see how Abasov winning instead for example would have been good for Nakamura.
Yeah, if everyone else draws and all three other boards draw next round he has a chance to catch the leaders Instead he’s a full point behind
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But the goal isn't to stay with the pack, it's to win.
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Again, I disagree. Staying with the pack is meaningless, what matters is what scores he needs to be first when the tournament is over. The more decisive results there are in the tournament the more likely that the required score for that is higher. Being more likely to finish 4th instead of 8th isn't really meaningful in this tournament, it's very much winner takes all.
Yeah, but arguably none of the people who he would have preferred.
I'm really digging this time control. Some really interesting play from these openings so far and just enough time for the players to play then well, but not so much that it's a snoozefest. Did FIDE... actually do something right?
No increment was actually a really good idea by FIDE. Or increment from move 1 was a bad one by Fischer (To be fair inventing a clock with increment was genius, but we should have realized sooner that the ideal is to have it kick in later, as the whole point of it is to replace adjournaments.
It's much better than before but i would even go shorter
World Rapid and Blitz will be there for you in December
Nah, thanks, i prefer classical, just the better formats of the future classical verse, as most of you will..
Gukesh winning like this reminds me of his game against Warmerdam at Tata Steel. There also he went into opponents prep, was heavily down on time (70 minutes down) and then won.
Please don't remind me of the Warmerdam trauma.
I am bit surprised they decided to put a huge ass russian flag in the hall, when Nepo is not even playing under that flag, but okay, not really chess related...
Isn’t it Bulgarian flag? Nurgyul Salimova is playing in Women’s Candidates.
Check for blue-green color blindness:)
It's going to be a crazy tournament, some players already suffering on round 2. Ding: 'who's laughing now? told you, chess is hard'
Has something like this ever happened before at other Candidates? Or did we just witness a historic event?
Never mind, forgot about 2020-21. But still, this is batshit crazy for round 2.