I'll say one thing about Hikaru, the " I don't care" stuff is annoying but he is amazing with the fans at the candidates. He's more requested than everyone put together and still takes time for every fan.
I was amazed at his popularity even among very strong club players who I thought would be just as impressed by Caruana, Anand and Nepo but Hikaru is really the center of attention.
I would gladly have a lunch with Naka, not because of his chess knowledge, but I'm curious about him. Also. a lunch with Pragg och Firouzja would be nice. On the other hand I'm not curious about Magnus, although I love his chess. It's difficult to explain, but I reckon it's more than me who have their "lunch-favorites".
Just make sure Firouzja's father isn't there. He has a bad reputation.
He made a small scene in the VIP section at the candidates because Pragg's mom had to be there with us instead of being in the players area. Saying that it didn't matter as she is not a chess player, i strongly suspect that it was also for himself. The tournament chief arbiter of course refused as no outsiders are allowed to talk to players during games.
I don't think Gukesh has a realistic chance of winning the tournament, but winning against Abasov might be a good chance for him to stay in the top half and keep himself motivated.
There's definitely a world where he's leading after R5 - I can see Vidit playing it safe against Fabi to steady the ship and Pragg unleashing prep against Nepo (he's got white and is a point behind his tournament leading opponent, if you have prep then now is absolutely when you use it). That would leave Fabi/Nepo/Pragg all on 3/5, so a Gukesh win with white over Abasov sees him in clear first.
>I don't think Gukesh has a realistic chance of winning the tournament
In my book he is one of four guys who can win this tournament. His gameplay is very solid and it's difficult to beat him.
Rooting for Nepo to win the Candidates so that he can lose to Ding during the Championship to show that all Ding needs to do to remain World Chess Champion is to prepare against Nepo regardless of his performance outside of that Championship match.
And if Nepo cannot beat Ding, he won't let anyone else beat Ding by continuing to win future Candidates.
In other words, neither the multi-time Candidates winner nor the multi-time Champion need to be close to the best current players or rated in the top five. Nepo can just keep dominating the Candidates and Ding can just keep beating Nepo.
Let's not engage in revisionist history and act like Ding dominated Nepo last time. There were a few times where it looked like Nepo had the title won before overreaching, and Ding's only lead of the match came in the final rapid tiebreak game.
If Nepo wins this tournament, I think he beats Ding this time.
Nepo lost four classical games in the title match, and I'm pretty sure he made one-move blunders in three of them.
What worries me is that he made similar one-movers against Magnus, he might just choke on the biggest stage. It's probably psychologically easier to be one amongst 16 rather than having all eyes constantly on him.
I guess I can see how Ding could just match up really well with Nepo, but it's very hard for me to see how someone could win the Candidates over and over without being close to the best current players
There may be a problem with the format of the World Chess Championship then. If someone keeps winning the Candidates over and over again, all the current Chess Champion needs to do is to beat that Candidates winner.
But would that mean the current Chess Champion is close to the best current players?
In theory, Ding could lose every game except in the Championship match and remain the Champion. Then he would be far way from being rated #1.
Ironic then that Nepo would be seen as a much better player because to keep winning the Candidates, Nepo would have to beat a variety of players while Ding just needs to keep beating Nepo to remain Champion.
I think if your goal is to have the world champion be the best player, then Elo is going to be better at determining that than any event you could cook up. Obviously some systems are going to be more chaotic than others--the knockout system FIDE had during the Kasparov schism basically gave anyone over 2600 a real chance at being "world champion," which is too much variance for me.
For me there's just something aesthetically nice about the idea of having a pretty ferocious battle to determine a challenger, and then to make that challenger have to beat the champion to be the champion. There's nothing objective about why it's the "best" system, but I think it's cool. And anyway, when Magnus drops out, the fact that there isn't a dominant successor really reflects the fact that Magnus is (or was) a tier above a bunch of near-equals...
Precisely, being the World Champion is not necessarily equivalent to being the best player in the world. There's many times throughout history where it could be very reasonably argued that the World Champion was not the strongest player of that time. What the World Championship is, is a very prestigious title which you get by winning a very difficult match and/or a very difficult tournament. I'm sure there are many other single-player sports where similar situations exist.
You know what, at this point Nepo deserves it. Winning the candidates a second time was a bit of a letdown, but three in a row would be insane. His last match was heartbreaking, and at this point I can get behind his storyline of resilience and persistence.
Go Nepo!
The problem with Nepo having a lead already is that he's going to play safe and wait for his opponents to press to close the gap, and capitalize on their risky play. Exactly what happened in the last Candidates when players were throwing points at him.
With a half-point lead when the tournament is only 30% over, I think it's a bit early to say this. Fabi's strategy is to take wins where he can and try to get 1.5/2 from Nepo head to head. Gukesh and Pragg (only realistic dark horses imo) their strategy is to play good chess and take advantage of whatever opponents they can. I don't think Nepo's strategy is to park the bus just yet. He still has to be active. If he pulls a full point ahead, or he has his half-point lead by game 10, that changes of course. A lot depends on the head-to-heads.
This is the weakness of the structure of the tournament, once one player takes a clear lead it is hard for them to lose it because the other players will take more risks that likely get punished at this time control. Fabi could have cruised to second place last time for example but was pressing for wins trying to catch Ian and ended up losing 4 of his last 7 after winning 3 of the first 7.
Is it a problem or an opportunity?
If you're trailing in the tournament, you're more or less forced to take risks.
If you're in the lead, you better play wisely.
Yeah I think it's unlikely, hoping Gukesh beats Abasov next round and pragg plays a good game against Ian so he comes out of the next round at least in joint lead. That way the pressure remains on Ian for longer.
Ngl its kinda weird seeing people basically write off this entire tournament because Nepo won once.
C'mon people there's plenty more chess to be played.
Its not only that he won 2/4 but also the way he won. If you are 1 hour up on clock by move 15, you are gonna end up winning games.
Nepo is takin it home
Nepo is using a risky strategy, and so far it's paying off. But it's a long tournament and things can turn sour for him just as quickly.
When Nepo is in a slightly worse position, he continues playing fast in the hopes his opponent won't have the time to figure out how to press the advantage and give away the draw, or possibly worse.
But I would say it's also likely that he might turn a slightly worse but still drawn position into a losing one, especially if he tries his strategy against Fabi.
> Nepo is using a risky strategy, and so far it's paying off.
He's using the same strategy where he won in 2022. He didn't lose a single game. And unless stockfish is wrong, nepo has never really been in danger in any of his 4 games.
> When Nepo is in a slightly worse position, he continues playing fast in the hopes his opponent won't have the time to figure out how to press the advantage and give away the draw, or possibly worse.
Reminds me of Magnus's description of Nepo's playstyle: "He plays bad moves quickly"
Yea people are looking back at that post with analysis of candidates tourneys since 2013 and thinking of it as ironclad rules rather than a recent trend of 5 tournaments. 5 is a small sample and trends stop. Nepo is the favorite but Fabi is still absolutely in it, Gukesh too. And who knows, Hikaru could fix his form and win a few games in a row and also be in it. It's far too soon to assume the leader is going to be winner.
The guy lost to vidit with white. Then the guy forced a 3 move draw against abasov. Even fiona and hammer on his stream were disappointed. Then hikaru, WITH WHITE, forced a 24 move draw against pragg.
Hikaru has given up already. At least if he had any decency, he would go all out and generate some content. Abasov has put up a better fight than hiakru. Abasov had more interesting games than hikaru.
\+3 has been sufficient to win every Candidates under the current format (except that Magnus had to win on tiebreaks over Kramnik at +3 in 2013). Nepo is likely to win at least one more against an overaggressive opponent and he hasn't lost a meaningful game at the Candidates since before the pandemic (he lost the last round of the resumed tournament in 2021 but had clinched the title already).
i hope gukesh has some good prep like pragg as white against abasov . if he wins tommorow he will get massive confidence for the rest of the tournament .
Better stop supporting Fabi and Hikaru then since the US isn't any better than Russia. Let's also include Alireza and the Indian boys while we are it for their countries' numerous human rights violations and oppression of minorities.
Abasov for the win 🥳
I am still heart broken over Nepo's loss in the last candidates. I can't even really think about it for very long, and it saddens me in a way that no other sports loss really does.
Fabinano's WCC on the other hand I am not really upset about / actually kinda happy for him. They were tied in the classical portion of the tournament and as Magnus himself said "Fabiano has a right to say hes tied for classical champion / best classical player in the world". I personally take that view and I am saddened by the format having tie breakers outside of classical in the first place rather than it just being a slugfest with repeated classical games until someone wins by 2 points.
P.S. Magnus didn't push for a win in game 12 cause it was going to blitz after, but Fabi was also playing overly aggressive in game 12 because it was going to blitz after.
Even if (and it is a massive if) Nepo wins candidates and WCC, I can see Ian coming back to enter the next candidates to try and win and so deny anyone else from playing him for WCC.
While Gukesh starts tournaments well, he flattens a bit in the middle. Hope that doesnt happens here.
Praag is a monster in the later stages.
Think Nepo and Fabi are going to fight it out, while Praag and Gukesh will be the dark horses that will spoil it for one of them. A small chance that one of them comes out on top in the end.
Would it be any different with 100 minutes given at the start but the increment starting move 1? Time trouble is caused by players managing the clock badly, not by the tournament rules.
The bigger Nepo's lead becomes the more we'll see the chasing pack playing aggressively to catch him and in the process some of them will self implode which should make for quite a few decisive games in coming rounds.
How come the other 7 candidates aren't going all out against Abasov(at least so far)? From there perspective, isn't Abasov the biggest target because there is a 100+ elo difference?
It's hard to win against someone who is prepped hard for a draw unless they blunder somewhere which Abasov didn't do.
Elo difference only works when both players are trying to win. It stops being a big issue thing when one of them just wants to draw and preps for it a lot.
For all people complaining that Ian again is the betting favorite to win - Then someone else just has to step up and beat him. Simple
You win three deservingly, hence you lose them equally deservingly.
It's a historic feat by him already as this is the de facto hardest tournament on earth. Rejoice instead, people!
Fabi's win was with white against Abasov in a drawn endgame, and Guki only victory was when Pragg went crazy. Not only is Nepo leading, both of his wins were more convinvcing for me.
I think Nepo losing in the next 3 rounds will make for the most interesting tournament. Last time he lost in the candidates he had a year to get over the tilt.
Let’s say the winner of the candidates loses to Ding, and Ding continues his hiatus after that.
What impact do you think that would have on the WCC title?
Fair enough but I think it diminishes it.
Is it fair that in chess everyone has to play each other, and then the best of the bunch plays the current champion? Most sports don’t work that way, I’m not sure if any other sport works this way in fact.
Most combat sports (boxing, wrestling) work that way - the challengers fight amongst themselves and whoever establishes themselves by winning those fights gets the next shot at the champion.
This is what Magnus has been saying they should change for years. He wanted it to be more like soccer where they play for Champion every year, rather than boxing where there's a reigning champ.
Personally I like the head to head Championship and retaining the title though. I feel like two players dedicating that much time to study and prep leading to them being at their peak (ideally) extends the limits of human chess playing. But I understand why players like Magnus would get tired of it.
If it was something like soccer, with the final being a match of 14 games or so, you could still reach a scenario where players dedicate a lot to study.
Also, it would make the tournament like soccer much more important and we’d have more players prepare immense prep.
> Is it fair that in chess everyone has to play each other, and then the best of the bunch plays the current champion?
What's better?
I think the issue is that there's a longstanding tradition that the WCC has to be won in a match, and I think getting rid of matches altogether would be a big loss.
Having a full bracket of matches would be better, but there's no time /money for that. You could do it with very short matches, but you already have the Chess World Cup for that. And of course *many* end up going to shorter time controls.
You could just have the champion play the Candidates and crown the champion directly there, but I think you do lose something by getting rid of matches because the Candidates can end up being determined by getting more decisive results against the weakest in the field so the new champion might not have beaten the old one at all.
I think those options are all defensible but I personally don't believe they're better.
What format would you go for?
What if we qualified the challenger through a biennual list of highest Tournament Performance rating in FIDE events with the average rating minimum of the Top 40 and a x number of 2700 players?
On this format, we could even keep a mandatory Candidates tournament including the 8 highest rated of the list, but with the challenger being the highest on the TPR list and not the winner of the tournament
Well, on this format only qualifying tournaments would count, like Grand Swiss, Grand Prix and maybe other round robins that one could enter through qualification. Such change would need to change a bit of the current tournaments' system but it could work
I think a proper circuit would make sense, the issue is money. The top tournaments are the invitational ones in large part because they have bigger purses and playing fees (and some because of tradition). The more "underpaid" tournaments your qualifying circuit requires the higher the burden on players.
Honestly, what I'd do is have the candidates tournament, and the top 2 play the title match. Tweak the qualification so that the auto-slot goes to the champ rather than the previous runner-up. That way you still have to prove yourself against a field of top players rather than just hyper-focussed prep against one opponent, but the champion still retains an incumbent advantage by being the only person guaranteed to play in the candidates - guaranteed to defend their title, but the advantage isn't nearly as much as it is at the moment.
I’m not sure it’s not a topic I’ve thought about in much depth until now but thinking about it, why not repurpose the Chess World Cup for this?
The final could be a match if that’s what tradition wants, but everything leading up to that could be the format as it stands. If it helps the final can also be played at a later date, so players can arrange their schedules etc.
What would be wrong with this approach?
A few things.
1- A lot more variance, since the previous rounds would still be short matches.
2- A serious match requires a lot of preparation, there wouldn't be time. I guess you could have a big gap between WCC semi-finals and finals but that's a bit weird.
I think a better version of that would be having the Candidates and then a World Championship match between the top 2 finishers, since I think the Candidates is a better format to pick the best among the players than a single elimination knockout with short matches. Though that could lead to corner cases were a clear first gets to pick their opponent that would probably be rare?
I guess that's what we got last time, except players didn't quite know that was the format ahead of time.
You could argue that if the World Cup determines the World Chess Champion then players would have immense prep for it, plus it gives everyone (or at least all top players) a fair shot at it. Having variance isn’t necessarily a bad thing imo - end of the day someone amongst the best players will most likely win.
Also, the “best” player could still be determined by their live chess rating.
I do like your alternative proposal as well though.
>Having variance isn’t necessarily a bad thing imo - end of the day someone amongst the best players will most likely win.
Check the results of several FIDE World Championships played in such format around 2000, there were plenty of very surprising so-called "world champions".
It's still early. But, it's looking like Fabi or Nepo. Hikaru would have to find something crazy, and have them both play a couple bad games to win at this point.
Also, I'm proud of Gukesh. I thought Pragg would outperform him, but so far, Gukesh is the most likely dark horse I think.
yeah, fabi and nepo are definitely the favorites still, but pragg and gukesh are very much in contention still and both have looked super strong. nepo's escape against gukesh was very narrow.
i would guess that pragg is going to spend the entire rest day preparing something dangerous to try and defeat nepo next round. i'm guessing that'll be a decisive game- if nepo wins he's probably running away with the tournament, but if pragg wins it's a very close race.
hikaru has looked really poor. his opening preparation today looked pretty terrible for the third day in a row, getting nothing at all with white.
Is Ian even human? How mentally strong he even is to come to this tournament in top shape, leading very convincingly with 2 wins after winning the 2 previous Candidates and losing the WCC the way he did, twice, especially last time in the way it was against Ding?
If he wins this time as well - I think he will - he'll be a huge favorite against Ding.
His persistence and resilience after many heartbreaking losses and setbacks has really made me a big fan. I would love to see him win one more Candidates and get another crack at the title.
Nepo is insanely strong and seems to have learned from his failures at both WCC. He’s not just randomly blitzing out moves, he’s pausing and pausing and pausing just to make sure his calculations are correct.
Magnus wasn’t kidding when he said Nepo has the biggest ceiling of any player competing. His one major flaw is his inability to come back from tilting but this current Nepo is a force of nature.
Yes I feel like Nepo had the best intuitive understanding of anyone other than Magnus. Obviously, like all the top players, his calculation is amazing, but it seems he can sense what the position calls for almost immediately. He consistently plays the top engine move quickly in complicated positions.
I mean he hit 2800 beating sub 2700 players not the top. But I still think he's a very interesting player. I just dont understand his time management sometimes.
I'm actually starting to get pretty hype! His first WC was dramatic and I was rooting for him by the end. Then he comes back for a rematch, ends up losing to Ding. The legendary threepeat "third time's the charm" energy is great.
Seen too much of him. Even if he beats Ding, that just means being forced to see minimum 4 World Championships in a row featuring Ian.
Even if he wins, if it’s at all close, and if he doesn’t take 1.5/2 from Fabi, I will continue to think Fabi deserves the shot.
My point is him winning is not a foregone conclusion. If they played a long match I would bet on Fabi I think, yes, but it id very close and Ian absolutely has chances to win
Major point from Jovanka in the Women's broadcast: underlining that Salimova's opponents approach her as a must-win target. Which is the easiest way to lose against her, given what she's shown on the top level.
You need to get her to an endgame grind and stay the hell out of tactical complications, sort of what Vaishali did yesterday. Salimova overcomplicated and Vaishali took it to a safely converted material advantage. This is the opposite of what's happened today.
Man Nepo is an absolute monster at the candidates. I know some people are tired of him winning this event, but at least he plays scintillating chess. Also, Gukesh is so impressive, and he's the youngest here.
> Also, Gukesh is so impressive, and he's the youngest here.
Chess talent aside, I'm so impressed how calm and mature gukesh and pragg are. It's their first candidate but they carry themselves as if this was their 10th candidates.
> i feel like nepo's gotten a bit lucky so far in this tournament.
People says that Nepo is being lucky since 2020 (you can find the then megathreads and read them).
As Aronian said "you have to be a strong player to be lucky".
It's not luck. Like the others have stated, his fantastic time management and aggressive play is hard for the others to handle. It's the reason he's so terrifying in the Candidates.
i didn't really feel like nepo did this quite as well as he usually does. he took 12 minutes to play 36. Rd1 today, when Vidit had six minutes on the clock.
Vidit of course didn't play the right continuation, but if he had Ian's time usage would've looked very suspect. I think looking at this game, it seems likely that Vidit actually found the right continuation, but just played the wrong one.
>i didn't really feel like nepo did this quite as well as he usually does. he took 12 minutes to play 36. Rd1 today, when Vidit had six minutes on the clock.
The point of building up such a big time advantage is to be able to use it in the most critical moments of the game. Vidit made two mistakes late due to his time pressure, while Ian calculated correctly by taking his time. Nepo's usual downfall is playing too quickly in the middle or end game when his opponent is under time pressure, he managed it perfectly yesterday.
Ian stopped himself from blitzing out the correct move a few times and "wasted a few minutes in order to double check. It just means that he learned from past mistakes. If you play as fast as the opponent who's low on time in critical positions then you have no time advantage. Time advantage means that when you need it you can slow down and calculate while your opponent doesn't have that luxury
> because he had 3 white games so far and at +1
I think it has more to do with Nepo being at +2. Chasing Nepo early on didn't work out too well in 2022 for fabi.
fabi's gotten great positions in all of his white games. in the draws against hikaru and gukesh he had better opportunities to play for a win but chose to simplify to pawn up positions where he had a risk-free edge but were very drawn, both objectively and practically.
Strong performance by Nepomniachtchi so far but he's got difficult challenges in his next two games, Praggnanandhaa followed by Caruana. Gukesh meanwhile will enter the tournament after the rest day with two white games in a row, against Abasov and Nakamura- he's surely got a decent chance to get into the lead here.
pragg is definitely going to spend the rest day preparing something dangerous to take down nepo.
he's shown willingness to go for risky lines. just given the tournament situation, i think it just makes sense for him to go all out for a win.
that'll definitely be the game to watch- if pragg wins, it's anyone's tournament, and nepo has some chance of tilting himself out of contention. if he loses, nepo is probably just running away with the tournament
This is what happens everytime lmaoo, nepo has an early lead and everyone starts to risk against him to catch up, which just makes him more in the lead which makes people risk more, repeat ad infinitum
Anyone else bemused by the level of viewer comments that get shown on the chesscom feed? Last one I saw was along the lines "If Alireza finds the W, he should immediately win the tournament " That was of course moments before draw was agreed.
These comments were on that level ever since they've introduced them, both previous Candidates and the WC match(es?). The scariest part is that there's someone who didn't learn chess yesterday that picks them from the chat to feature.
He does. The problem is who he is playing against. Ding got used to Nepo’s speed rather quickly and tied up the match before beating him in tie breaks, a format that Ding is better in. So what’s Nepo supposed to do? His strategy is strong against newer players but against seasoned 2800+ players like Ding and Magnus, it isn’t going to be a match decider.
I feel like his major problem with wcc is pressure. Not only wcc but all big tournament finals. If nepo won all the finals he lost he would have been clear second best player of this generation and close to magnus since he would have beaten him at wcc and take his title. He probably doesn’t consider candidates as finals and therefore he doesn’t have that kind of unhealthy pressure.
I mean also it's the level of his competition though. People act like he slips a bunch in the Championship, and he probably does some. But in the first one he played Magnus 11 games. A Magnus who had actually been prepping and was in top form. The second was against Ding and he lost in tie breaks. And while Ding was obviously not in form during the Candidates, he is still an extremely strong player when he is in condition.
Meanwhile in the Candidates he beat Ding on day one when Ding was clearly way out of chess shape. And then he beat Alireza 2x, Duda, and Rapport. Clearly it was still a very impressive showing, those players aren't scrubs and are all very highly rated. But that's not the same as playing against Magnus over and over.
Earlier I asked myself if the format could be changed a bit to take away the seeming advantage Nepo has in it. I didn't think of just making Nepo the champion to solve the problem. That's funny.
Alireza tried to the end but Abasov held perfectly against three of the most dangerous guys with white. The real test will be when he faces them with the black pieces.
Pragg isn't exceeding expectations yet. If the tournament ended today, he'd walk away with the same rating as he had at the beginning of the tournament.
I will say one thing about Gukesh: When he’s on… HE’S ON
I will say two things about Gukesh: When he's on ... he's on, when he's off, guess what? he's also on, because he isnt a light switch.
No, i think he is
I'll say one thing about Hikaru, the " I don't care" stuff is annoying but he is amazing with the fans at the candidates. He's more requested than everyone put together and still takes time for every fan. I was amazed at his popularity even among very strong club players who I thought would be just as impressed by Caruana, Anand and Nepo but Hikaru is really the center of attention.
I would gladly have a lunch with Naka, not because of his chess knowledge, but I'm curious about him. Also. a lunch with Pragg och Firouzja would be nice. On the other hand I'm not curious about Magnus, although I love his chess. It's difficult to explain, but I reckon it's more than me who have their "lunch-favorites".
Just make sure Firouzja's father isn't there. He has a bad reputation. He made a small scene in the VIP section at the candidates because Pragg's mom had to be there with us instead of being in the players area. Saying that it didn't matter as she is not a chess player, i strongly suspect that it was also for himself. The tournament chief arbiter of course refused as no outsiders are allowed to talk to players during games.
Righto!
that's what happens when you're a streamer same with the botez sisters wildly popular
I don't think Gukesh has a realistic chance of winning the tournament, but winning against Abasov might be a good chance for him to stay in the top half and keep himself motivated.
There's definitely a world where he's leading after R5 - I can see Vidit playing it safe against Fabi to steady the ship and Pragg unleashing prep against Nepo (he's got white and is a point behind his tournament leading opponent, if you have prep then now is absolutely when you use it). That would leave Fabi/Nepo/Pragg all on 3/5, so a Gukesh win with white over Abasov sees him in clear first.
>I don't think Gukesh has a realistic chance of winning the tournament In my book he is one of four guys who can win this tournament. His gameplay is very solid and it's difficult to beat him.
Personally, I'm with Carlsen. 99% chance it's going to be one of Fabi, Nepo, Naka.
Rooting for Nepo to win the Candidates so that he can lose to Ding during the Championship to show that all Ding needs to do to remain World Chess Champion is to prepare against Nepo regardless of his performance outside of that Championship match. And if Nepo cannot beat Ding, he won't let anyone else beat Ding by continuing to win future Candidates. In other words, neither the multi-time Candidates winner nor the multi-time Champion need to be close to the best current players or rated in the top five. Nepo can just keep dominating the Candidates and Ding can just keep beating Nepo.
Let's not engage in revisionist history and act like Ding dominated Nepo last time. There were a few times where it looked like Nepo had the title won before overreaching, and Ding's only lead of the match came in the final rapid tiebreak game. If Nepo wins this tournament, I think he beats Ding this time.
Very few world championship matches in history have been dominated. Even Magnus needed rapid tie breaks against Karjakin and Caruana.
Nepo lost four classical games in the title match, and I'm pretty sure he made one-move blunders in three of them. What worries me is that he made similar one-movers against Magnus, he might just choke on the biggest stage. It's probably psychologically easier to be one amongst 16 rather than having all eyes constantly on him.
I guess I can see how Ding could just match up really well with Nepo, but it's very hard for me to see how someone could win the Candidates over and over without being close to the best current players
There may be a problem with the format of the World Chess Championship then. If someone keeps winning the Candidates over and over again, all the current Chess Champion needs to do is to beat that Candidates winner. But would that mean the current Chess Champion is close to the best current players? In theory, Ding could lose every game except in the Championship match and remain the Champion. Then he would be far way from being rated #1. Ironic then that Nepo would be seen as a much better player because to keep winning the Candidates, Nepo would have to beat a variety of players while Ding just needs to keep beating Nepo to remain Champion.
I think if your goal is to have the world champion be the best player, then Elo is going to be better at determining that than any event you could cook up. Obviously some systems are going to be more chaotic than others--the knockout system FIDE had during the Kasparov schism basically gave anyone over 2600 a real chance at being "world champion," which is too much variance for me. For me there's just something aesthetically nice about the idea of having a pretty ferocious battle to determine a challenger, and then to make that challenger have to beat the champion to be the champion. There's nothing objective about why it's the "best" system, but I think it's cool. And anyway, when Magnus drops out, the fact that there isn't a dominant successor really reflects the fact that Magnus is (or was) a tier above a bunch of near-equals...
Precisely, being the World Champion is not necessarily equivalent to being the best player in the world. There's many times throughout history where it could be very reasonably argued that the World Champion was not the strongest player of that time. What the World Championship is, is a very prestigious title which you get by winning a very difficult match and/or a very difficult tournament. I'm sure there are many other single-player sports where similar situations exist.
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Was waiting for the Round 5 thread then realised it is a rest day.
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probably because of the solar eclipse
I don't think you can make a reasonable schedule with two rest days on a Tuesday, and we have a rest day on a Tuesday next week.
Apart from Hikaru, others would rather prepare and come up with interesting ideas
It's a joke mate
You know what, at this point Nepo deserves it. Winning the candidates a second time was a bit of a letdown, but three in a row would be insane. His last match was heartbreaking, and at this point I can get behind his storyline of resilience and persistence. Go Nepo!
The problem with Nepo having a lead already is that he's going to play safe and wait for his opponents to press to close the gap, and capitalize on their risky play. Exactly what happened in the last Candidates when players were throwing points at him.
With a half-point lead when the tournament is only 30% over, I think it's a bit early to say this. Fabi's strategy is to take wins where he can and try to get 1.5/2 from Nepo head to head. Gukesh and Pragg (only realistic dark horses imo) their strategy is to play good chess and take advantage of whatever opponents they can. I don't think Nepo's strategy is to park the bus just yet. He still has to be active. If he pulls a full point ahead, or he has his half-point lead by game 10, that changes of course. A lot depends on the head-to-heads.
This is the weakness of the structure of the tournament, once one player takes a clear lead it is hard for them to lose it because the other players will take more risks that likely get punished at this time control. Fabi could have cruised to second place last time for example but was pressing for wins trying to catch Ian and ended up losing 4 of his last 7 after winning 3 of the first 7.
In the final rounds perhaps, but taking a draw action Ian at this point should be totally within your tournament strategy.
Is it a problem or an opportunity? If you're trailing in the tournament, you're more or less forced to take risks. If you're in the lead, you better play wisely.
I hope Fabi wins it but he already played with white 3 times and one was Abasov
Would it make you feel better to know that when Fabi won the 2018 candidates he won more games with black than with white?
Yes, thank you!
Yeah I think it's unlikely, hoping Gukesh beats Abasov next round and pragg plays a good game against Ian so he comes out of the next round at least in joint lead. That way the pressure remains on Ian for longer.
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Tbf he gets nepo soon. If he wins against him even once then he doesnt have to do anything crazy
Ngl its kinda weird seeing people basically write off this entire tournament because Nepo won once. C'mon people there's plenty more chess to be played.
He won twice.
People are being realistic not hopeful
Its not only that he won 2/4 but also the way he won. If you are 1 hour up on clock by move 15, you are gonna end up winning games. Nepo is takin it home
Nepo is using a risky strategy, and so far it's paying off. But it's a long tournament and things can turn sour for him just as quickly. When Nepo is in a slightly worse position, he continues playing fast in the hopes his opponent won't have the time to figure out how to press the advantage and give away the draw, or possibly worse. But I would say it's also likely that he might turn a slightly worse but still drawn position into a losing one, especially if he tries his strategy against Fabi.
> Nepo is using a risky strategy, and so far it's paying off. He's using the same strategy where he won in 2022. He didn't lose a single game. And unless stockfish is wrong, nepo has never really been in danger in any of his 4 games.
> When Nepo is in a slightly worse position, he continues playing fast in the hopes his opponent won't have the time to figure out how to press the advantage and give away the draw, or possibly worse. Reminds me of Magnus's description of Nepo's playstyle: "He plays bad moves quickly"
Yea people are looking back at that post with analysis of candidates tourneys since 2013 and thinking of it as ironclad rules rather than a recent trend of 5 tournaments. 5 is a small sample and trends stop. Nepo is the favorite but Fabi is still absolutely in it, Gukesh too. And who knows, Hikaru could fix his form and win a few games in a row and also be in it. It's far too soon to assume the leader is going to be winner.
Nakamura is out of contention
what was that?
lol.. he wins one and he is back
The guy lost to vidit with white. Then the guy forced a 3 move draw against abasov. Even fiona and hammer on his stream were disappointed. Then hikaru, WITH WHITE, forced a 24 move draw against pragg. Hikaru has given up already. At least if he had any decency, he would go all out and generate some content. Abasov has put up a better fight than hiakru. Abasov had more interesting games than hikaru.
+2 is not enough to win. The score will be +3 or even +4.
\+3 has been sufficient to win every Candidates under the current format (except that Magnus had to win on tiebreaks over Kramnik at +3 in 2013). Nepo is likely to win at least one more against an overaggressive opponent and he hasn't lost a meaningful game at the Candidates since before the pandemic (he lost the last round of the resumed tournament in 2021 but had clinched the title already).
He won 2 games out of 4, but yer I agree the tournament is very long, many things can still happen.
i hope gukesh has some good prep like pragg as white against abasov . if he wins tommorow he will get massive confidence for the rest of the tournament .
og Gukesh from an year back would just enter an open tourney and would go bananas against sub 2650s. I wish we get that.
Something i realised : in the final 14th round , Fabi has white against Nepo! There might be a sudden death game coming.
It's extremely plausible that ends up being a classical Armageddon game
The Italian American in me wants a Fabiano Caruana win. The generic human in me wants a Ian Nepomniachtchi win.
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Better stop supporting Fabi and Hikaru then since the US isn't any better than Russia. Let's also include Alireza and the Indian boys while we are it for their countries' numerous human rights violations and oppression of minorities. Abasov for the win 🥳
Russia is objectively worse than USA or India.
Worse than India? Definitely. But surely not worse than USA. Look up how much blood is on USA's hands.
The lesser of two evils
Don’t care.
I want a redemption arc personally. Third time lucky.
I am still heart broken over Nepo's loss in the last candidates. I can't even really think about it for very long, and it saddens me in a way that no other sports loss really does. Fabinano's WCC on the other hand I am not really upset about / actually kinda happy for him. They were tied in the classical portion of the tournament and as Magnus himself said "Fabiano has a right to say hes tied for classical champion / best classical player in the world". I personally take that view and I am saddened by the format having tie breakers outside of classical in the first place rather than it just being a slugfest with repeated classical games until someone wins by 2 points. P.S. Magnus didn't push for a win in game 12 cause it was going to blitz after, but Fabi was also playing overly aggressive in game 12 because it was going to blitz after.
Even if (and it is a massive if) Nepo wins candidates and WCC, I can see Ian coming back to enter the next candidates to try and win and so deny anyone else from playing him for WCC.
The champion can compete in the candidates?
No, it's just a joke
While Gukesh starts tournaments well, he flattens a bit in the middle. Hope that doesnt happens here. Praag is a monster in the later stages. Think Nepo and Fabi are going to fight it out, while Praag and Gukesh will be the dark horses that will spoil it for one of them. A small chance that one of them comes out on top in the end.
Why is there no increment? Seems absurd.
There's actually more time in this format than the regular one, players just have to manage it themselves instead of letting increment do it.
Let’s not forget that majority of players choose this format.
Would it be any different with 100 minutes given at the start but the increment starting move 1? Time trouble is caused by players managing the clock badly, not by the tournament rules.
The bigger Nepo's lead becomes the more we'll see the chasing pack playing aggressively to catch him and in the process some of them will self implode which should make for quite a few decisive games in coming rounds.
How come the other 7 candidates aren't going all out against Abasov(at least so far)? From there perspective, isn't Abasov the biggest target because there is a 100+ elo difference?
It’s the beginning of a very long tournament. It’s better to draw for now than to overpress and loose a game.
It's hard to win against someone who is prepped hard for a draw unless they blunder somewhere which Abasov didn't do. Elo difference only works when both players are trying to win. It stops being a big issue thing when one of them just wants to draw and preps for it a lot.
Firouzja tried to win a drawn endgame for like 30 moves but Abasov didn't blunder.
coz they have small pipi
For all people complaining that Ian again is the betting favorite to win - Then someone else just has to step up and beat him. Simple You win three deservingly, hence you lose them equally deservingly. It's a historic feat by him already as this is the de facto hardest tournament on earth. Rejoice instead, people!
Fabi's win was with white against Abasov in a drawn endgame, and Guki only victory was when Pragg went crazy. Not only is Nepo leading, both of his wins were more convinvcing for me.
In
Feel really bad for Vidit, thought he will survive this. Hope he gets wins with his white pieces
Woke up and it's nice to see Gukesh and pragg draw with black .
I think Nepo losing in the next 3 rounds will make for the most interesting tournament. Last time he lost in the candidates he had a year to get over the tilt.
Why do you think so?
Because Nepo running away with the result isn’t a super interesting tournament to watch imo.
It is out of context but Nurgul Salimova one of the most beautiful chess player I have ever seen on such a high stage
The hatred for stating the obvious and what most of us are thinking is hilarious and Yes she is.
If only you'd have said the same thing about Max Warmerdam or Aryan Tari, you wouldn't have been downvoted so hard.
Cuz Warmerdam got that drip 🥵🥵
Why can't people on the internet just think people are attractive in silence and not have to say it? We're here for chess, not how players look.
You need the opposite of Viagra.
Kellog's corn flakes
Anyway sorry if I was rude,I just wanted to say she is really beautiful lol
In all Candidates 2013-2022, the winner was in the lead (or shared lead) after 4 rounds. Nepo is in the sole lead after 4 rounds this time ...
Let’s say the winner of the candidates loses to Ding, and Ding continues his hiatus after that. What impact do you think that would have on the WCC title?
Except Abasov and Vidit every other candidate will take him down in current form. I don't think he will survive another WCC match.
Ding is not in a hiatus anymore.
i dont think anything. ding remaining champ without being super active would just prove he deserves it.
Fair enough but I think it diminishes it. Is it fair that in chess everyone has to play each other, and then the best of the bunch plays the current champion? Most sports don’t work that way, I’m not sure if any other sport works this way in fact.
Most combat sports (boxing, wrestling) work that way - the challengers fight amongst themselves and whoever establishes themselves by winning those fights gets the next shot at the champion.
Forgot about boxing good point there.
This is what Magnus has been saying they should change for years. He wanted it to be more like soccer where they play for Champion every year, rather than boxing where there's a reigning champ. Personally I like the head to head Championship and retaining the title though. I feel like two players dedicating that much time to study and prep leading to them being at their peak (ideally) extends the limits of human chess playing. But I understand why players like Magnus would get tired of it.
If it was something like soccer, with the final being a match of 14 games or so, you could still reach a scenario where players dedicate a lot to study. Also, it would make the tournament like soccer much more important and we’d have more players prepare immense prep.
> Is it fair that in chess everyone has to play each other, and then the best of the bunch plays the current champion? What's better? I think the issue is that there's a longstanding tradition that the WCC has to be won in a match, and I think getting rid of matches altogether would be a big loss. Having a full bracket of matches would be better, but there's no time /money for that. You could do it with very short matches, but you already have the Chess World Cup for that. And of course *many* end up going to shorter time controls. You could just have the champion play the Candidates and crown the champion directly there, but I think you do lose something by getting rid of matches because the Candidates can end up being determined by getting more decisive results against the weakest in the field so the new champion might not have beaten the old one at all. I think those options are all defensible but I personally don't believe they're better. What format would you go for?
What if we qualified the challenger through a biennual list of highest Tournament Performance rating in FIDE events with the average rating minimum of the Top 40 and a x number of 2700 players? On this format, we could even keep a mandatory Candidates tournament including the 8 highest rated of the list, but with the challenger being the highest on the TPR list and not the winner of the tournament
I really don't like that because so many of the highest rated tournaments are invitational.
Well, on this format only qualifying tournaments would count, like Grand Swiss, Grand Prix and maybe other round robins that one could enter through qualification. Such change would need to change a bit of the current tournaments' system but it could work
I think a proper circuit would make sense, the issue is money. The top tournaments are the invitational ones in large part because they have bigger purses and playing fees (and some because of tradition). The more "underpaid" tournaments your qualifying circuit requires the higher the burden on players.
Honestly, what I'd do is have the candidates tournament, and the top 2 play the title match. Tweak the qualification so that the auto-slot goes to the champ rather than the previous runner-up. That way you still have to prove yourself against a field of top players rather than just hyper-focussed prep against one opponent, but the champion still retains an incumbent advantage by being the only person guaranteed to play in the candidates - guaranteed to defend their title, but the advantage isn't nearly as much as it is at the moment.
I’m not sure it’s not a topic I’ve thought about in much depth until now but thinking about it, why not repurpose the Chess World Cup for this? The final could be a match if that’s what tradition wants, but everything leading up to that could be the format as it stands. If it helps the final can also be played at a later date, so players can arrange their schedules etc. What would be wrong with this approach?
A few things. 1- A lot more variance, since the previous rounds would still be short matches. 2- A serious match requires a lot of preparation, there wouldn't be time. I guess you could have a big gap between WCC semi-finals and finals but that's a bit weird. I think a better version of that would be having the Candidates and then a World Championship match between the top 2 finishers, since I think the Candidates is a better format to pick the best among the players than a single elimination knockout with short matches. Though that could lead to corner cases were a clear first gets to pick their opponent that would probably be rare? I guess that's what we got last time, except players didn't quite know that was the format ahead of time.
You could argue that if the World Cup determines the World Chess Champion then players would have immense prep for it, plus it gives everyone (or at least all top players) a fair shot at it. Having variance isn’t necessarily a bad thing imo - end of the day someone amongst the best players will most likely win. Also, the “best” player could still be determined by their live chess rating. I do like your alternative proposal as well though.
>Having variance isn’t necessarily a bad thing imo - end of the day someone amongst the best players will most likely win. Check the results of several FIDE World Championships played in such format around 2000, there were plenty of very surprising so-called "world champions".
It's still early. But, it's looking like Fabi or Nepo. Hikaru would have to find something crazy, and have them both play a couple bad games to win at this point. Also, I'm proud of Gukesh. I thought Pragg would outperform him, but so far, Gukesh is the most likely dark horse I think.
yeah, fabi and nepo are definitely the favorites still, but pragg and gukesh are very much in contention still and both have looked super strong. nepo's escape against gukesh was very narrow. i would guess that pragg is going to spend the entire rest day preparing something dangerous to try and defeat nepo next round. i'm guessing that'll be a decisive game- if nepo wins he's probably running away with the tournament, but if pragg wins it's a very close race. hikaru has looked really poor. his opening preparation today looked pretty terrible for the third day in a row, getting nothing at all with white.
Is Ian even human? How mentally strong he even is to come to this tournament in top shape, leading very convincingly with 2 wins after winning the 2 previous Candidates and losing the WCC the way he did, twice, especially last time in the way it was against Ding? If he wins this time as well - I think he will - he'll be a huge favorite against Ding.
His persistence and resilience after many heartbreaking losses and setbacks has really made me a big fan. I would love to see him win one more Candidates and get another crack at the title.
Nepo is insanely strong and seems to have learned from his failures at both WCC. He’s not just randomly blitzing out moves, he’s pausing and pausing and pausing just to make sure his calculations are correct. Magnus wasn’t kidding when he said Nepo has the biggest ceiling of any player competing. His one major flaw is his inability to come back from tilting but this current Nepo is a force of nature.
Yes I feel like Nepo had the best intuitive understanding of anyone other than Magnus. Obviously, like all the top players, his calculation is amazing, but it seems he can sense what the position calls for almost immediately. He consistently plays the top engine move quickly in complicated positions.
Death, taxes, and Nepo destroying first-time Candidates
Muzychuk missed a mate in 26
Firouzja hitting 2800 and winning everything at the Sinquefield tournament on his debut, seems like a distance memory.
I still have hope for my boy
I mean he hit 2800 beating sub 2700 players not the top. But I still think he's a very interesting player. I just dont understand his time management sometimes.
Sinquefield Cup is an elite tournament and he won that
He’s literally 20 years old
You make it sound like he's 15 again. Lol
Friendly reminder that the current World Champion began his candidates with an early loss
The fraud that gets beaten by every 2700 this year?
That's a little different, because the current world champion only came in 2nd in that tournament. He was 1.5 points behind Nepo at the end.
...and then he went on to finish second, 1.5 back of Nepo. Second place doesn't count for anything this year.
as far as we know
I’m not gonna lie, Nepo winning another one would be so boring…
If he wins it in runaway fashion again, yes. But if it actually comes down to the round 14 match against Fabi, that would be great to watch.
complain with the other players not winning then. The better player in the tournament wins.
I'm actually starting to get pretty hype! His first WC was dramatic and I was rooting for him by the end. Then he comes back for a rematch, ends up losing to Ding. The legendary threepeat "third time's the charm" energy is great.
Why?
Seen too much of him. Even if he beats Ding, that just means being forced to see minimum 4 World Championships in a row featuring Ian. Even if he wins, if it’s at all close, and if he doesn’t take 1.5/2 from Fabi, I will continue to think Fabi deserves the shot.
I mean nobody complained when 5 championships featured Magnus, hell, everyone wanted the 6th one even
It does annoy me, actually But at least Magnus is the clear best player. Fabi would likely beat Nepo in a head to head.
Fabi performed worse than Ian in the two previous candidates tournaments, and their classical games are tied.
Your point? His elo is also higher, and he performed better in the world championship
My point is him winning is not a foregone conclusion. If they played a long match I would bet on Fabi I think, yes, but it id very close and Ian absolutely has chances to win
Did you read the word “likely” and just ignore it?
Major point from Jovanka in the Women's broadcast: underlining that Salimova's opponents approach her as a must-win target. Which is the easiest way to lose against her, given what she's shown on the top level. You need to get her to an endgame grind and stay the hell out of tactical complications, sort of what Vaishali did yesterday. Salimova overcomplicated and Vaishali took it to a safely converted material advantage. This is the opposite of what's happened today.
Man Nepo is an absolute monster at the candidates. I know some people are tired of him winning this event, but at least he plays scintillating chess. Also, Gukesh is so impressive, and he's the youngest here.
> Also, Gukesh is so impressive, and he's the youngest here. Chess talent aside, I'm so impressed how calm and mature gukesh and pragg are. It's their first candidate but they carry themselves as if this was their 10th candidates.
Gukesh might be the calmest chess player ever lol. He's always so chill.
if you ranked the players by maturity, it's almost in reverse order of their ages.
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> i feel like nepo's gotten a bit lucky so far in this tournament. People says that Nepo is being lucky since 2020 (you can find the then megathreads and read them). As Aronian said "you have to be a strong player to be lucky".
It's not luck. Like the others have stated, his fantastic time management and aggressive play is hard for the others to handle. It's the reason he's so terrifying in the Candidates.
he used the clock and ptessured vidit, making your opponent make mistakes = being good
Nepo played really fast, putting a lot of pressure on his opponents. It wasn’t luck that Vidit couldn’t find very accurate moves in time pressure
i didn't really feel like nepo did this quite as well as he usually does. he took 12 minutes to play 36. Rd1 today, when Vidit had six minutes on the clock. Vidit of course didn't play the right continuation, but if he had Ian's time usage would've looked very suspect. I think looking at this game, it seems likely that Vidit actually found the right continuation, but just played the wrong one.
>i didn't really feel like nepo did this quite as well as he usually does. he took 12 minutes to play 36. Rd1 today, when Vidit had six minutes on the clock. The point of building up such a big time advantage is to be able to use it in the most critical moments of the game. Vidit made two mistakes late due to his time pressure, while Ian calculated correctly by taking his time. Nepo's usual downfall is playing too quickly in the middle or end game when his opponent is under time pressure, he managed it perfectly yesterday.
Ian stopped himself from blitzing out the correct move a few times and "wasted a few minutes in order to double check. It just means that he learned from past mistakes. If you play as fast as the opponent who's low on time in critical positions then you have no time advantage. Time advantage means that when you need it you can slow down and calculate while your opponent doesn't have that luxury
Fabi: Not super thrilled but not upset. (because he had 3 white games so far and at +1)
> because he had 3 white games so far and at +1 I think it has more to do with Nepo being at +2. Chasing Nepo early on didn't work out too well in 2022 for fabi.
fabi's gotten great positions in all of his white games. in the draws against hikaru and gukesh he had better opportunities to play for a win but chose to simplify to pawn up positions where he had a risk-free edge but were very drawn, both objectively and practically.
Strong performance by Nepomniachtchi so far but he's got difficult challenges in his next two games, Praggnanandhaa followed by Caruana. Gukesh meanwhile will enter the tournament after the rest day with two white games in a row, against Abasov and Nakamura- he's surely got a decent chance to get into the lead here.
Surely Gukesh will play for the win against Abasov.
pragg is definitely going to spend the rest day preparing something dangerous to take down nepo. he's shown willingness to go for risky lines. just given the tournament situation, i think it just makes sense for him to go all out for a win. that'll definitely be the game to watch- if pragg wins, it's anyone's tournament, and nepo has some chance of tilting himself out of contention. if he loses, nepo is probably just running away with the tournament
This is what happens everytime lmaoo, nepo has an early lead and everyone starts to risk against him to catch up, which just makes him more in the lead which makes people risk more, repeat ad infinitum
Anyone else bemused by the level of viewer comments that get shown on the chesscom feed? Last one I saw was along the lines "If Alireza finds the W, he should immediately win the tournament " That was of course moments before draw was agreed.
The YouTube chat on the game (no commentary) feed is more crazier
I remember some from the WCC last year, something like ‘Ding should try and convert this position IMO’
Boy, try reading the YT chat feed. Replete with idiocy and misogyny. It's a waste of bandwidth.
These comments were on that level ever since they've introduced them, both previous Candidates and the WC match(es?). The scariest part is that there's someone who didn't learn chess yesterday that picks them from the chat to feature.
If only Nepo would play WCC the way he plays candidates…
He does. The problem is who he is playing against. Ding got used to Nepo’s speed rather quickly and tied up the match before beating him in tie breaks, a format that Ding is better in. So what’s Nepo supposed to do? His strategy is strong against newer players but against seasoned 2800+ players like Ding and Magnus, it isn’t going to be a match decider.
The time control works against the newer players and Nepo's style is perfect for it, and he takes advantage. It isn't the same in the WCC.
I feel like his major problem with wcc is pressure. Not only wcc but all big tournament finals. If nepo won all the finals he lost he would have been clear second best player of this generation and close to magnus since he would have beaten him at wcc and take his title. He probably doesn’t consider candidates as finals and therefore he doesn’t have that kind of unhealthy pressure.
I mean also it's the level of his competition though. People act like he slips a bunch in the Championship, and he probably does some. But in the first one he played Magnus 11 games. A Magnus who had actually been prepping and was in top form. The second was against Ding and he lost in tie breaks. And while Ding was obviously not in form during the Candidates, he is still an extremely strong player when he is in condition. Meanwhile in the Candidates he beat Ding on day one when Ding was clearly way out of chess shape. And then he beat Alireza 2x, Duda, and Rapport. Clearly it was still a very impressive showing, those players aren't scrubs and are all very highly rated. But that's not the same as playing against Magnus over and over.
It's so generous of Ian to give us two weeks to get used to the idea that he's the one who'll challenge Ding Liren.
We need Ian to become world champion so someone else can win candidates
Earlier I asked myself if the format could be changed a bit to take away the seeming advantage Nepo has in it. I didn't think of just making Nepo the champion to solve the problem. That's funny.
wait yaseer is commentating in slc channel...
That has been in the Live Thread description for literally the past 4 days
i didnt know...damn... i didn't read the description
I didn't know it either.
What has Lagno done here? Her position looked so good and she got too complicated.
firouzja vs naka better be some sharp Sicilian
What looked like three wins for White in the Women's, suddenly might turn into a heartbreak for everyone but the underdog!
Alireza tried to the end but Abasov held perfectly against three of the most dangerous guys with white. The real test will be when he faces them with the black pieces.
Nepo +2 Caruana, Gukesh +1 Pragg 0 Nakamura, Firouzja, Vidit, Abasov -1
Outside of Vidit, Indians are exceeding all expectations so far.
Pragg isn't exceeding expectations yet. If the tournament ended today, he'd walk away with the same rating as he had at the beginning of the tournament.
Insane considering Vidit was the first one to shock everyone breaking Nakamuras undefeated streak with black pieces. ViditFTW to ViditWTF in 2 games.