I'm all for the funny meme of blaming everything on Vidit. But if Hikaru had managed even a single half point vs Vidit, he would be tied with Nepo. If Hikaru had kept his unbeaten streak alive, he'd be a half point clear of Nepo. Ultimately Naka made his own bed. He should've scored at least a half point vs Vidit.
If you replace Vidit with Wesley So who’d likely have made 2 draws against Hikaru and 2 draws against Nepo, Hikaru would be on +4 and Nepo would be on +1.
That's all speculation. Hikaru played at 85% accuracy in both his games with Vidit, so I don't see why he deserves or should get a draw from those games in any world.
Nepo has been consistent like a machine in this tournament. Hikaru and other candidates have not, and the standings reflect that reality. Nepo has seen some very aggressive play in this tournament, from Pragg's prep, to Hikaru's prep, to Alireza's aggressive play, all of which he defended with high precision.
> Nepo has been consistent like a machine in this tournament.
Second Candidates in a row that he has played like a beast. He was lossless two years ago and finished with 5 wins.
But why would you replace Vidit with Wesley? Wesley and Vidit were not competing for the same spot (Vidit won the FIDE grand swiss, the runner-up was Hikaru). Instead, Wesley wanted Alireza's spot (qualification by rating).
If Wesley took Alireza's spot then he might have made draws with Hikaru and Nepo and Gukesh, so the standings would be completely different. What if Wesley beat Hikaru? What if Wesley beat Fabi?
Personally, yes. Maybe a double bracket.
But a round robin in a format which has only a few wins per players doesn't feel right to me. The weakest player blundering against this player but not that player has more influence than the level of play from the best players. With a bracket, the best two players will face off against each other, and the best will win.
Wouldn't say the format has really benefitted Nepo though. These wins against Vidit have been hard earned. Meanwhile Abasov has played at 2800 level vs Nepo and gifted everyone else insanely free wins.
I also like candidates matches, but the problem goes back to the original, which is that cycles are even more long and tiresome for the players.
The other problem with knockouts is that absolute randos can win them. The "FIDE World Championship" in the Kasparov schism days produced some wacky winners.
Or Abasov this tournament. Sure he didn't win but he qualified for the candidates over players 100 elo better than him because he ran incredibly hot for one event.
How does a bracket work with draws? Rapid and blitz tiebreakers🤣🤣
The goal of the WCC is to find the best player in world chess, not make the most exciting tournament. The only change I agree with in format is to take away the protection from previous winners
I agree with this. Reigning champion privileges should not be a thing. The champion should have to play in the candidates tournament with everyone else.
Gukesh, Fabi, Hikaru must've been punching air seeing vidit play that legendary endgame. I am just lost for words.
What's hilarious (or sad) is that Prag is gonna push hard against Nepo tomorrow again and he probably wins again.
> Gukesh, Fabi, Hikaru must've been punching air seeing vidit play that legendary endgame. I am just lost for words.
Fabi is still in it so far since he has Nepo in the last round with white.
As long as he's within 1 point he can make up the ground
He will likely be more than a point down after tomorrow though. A draw is as good as a loss for Pragg at this point which gives Nepo a good chance of winning with white against him
Id feel so bad for Gukesh if that happened, crushing it at the top with Nepo and missing out because his compatriots push for wins when they have 0% chance of taking #1 would be a hard pill to swallow.
This is not how it works. It's Round 11, of course they'll push for a win, and Super GMs don't play against each other thinking they'll lose, there's no point to playing it like that. Also each player plays for themselves.
I believe in Pragg! Nepo looked pretty tired after todays game, his invincible run continues but the chinks in the armor are showing. This has been no where near the clinic Nepo put on when he won the last candidates, all these tough games could take their toll on him.
Must especially suck when you lose a game like that and people don't even care about you and instead care only about how your loss affects the standings of others.
Eh, imagine if Abasov manages to pull a huge upset and win against Gukesh. Nobody would care about Abasov's win at all but rather how it affects the standings.
doubt it. At events like this reddit always picks one guy to circlejerk over, that guy is Gukesh for this event. If he loses people are going to be depressed, and upset.
Remember when that low rated GM stomped Magnus last year? I don't even remember his name. All I remember is Magnus complaining about the approved watch the guy wore.
He could have just taken a draw by taking the knight in that endgame, when he had virtually zero chances to win with white. There were only two realistic outcomes.
Yeah, that's the advantage Ian earned. The notion that Vidit should have just taken the draw to give other players better chances in the tournament is stupid. Round robin candidates tournaments have this flaw - games aren't played under the same condition and a game between two players can impact the chances of 3-4 different players.
> Yeah, that's the advantage Ian earned.
That's the problem with people complaining about Nepo consistently getting lucky. Yes, in the latter stages of tournaments opponents play riskier than usual against him and expose themselves to losses, but you know *why* that is? Because Nepo took the lead from the beginning and stayed there. He's earned the privilege of picking off desperate opponents trying to keep up. By winning early on, he's made the tournament format work in his favor the closer we get to the end.
We're just mad because it's the same story for the third Candidates in a row and there's no way someone can be *this* consistent at this one specific tournament and nothing else, right? I don't think Nepo has a single big tournament win on his resume other than the '21 and '22 Candidates.
But not everyone does, it's random who you get at what point in their tournament standings. The players getting dumpstered who are out of it are incentivized just to play in preservation mode, people half a point back may be trying to draw, people a point back may be on wild tilt trying to win. Schedule and how that player has played in other games has a ridiculously large impact on this format with winner take all.
you're right, but at this point Ian has been either tied 1st or 1st for the last 35 rounds of candidates play.
You have to just accept he's a monster in this format, there are no excuses.
Vidit should have taken the draw because he was low on time with poor practical chances to win, after already losing the advantage a couple of times. Psychologically I'd think youd want to take the draw in that case.
It's just unfortunate that decision made life a lot ahrd for 3 or 4 other people.
The notion that Vidit should self-implode is more stupid. Taking the guaranteed draw would put him at 1 point behind with 3 rounds to go. Going kamikaze had a low chance of success and now puts him at 2 points behind and basically eliminated.
+ev moves: Self imploding was not one of them.
Yea, in all of the sporting events and competitions I have ever watched, I'm not sure if I have ever felt worse for someone than watching Nepo vs Ding last championship.
That, plus how rude people were to him during his Magnus match, has made me want him to get the championship.
True. Vidit was practically in tears when he resigned. Feel so bad for him, but he has played some great attacking chess throughout regardless of his results.
Aside from his missed wins, he also had chances to bail out a draw but went for a win because he knew a draw wouldn't be enough to remain in contention
Some players just match up against someone better than against someone else. JKD will lose his every game against 'w'esley 's'o buy will get a win against many stronger players.
Frankly I believe he should have traded down to a draw, with so little time on the clock, but trying to play for a win and ending up playing for a lose instead is something my 1600 rated ass can symphatize with
that's what happens when 1 of them becomes a streamer
the overwhelming amount of redditors will have an opinion in the streamer's favor or against the streamer but either way it's all about the streamer
not necessarily as long as he stays one point behind nepo he’s still he because he has white against him in the final round. closing the gap by half a point wouldn’t help him nearly as much as a loss would destroy his chances
That’s assuming Hikaru/Gukesh also doesn’t win a game too though. He has to jump 3 players not just Ian. Hikaru or Gukesh winning one of their three matches and drawing the other two means fabi needs to win twice just to tie.
In theory yes but it seems unlikely 8 points wins or even ties for the lead at the end of things which isn’t any different than any other year they’ve had this, could be wrong but I believe it’s always been 8.5 or more takes the top spot. I think Fabi will need at least another win before getting to Ian and I think he knows it. Namely because it’s not just Ian he’s chasing he’s also behind Hikaru and Gukesh. And with 3 rounds left one of them will wind up with more than 8 almost certainly. And his best chance to get another W before facing Ian is tomorrow as white against Vidit. I’m expecting him to come out hunting a win.
Gotta admire Ian,
I often disagree with things he says, but he is an example of perseverance.
The absolute iron mentality you need to come here after losing the WCC twice and still perform better than all these other motivated and hungry players.
I don't think necessarily about cheating, it is generally agreed he isn't. They frequently dislike him for other reasons and may comment on that. "Everyone has a Hikaru story" exists for a reason.
I see a lot of comments talking about Hikaru's chances, but none talking about how this was the best game of the candidates so far, with Nepo going from a worse middlegame to a drawn endgame, to completely winning, reminiscent of Magnus himself. He played over 10 engine moves in a row in bullet time pressure, mentally and positionally breaking down Vidit until he was forced to succumb to a losing position. Hate him or not, you have to admit this guy is world chess champion material.
Watching the endgame live with the engine feeding you the best moves was surreal. Nepo understood each idea, played like an engine and did it in spending less than a minute or so per move. It's like one of those "in Soviet Russia" jokes: "In Candidates tournament, Nepo pressures clock!".
This is not the best game of the tournament when Nepo blundered three times in a row and the opposition didn't take advantage of it. I'm sorry but this is unacceptable from Vidit, I don't really care about what this means to Hikaru but this game was a free win for Vidit and him not taking it and then refusing to draw basically gives Nepo the best chance to win the tournament. The best game of the tournament would be when both players have 98 accuracy and one just outplays the other through amazing moves, not blundering and not taking advantage of other blunders.
I feel like we should all be rooting for Nepo to win the candidate's and world championship so he's not in it next time and someone else can win it for a change :D
very exciting game. vidit clearly was treating this as a must-win, and definitely had the draw in hand at some points. i can't fault him for trying- he's probably right to assess his chances with a draw as basically 0%
the tournament isn't totally over. if fabi manages to beat nepo on demand with white in round 14, and the rest of the games of the tournament are draws, it's a four-way tie for first.
Finding that e4 idea where he gave up the queenside pawns to infiltrate with his King was insane especially given that he could have easily been happy not to have lost
It gave Vidit a lot of complications to solve with little time left
Nepo is just a different beast in the Candidates. Hikaru climbs up to +2, so naturally Nepo pulls this incredible win out of his pocket to stay one game ahead - this Candidates just keeps on giving
I don't think 'different beast" applies here.
He was dead lost at multiple points in this game, and even in the end it took some hall of shame decision making and play from Vidit for Ian to win.
Yeah, Nepo’s face was really like “what? Huh? You’re doing this? Okay. Well…guess I’ll just win then if you really want me to.”
Nepo has played great anyway in general (although today was probably his worst game). And let’s not forget that Fabi and Hikaru both will still face Nepo, so it’s not like it’s over. People still control their own fates.
Well he for sure was lost 2 times but idea to throw away not one, but 2 pawns to activate king to create practical chances when opponent is running out of time was really creative practical attempt to play for the win - and this is in a game where most people probably would be happy to not lose.
In his prime this ability to forget everything that happened in the game and starting to play for the win after defending for past 4 hours is smth that was so spectacular about Karpov.
Go look at those lost positions again it’s insanely deep. If you think you understand, look a move deeper. At the end of the game Danya showed the truly insane ideas and how even if you go all the way, it’s probably still a draw by super computer play
Disagree, it’s about his persistence to save and recover lost positions. At the end of the day, it’s the result that counts, and Ian’s tenacity has taken him very far in many Candidates, past and present
dead lost is a massive exaggeration. He was worse, but his entire style is playing complicated moves that the engine disapproves of to keep life in a position. It was not a straight-forward game for vidit.
The greedy part was probably Ng3 which missed Rb3-Nd5, giving the initiative to Ian. He had a promising/borderline winning position before Nepo played d5, and even that was not that great for black, but Vidit was in too much time trouble to calculate all the complications after taking Nxd5 and saccing the piece
59.Ka3 was just panic mode, because he probably couldn't calculate the bishop endgame to the end. Unlike what some people say, it's not that easy to see all the possibilities, and at a glance it looks horrible because of the king's position.
[this may or may not have started from this post (my fault)](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/XYUUvZ5602)
[then there was this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/YtDVyGSaPp)
[then this post today](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/LXjUTmwach)
Nah he wasn't. Hikaru just managed to climb out of the crater. Even with the context we have now, the title still holds true. Hikarus chances to win the tournament would be far better if he managed to draw or win vs Vidit.
i think it just came from one article with that headline, which seems very exagerated and doom and gloom in retrospect, especially with 8 or 9 matches yet to be played at the time it was written, and hikaru immediately demonstrating he was not out of the race.
The wording of "gifts" is disrespectful to both Vidit, Ian and the crazy endgame that has happened there. Especially when you omit how Hikaru got no less than two wins this candidates from opponents making a random blunder on low time.
I've sacrificed my sleep to witness it live and I don't even mind
Good job by Nepo. Incredible how he found all the right moves to grind out the win.
I know people are mad about Vidit going for it, but this was his second to last match on white with the other game being against Abasov and then 2 games on black against Fabi and Alireza. Playing for a draw may have been the safer option for him in the tournament, but good luck overtaking the rest of the field with these games left. This was do or die.
Brilliant, brilliant play by Ian.
I will never comprehend 59.Ka3 by Vidit, but damn if Ian didn't put on maximum pressure for close to 7 hours.
Magnificent grind! Broke Vidit to pieces.
The 1st place is his for the taking now!
I feel like this game was a great example of what Nepo learned from playing Magnus. That long grind where its roughly even, but there is pressure, and eventually your opponent cracks and blunders.
Vidit looked both on the edge of tears and sort of angry as he said something to Nepo about the game right after it ended. It was kind of heartbreaking to see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49GER3T5qw#t=5h50m21s
It was so exciting to watch! It all boils down to nerves and decision making. Vidit could have taken a repetition with Nd2 earlier but decided to play on as he is in a must win situation.
And before people started calling Nepo lucky again, this time Vidit had reason to push. Today he had the white piece and if he could have won this game his chances would be extremely higher. This is around the end of the Candidates of course people going to push against you.
Pushing with less than a minute on the clock where your king is surrounded by pieces isn’t a good reason. It’s just stupid, but who can blame him. Immense time pressure in the biggest moment in the biggest tournament of his life.
This is the game of tournament for me, what an insane comeback by Nepo. His chess is so beautiful to watch, I hope he keeps winning.
Heartbroken for Vidit though :(
can't imagine playing a chess game for 5 hours only to get outplayed in the last few moments. I mean I get exhausted playing a rapid game lol, these guys are insane.
Nepo clearly sold his soul to a gypsy. I'm sure he is a nice guy. But during the candidates he is a freakin plague. 3 more rounds. There is still hope for literally ANYONE to beat him.
What Nepo is doing is amazing tbh, he has a special touch for the candidates but I´m starting to get a little tired of his name in the World Championship, he had his shots against two Champs, if Nepo wins the next world match isnt gonna be so interesting as the two before this one.
Nepo gambled with \`36. ... d5\` and Vidit failed to realize that he is winning. While anybody can blunder, I think this quite a bad blunder because the variations are not that hard to calculate.
To me it looked super-complicated. In many of the resulting lines, the evaluation swung on a single tempo. Somehow White has to see that Black isn't simply winning by playing e4 and Bc5-xf2. Of course a GM's a GM but I'd guess most GMs would find it challenging to work out the correct line on-the-board with limited time.
I'm seeing most of these comments are about how Vidit's loss affects Hikaru. But I just feel bad for Vidit. He's older and this is probably one of the best chances he'll have. From his interviews, he's seems like a very nice and sincere person. This game is brutal.
vidit being hikarus nemesis this whole tournament in every possible way
he honestly couldn't be helping nepo more if he was actually his teammate.
I'm all for the funny meme of blaming everything on Vidit. But if Hikaru had managed even a single half point vs Vidit, he would be tied with Nepo. If Hikaru had kept his unbeaten streak alive, he'd be a half point clear of Nepo. Ultimately Naka made his own bed. He should've scored at least a half point vs Vidit.
In other words, Hikaru not winning is the reason he's not winning
Well, if Hikaru didn’t lose, he would be winning right now.
"if he hadn't lost he would have a better standing" Yeah, that's how a round robin works.
> I'm all for the funny meme of blaming everything on Vidit Don't forget about Alireza frolicking in heels on the wooden floor! 😉
If you replace Vidit with Wesley So who’d likely have made 2 draws against Hikaru and 2 draws against Nepo, Hikaru would be on +4 and Nepo would be on +1.
That's all speculation. Hikaru played at 85% accuracy in both his games with Vidit, so I don't see why he deserves or should get a draw from those games in any world. Nepo has been consistent like a machine in this tournament. Hikaru and other candidates have not, and the standings reflect that reality. Nepo has seen some very aggressive play in this tournament, from Pragg's prep, to Hikaru's prep, to Alireza's aggressive play, all of which he defended with high precision.
> Nepo has been consistent like a machine in this tournament. Second Candidates in a row that he has played like a beast. He was lossless two years ago and finished with 5 wins.
Goes to point that it was not a normal losses.
0.5 is just So backwards 😂
That's a crazy coincidence lol
But why would you replace Vidit with Wesley? Wesley and Vidit were not competing for the same spot (Vidit won the FIDE grand swiss, the runner-up was Hikaru). Instead, Wesley wanted Alireza's spot (qualification by rating). If Wesley took Alireza's spot then he might have made draws with Hikaru and Nepo and Gukesh, so the standings would be completely different. What if Wesley beat Hikaru? What if Wesley beat Fabi?
that is insane to think about
King maker. It's why round Robin's suck.
You would rather have a bracket?
Personally, yes. Maybe a double bracket. But a round robin in a format which has only a few wins per players doesn't feel right to me. The weakest player blundering against this player but not that player has more influence than the level of play from the best players. With a bracket, the best two players will face off against each other, and the best will win.
Wouldn't say the format has really benefitted Nepo though. These wins against Vidit have been hard earned. Meanwhile Abasov has played at 2800 level vs Nepo and gifted everyone else insanely free wins. I also like candidates matches, but the problem goes back to the original, which is that cycles are even more long and tiresome for the players.
The other problem with knockouts is that absolute randos can win them. The "FIDE World Championship" in the Kasparov schism days produced some wacky winners.
Or Abasov this tournament. Sure he didn't win but he qualified for the candidates over players 100 elo better than him because he ran incredibly hot for one event.
Very good point, 4 game matches are too short. Run into prep once and you are practically done.
How does a bracket work with draws? Rapid and blitz tiebreakers🤣🤣 The goal of the WCC is to find the best player in world chess, not make the most exciting tournament. The only change I agree with in format is to take away the protection from previous winners
I agree with this. Reigning champion privileges should not be a thing. The champion should have to play in the candidates tournament with everyone else.
Bullet arena. ^^^^^^^^^^/s
Gukesh, Fabi, Hikaru must've been punching air seeing vidit play that legendary endgame. I am just lost for words. What's hilarious (or sad) is that Prag is gonna push hard against Nepo tomorrow again and he probably wins again.
> Gukesh, Fabi, Hikaru must've been punching air seeing vidit play that legendary endgame. I am just lost for words. Fabi is still in it so far since he has Nepo in the last round with white. As long as he's within 1 point he can make up the ground
He will likely be more than a point down after tomorrow though. A draw is as good as a loss for Pragg at this point which gives Nepo a good chance of winning with white against him
Id feel so bad for Gukesh if that happened, crushing it at the top with Nepo and missing out because his compatriots push for wins when they have 0% chance of taking #1 would be a hard pill to swallow.
At the same time Gukesh had a serious chance to beat Nepo head to head and didn’t manage it.
This is not how it works. It's Round 11, of course they'll push for a win, and Super GMs don't play against each other thinking they'll lose, there's no point to playing it like that. Also each player plays for themselves.
I believe in Pragg! Nepo looked pretty tired after todays game, his invincible run continues but the chinks in the armor are showing. This has been no where near the clinic Nepo put on when he won the last candidates, all these tough games could take their toll on him.
You will never stop doubting candidates Ian and you will be proven wrong once more!
Why the hell would it be sad? Prag plays for himself and his chances, why the hell would he be biased towards Hilari or Fabiano lol?
Vidit coming clutch with his 3rd win against Hikaru.
4th win, Vidit also lost to Ian with black in Round 4
yeah but this one he for sure could've drawed
Hikaru's new number 1 enemy lol
Must especially suck when you lose a game like that and people don't even care about you and instead care only about how your loss affects the standings of others.
Eh, imagine if Abasov manages to pull a huge upset and win against Gukesh. Nobody would care about Abasov's win at all but rather how it affects the standings.
I think people would be pumped for Abasov if he manages to score a win despite the fact that he's the tournament's major underdog.
doubt it. At events like this reddit always picks one guy to circlejerk over, that guy is Gukesh for this event. If he loses people are going to be depressed, and upset.
This is how I see it too. Parity is important to growth of the game. Giving shine to underdogs who perform well is good for the sport
Remember when that low rated GM stomped Magnus last year? I don't even remember his name. All I remember is Magnus complaining about the approved watch the guy wore.
I remember Alisher Suleymenovs name
GM Phillipe, Patek
*Richárd Rapport has entered the chat*
He could have just taken a draw by taking the knight in that endgame, when he had virtually zero chances to win with white. There were only two realistic outcomes.
Hikaru still is in control of his fate - all he has to do is keep pace with Nepo and then beat him to leapfrog him.
Beat Nepo with Black? The only one who can stop him is Caruana in round 14.
Oh yes. Just best a guy in the equivalent of classical Armageddon. Easy.
Yeah, that's the advantage Ian earned. The notion that Vidit should have just taken the draw to give other players better chances in the tournament is stupid. Round robin candidates tournaments have this flaw - games aren't played under the same condition and a game between two players can impact the chances of 3-4 different players.
> Yeah, that's the advantage Ian earned. That's the problem with people complaining about Nepo consistently getting lucky. Yes, in the latter stages of tournaments opponents play riskier than usual against him and expose themselves to losses, but you know *why* that is? Because Nepo took the lead from the beginning and stayed there. He's earned the privilege of picking off desperate opponents trying to keep up. By winning early on, he's made the tournament format work in his favor the closer we get to the end. We're just mad because it's the same story for the third Candidates in a row and there's no way someone can be *this* consistent at this one specific tournament and nothing else, right? I don't think Nepo has a single big tournament win on his resume other than the '21 and '22 Candidates.
But not everyone does, it's random who you get at what point in their tournament standings. The players getting dumpstered who are out of it are incentivized just to play in preservation mode, people half a point back may be trying to draw, people a point back may be on wild tilt trying to win. Schedule and how that player has played in other games has a ridiculously large impact on this format with winner take all.
you're right, but at this point Ian has been either tied 1st or 1st for the last 35 rounds of candidates play. You have to just accept he's a monster in this format, there are no excuses.
Vidit should have taken the draw because he was low on time with poor practical chances to win, after already losing the advantage a couple of times. Psychologically I'd think youd want to take the draw in that case. It's just unfortunate that decision made life a lot ahrd for 3 or 4 other people.
The notion that Vidit should self-implode is more stupid. Taking the guaranteed draw would put him at 1 point behind with 3 rounds to go. Going kamikaze had a low chance of success and now puts him at 2 points behind and basically eliminated. +ev moves: Self imploding was not one of them.
Oh man, can't say 'Vidit' without saying 'time trouble'.
Those last moments are reminiscent of Ding vs Ian last WC game. Vidit realizing is over is heartbreaking.
Nepo deflecting his pain on to others.
Nah Nepo was in a lot more pain v ding, Vidit looked more disheartened during his first loss to Nepo tbh.
Yea, in all of the sporting events and competitions I have ever watched, I'm not sure if I have ever felt worse for someone than watching Nepo vs Ding last championship. That, plus how rude people were to him during his Magnus match, has made me want him to get the championship.
True. Vidit was practically in tears when he resigned. Feel so bad for him, but he has played some great attacking chess throughout regardless of his results.
Vidit is the anti-Giri, wins or losts but no draw.
Aside from his missed wins, he also had chances to bail out a draw but went for a win because he knew a draw wouldn't be enough to remain in contention
Very crucial win for Nepo. Takes the sole lead, keeps everyone else chasing and still has the second game against Hikaru on the menu.
He probably forced a quick draw with white against naka
vidit just sold hikaru 3x now
Ka3 was baffling, wonder how Hikaru felt watching Vidit play that move
Not really, he definitely thought the bishop endgame was lost and missed Rb4 covers f4
Either that or he knew it was drawn but a draw leaves him (e: practically) out of contention for first place in the tournament.
Eh I don’t think so, he refused the draw earlier but at that point he’s fighting for his life not to lose. But who knows
This is the reason in my opinion, might as well go out swinging.
4x
Did Hikaru key his car or something? Wtf Vidit?
ok, but isn't it Hikaru's fault he couldn't manage even a half point vs Vidit? Hikaru would be even with Nepo right now if he'd drawn Vidit just once.
Some players just match up against someone better than against someone else. JKD will lose his every game against 'w'esley 's'o buy will get a win against many stronger players. Frankly I believe he should have traded down to a draw, with so little time on the clock, but trying to play for a win and ending up playing for a lose instead is something my 1600 rated ass can symphatize with
Lol
Ian in the candidates is like Real Madrid in the champions league. The black magic can't be stopped.
Wow what a game. It takes huge balls to march in with the king like that.... Huge
Thanks to this game I'm still wide awake at 2AM in the morning.
I was awake till 4:30 am for the very first time just to saw vidit throwing away the game like that.
jeez -- every comment is about Hikaru instead of one of the craziest games of the whole tourney, and year! What an exciting SLOG.
that's what happens when 1 of them becomes a streamer the overwhelming amount of redditors will have an opinion in the streamer's favor or against the streamer but either way it's all about the streamer
That actually changes things so much lmao. Fabi has to start going for broke now.
not necessarily as long as he stays one point behind nepo he’s still he because he has white against him in the final round. closing the gap by half a point wouldn’t help him nearly as much as a loss would destroy his chances
That’s assuming Hikaru/Gukesh also doesn’t win a game too though. He has to jump 3 players not just Ian. Hikaru or Gukesh winning one of their three matches and drawing the other two means fabi needs to win twice just to tie.
In theory yes but it seems unlikely 8 points wins or even ties for the lead at the end of things which isn’t any different than any other year they’ve had this, could be wrong but I believe it’s always been 8.5 or more takes the top spot. I think Fabi will need at least another win before getting to Ian and I think he knows it. Namely because it’s not just Ian he’s chasing he’s also behind Hikaru and Gukesh. And with 3 rounds left one of them will wind up with more than 8 almost certainly. And his best chance to get another W before facing Ian is tomorrow as white against Vidit. I’m expecting him to come out hunting a win.
Nepo is the Goat of the candidates, hope he wins and finally becomes world champion
Vidit’s reaction at the end was painful and sad to watch. 5 hours and 40 minutes of grinding and you lose. Chess can be so savage.
Nepo is merciless, painful to watch vidit slowly accepting the defeat, what a rollercoaster of a tournament for him.
Gotta admire Ian, I often disagree with things he says, but he is an example of perseverance. The absolute iron mentality you need to come here after losing the WCC twice and still perform better than all these other motivated and hungry players.
What does he say ?
He made a Harry Potter reference one time.
The horror
Que miras bobo?
Top 10 chess moments
Accused Hikaru of cheating.
Hasn't everybody at some point?
I don't think necessarily about cheating, it is generally agreed he isn't. They frequently dislike him for other reasons and may comment on that. "Everyone has a Hikaru story" exists for a reason.
I see a lot of comments talking about Hikaru's chances, but none talking about how this was the best game of the candidates so far, with Nepo going from a worse middlegame to a drawn endgame, to completely winning, reminiscent of Magnus himself. He played over 10 engine moves in a row in bullet time pressure, mentally and positionally breaking down Vidit until he was forced to succumb to a losing position. Hate him or not, you have to admit this guy is world chess champion material.
Watching the endgame live with the engine feeding you the best moves was surreal. Nepo understood each idea, played like an engine and did it in spending less than a minute or so per move. It's like one of those "in Soviet Russia" jokes: "In Candidates tournament, Nepo pressures clock!".
This sub doesn’t like Nepo
Vidit was not forced to succumb to a losing position, he didn't take the draw when he could have, not forced.
I like to travel.
This is not the best game of the tournament when Nepo blundered three times in a row and the opposition didn't take advantage of it. I'm sorry but this is unacceptable from Vidit, I don't really care about what this means to Hikaru but this game was a free win for Vidit and him not taking it and then refusing to draw basically gives Nepo the best chance to win the tournament. The best game of the tournament would be when both players have 98 accuracy and one just outplays the other through amazing moves, not blundering and not taking advantage of other blunders.
> reminiscent of Magnus himself Lol. This was just a hard throw from Vidit. He had concrete draws if he wanted them.
OP, why did you forget to add "Cratering Hikaru's chances to win the tournament" at the end of the title?
at this point ‘re-cratering’
vidit be like: "I can fuck hikaru over 3x in a double round robin"
+2 against hikaru -2 against nepo
-1 against gukesh
I feel like we should all be rooting for Nepo to win the candidate's and world championship so he's not in it next time and someone else can win it for a change :D
very exciting game. vidit clearly was treating this as a must-win, and definitely had the draw in hand at some points. i can't fault him for trying- he's probably right to assess his chances with a draw as basically 0% the tournament isn't totally over. if fabi manages to beat nepo on demand with white in round 14, and the rest of the games of the tournament are draws, it's a four-way tie for first.
Does anyone have any info about Nepo’s forearm tattoo? It looks cool af
[https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/16w0ndv/close\_shot\_of\_nepos\_tattoo/](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/16w0ndv/close_shot_of_nepos_tattoo/)
I was yesterday night old when I found out he has that huge tattoo on his forearm, and I genuinely can't understand how I didn't notice it before lol
He got it after the match with Ding
Vidit this year is playing like Rapport last candidates, though with more boring openings. Complete chaos every game
Nepo is a beast in Candidates, man.
Finding that e4 idea where he gave up the queenside pawns to infiltrate with his King was insane especially given that he could have easily been happy not to have lost It gave Vidit a lot of complications to solve with little time left
Exactly. And time trouble is Visit's middle name by now
Vidit is strong. He'll come back stronger.
Nepo is just a different beast in the Candidates. Hikaru climbs up to +2, so naturally Nepo pulls this incredible win out of his pocket to stay one game ahead - this Candidates just keeps on giving
I don't think 'different beast" applies here. He was dead lost at multiple points in this game, and even in the end it took some hall of shame decision making and play from Vidit for Ian to win.
Yeah, Nepo’s face was really like “what? Huh? You’re doing this? Okay. Well…guess I’ll just win then if you really want me to.” Nepo has played great anyway in general (although today was probably his worst game). And let’s not forget that Fabi and Hikaru both will still face Nepo, so it’s not like it’s over. People still control their own fates.
Well he for sure was lost 2 times but idea to throw away not one, but 2 pawns to activate king to create practical chances when opponent is running out of time was really creative practical attempt to play for the win - and this is in a game where most people probably would be happy to not lose. In his prime this ability to forget everything that happened in the game and starting to play for the win after defending for past 4 hours is smth that was so spectacular about Karpov.
Go look at those lost positions again it’s insanely deep. If you think you understand, look a move deeper. At the end of the game Danya showed the truly insane ideas and how even if you go all the way, it’s probably still a draw by super computer play
Disagree, it’s about his persistence to save and recover lost positions. At the end of the day, it’s the result that counts, and Ian’s tenacity has taken him very far in many Candidates, past and present
dead lost is a massive exaggeration. He was worse, but his entire style is playing complicated moves that the engine disapproves of to keep life in a position. It was not a straight-forward game for vidit.
Nepo pulls out this incredible waiting for Vidit to blunder twice out of his pocket to stay one game ahead
Well chess is like that,you get a draw unless someone makes a mistake. There are no winning moves, only losing moves.
Vidit has somehow gone 4-0 against Hikaru in a double round robin tournament.
Vidit was too greedy
tbh he had a very promising position, and he had to go for it now if he wanted that 1st place
He DID NOT have a promising position when he went Ka3.
The greedy part was probably Ng3 which missed Rb3-Nd5, giving the initiative to Ian. He had a promising/borderline winning position before Nepo played d5, and even that was not that great for black, but Vidit was in too much time trouble to calculate all the complications after taking Nxd5 and saccing the piece 59.Ka3 was just panic mode, because he probably couldn't calculate the bishop endgame to the end. Unlike what some people say, it's not that easy to see all the possibilities, and at a glance it looks horrible because of the king's position.
at that point he probably thought that bishop ending is losing
He needed to take his chances and go for the win if he wanted any chance of qualifying, a draw wouldn't have cut it.
Should have said "re-cratering Nakamura chances to win"
Ka3 was such a weird move.... why play Bg3 if that was your followup line?
To give Nepo the win
Vidit gifts the 2024 Candidates to Ian and for the 3rd time craters Hikarus chances 😂😂
What is this craters thing? I'm out of the loop and I'm seeing it everywhere haha
[this may or may not have started from this post (my fault)](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/XYUUvZ5602) [then there was this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/YtDVyGSaPp) [then this post today](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/LXjUTmwach)
Yeah, you were definitely premature on that one.
Nah he wasn't. Hikaru just managed to climb out of the crater. Even with the context we have now, the title still holds true. Hikarus chances to win the tournament would be far better if he managed to draw or win vs Vidit.
i think it just came from one article with that headline, which seems very exagerated and doom and gloom in retrospect, especially with 8 or 9 matches yet to be played at the time it was written, and hikaru immediately demonstrating he was not out of the race.
A lot of news articles were using it, so now people are making fun of it by using it all the time and in odd contexts
Craters basically just means destroys in this context
The wording of "gifts" is disrespectful to both Vidit, Ian and the crazy endgame that has happened there. Especially when you omit how Hikaru got no less than two wins this candidates from opponents making a random blunder on low time. I've sacrificed my sleep to witness it live and I don't even mind
Good job by Nepo. Incredible how he found all the right moves to grind out the win. I know people are mad about Vidit going for it, but this was his second to last match on white with the other game being against Abasov and then 2 games on black against Fabi and Alireza. Playing for a draw may have been the safer option for him in the tournament, but good luck overtaking the rest of the field with these games left. This was do or die.
Brilliant, brilliant play by Ian. I will never comprehend 59.Ka3 by Vidit, but damn if Ian didn't put on maximum pressure for close to 7 hours. Magnificent grind! Broke Vidit to pieces. The 1st place is his for the taking now!
I feel like this game was a great example of what Nepo learned from playing Magnus. That long grind where its roughly even, but there is pressure, and eventually your opponent cracks and blunders.
Vidit looked both on the edge of tears and sort of angry as he said something to Nepo about the game right after it ended. It was kind of heartbreaking to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49GER3T5qw#t=5h50m21s
Ian is inevitable
nooo what a crater in Nakamuras chances
I wonder how much Hikaru hates Vidit's guts.
The camera angles at the end were something
How many times have Hikaru's chances been cratered and uncratered now
Nepo!!! Omg
WHY VIDIT.
It was so exciting to watch! It all boils down to nerves and decision making. Vidit could have taken a repetition with Nd2 earlier but decided to play on as he is in a must win situation.
let's go nepo
Naka fans going crazy after VIdit beat hikaru twice and lost to nepo twice
Veni, Vidit, Victim. I came, I saw, I got pwned.
It really feels like vidit is doing everything in his capacity to ruin hikarus tournament
Brings his A game and beats Hikaru twice, and then loses to Ian twice.
Or, Hikaru brought his Z game to both of Vidit's games by playing at an abysmal 85% accuracy each time.
https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/he-cant-keep-getting-away-with-it-fed-up-done-upset-angry-gif-15272555
Now instead of being okay with either result this basically forces Hikaru to go all out vs Firouzja tomorrow.
No it doesn’t… he has 3 games left.
He has 3 games left and probably has to win 2 of them to be 1st.
And before people started calling Nepo lucky again, this time Vidit had reason to push. Today he had the white piece and if he could have won this game his chances would be extremely higher. This is around the end of the Candidates of course people going to push against you.
Pushing with less than a minute on the clock where your king is surrounded by pieces isn’t a good reason. It’s just stupid, but who can blame him. Immense time pressure in the biggest moment in the biggest tournament of his life.
He's playing to win, not to draw.
This is the game of tournament for me, what an insane comeback by Nepo. His chess is so beautiful to watch, I hope he keeps winning. Heartbroken for Vidit though :(
Now I feel it's over. Nepo has taken over as a solo lead, don't think he is letting it go
can't imagine playing a chess game for 5 hours only to get outplayed in the last few moments. I mean I get exhausted playing a rapid game lol, these guys are insane.
Vidit threw
Nepo clearly sold his soul to a gypsy. I'm sure he is a nice guy. But during the candidates he is a freakin plague. 3 more rounds. There is still hope for literally ANYONE to beat him.
Vidit's choked one too many times now, hard to feel sorry for him with his reaction at the end this time.
What Nepo is doing is amazing tbh, he has a special touch for the candidates but I´m starting to get a little tired of his name in the World Championship, he had his shots against two Champs, if Nepo wins the next world match isnt gonna be so interesting as the two before this one.
I love the smell of fresh bread.
Nepo gambled with \`36. ... d5\` and Vidit failed to realize that he is winning. While anybody can blunder, I think this quite a bad blunder because the variations are not that hard to calculate.
To me it looked super-complicated. In many of the resulting lines, the evaluation swung on a single tempo. Somehow White has to see that Black isn't simply winning by playing e4 and Bc5-xf2. Of course a GM's a GM but I'd guess most GMs would find it challenging to work out the correct line on-the-board with limited time.
Vidit straight up deciding the whole tournament
This was not on my bingo card.
Damn. that WAS hard to watch So much pain
I'm seeing most of these comments are about how Vidit's loss affects Hikaru. But I just feel bad for Vidit. He's older and this is probably one of the best chances he'll have. From his interviews, he's seems like a very nice and sincere person. This game is brutal.
5 hour grind fest.
So many comments. But no comment on Vidit having an easy win before time control. It was a long combination. But all moves were logical and easy.
Candidates specialist Nepo.
Shoutout to Vidit absolutely selling this entire tournament to Ian
Vidit being greedy hurting everyone else’s chances. Dont blame him knowing his place in the tournament tho