Chess 2013: World Championship Candidates Tournament

[Flamboyant]

I saw another thread of an online chess tournament here, and decided to create this thread. Anyone else follow Grand Master chess games/tournaments? I've been doing so for about a year now, and have never been this excited about a tournament before. It's an 8 player Double Round Robin tournament, with an average ELO of 2786.5. Plus it being a candidates tournament you can count on everyone bringing their A game. Here are the pairings for the first round:

Levon Aronian - Magnus Carlsen
Peter Svidler - Vladimir Kramnik
Boris Gelfand - Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk - Alexander Grischuk

Those of you who follow, please share with us who you're rooting for. I personally am a big Ivanchuk fan, and considering this might be his final chance I'd really like to see him win this.

The tournament is held in London, and all games start at 14:00 London Time (15:00 Central European Time, 8:00 a.m. NY time), which means first round starts in less than 5 hours.

Let's hope for a great tournament, and make sure to check the games out. :cheers:

[Flamboyant]

We can also make mini prediction tournaments for openings and results. Here are my predictions:

Aronian - Carlsen
Opening: Queen's Indian Defense
Result: 1/2 (Draw)

Svidler - Kramnik
Opening: Petrov Defense
Result: 1/2 (Draw)

Gelfand - Radjabov
Opening: King's Indian Defense
Result: 0-1 (Black Wins)

Ivanchuk - Grischuk
Opening: Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation
Result: 1/2 (Draw)

[Flamboyant]

chessbomb.com, and chessdom.com are the sites where I usually follow the games (moves only). They give engine evaluations, and you can follow all 4 games at once.

chessbase.com is the best for analysis after the games.

If I'll find links for live video streaming of the games I'll share them here. :)

[Flamboyant]

Here's a link for the live games:
http://www.chessdom.com/candidates-2013-live/

Svidler and Kramnik went for a Queen trade on move 10, so draw is now to be expected.

[Faptastrophe]

Carlsen is definitely my favorite.

Mozart of Chess: Magnus Carlsen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_v9mTfhC8)

The bit with Kasparov was very interesting. The guy turns up half an hour late, doesn't even greet his opponent, procrastinates over moves and then walks off after scraping a draw with only a brief backward glance.
I guess that when you have a reputation as the greatest chess player of all time, playing a kid like Magnus Carlsen is the scariest thing in the world.

[Bcogswell]

I've never followed Chess whatsoever, but I may check out some games for a few minutes. :cheers:

[kNIOKAS]

I'm in London now, but consider following chess live.. Even if you get a guy like Husky to comment on that, still would be hella borreing.

[Flamboyant]

First round just ended with 4 pretty un-inspiring draws. It was kind of expected though. Hopefully tomorrow someone will draw some blood! Here are the pairings:

Carlsen - Kramnik
Aronian - Gelfand
Grischuk - Svidler
Radjabov - Ivanchuk

[Flamboyant]

2nd round is about to start: Here's live stream from the event!! (http://new.livestream.com/WorldChess/Round2)

And here are my predicitions:

Carlsen - Kramnik
Opening: Nimzo-Indian Defense
Result: 1/2 (Draw)

Aronian - Gelfand
Opening: Grunfeld Defense
Result: 1-0 (White wins)

Grischuk - Svidler
Opening: Sicilian Defense, Najdorf
Result: 0-1 (Black wins)

Radjabov - Ivanchuk
Opening: Ruy Lopez
Result: 1/2 (Draw)

[gigantes]

I used to play semi-seriously... about 1600 - 1700 at my peak... was always a lot more interested in the history and storylines of the game, though. Spending hours on analysis and memorising openings is something I have negative interest in, at this point. :oldlol:

But the personalities are still fascinating! Will there ever be another Tal? Another Fischer or Kasparov? Grandmasters kicking each others' shins under the table in order to gain an edge?

Anyway, I assume the winner of all this gets to play Vishy Anand for the title. Let's hear it for one of the oldest (or THE oldest?) champions in history! You young punks, you! :rockon:

[vegasbigshots]

Carlson to win. Not familiar with other player.

[qrich]

Aronian with the first win...doing Armenia proud.

Can't say I'm shocked, we have won 3 of the last 4 Chess Olympiads and took second the two previous years. :bowdown:

[qrich]

Aronian with the first win...doing Armenia proud.

Can't say I'm shocked, we have won 3 of the last 4 Chess Olympiads and took second the two previous years. :bowdown:

Keeps it going by beating the Ukrainian :bowdown:

He plays the current second place guy next, hope Aronian keeps it going

[Flamboyant]

But the personalities are still fascinating! Will there ever be another Tal? Another Fischer or Kasparov? Grandmasters kicking each others' shins under the table in order to gain an edge?

That's what fascinates me the most, too. There will never be another ____ , but these new player are great characters as well. Ivanchuk can be considered the new Tal, as he has an everlasting love for chess, and is such a nice and childish personality. I'll post a couple of links later. Nakamura is the new "asshole" player, although he is growing up. A couple of years ago he had Kasparov as his personal coach, but in an interview he claimed that all he could grab from Kasparov was opening knowledge, and that there were much better players than him when it comes to middle game, and endgame. Thier relationship ended instantly. Boy Naka when you have the GOAT chess player as your coach, and to make it even worse, someone else is paying him, you have to keep your mouth shut. :oldlol: Than last year in the Olympiad when USA was tied first in the penultimate round they lost to China. Nakamura tweeted that "The bad thing of being in team events was that you're only as good as your teammates." In the final round he lost to Anand's second Radoslaw Wojtaszek, but USA still manages to defeat Poland. Proof that God doesn't have a baseball bat. :lol


Anyway, I assume the winner of all this gets to play Vishy Anand for the title. Let's hear it for one of the oldest (or THE oldest?) champions in history! You young punks, you! :rockon:

Anand is not the oldest champion, there were 4 older undisputed world champions before him (Steinitz, Lasker, Alekhine, and Botvinnik). However he is the second oldest to become the world champion, and the oldest one was the initial world champion Steinitz.
One important note is that Anand has made 3 successful title defenses, and is the only one to do so without the luxury of picking his own opponent, and/or draw odds. Another thing is that Anand has won the world championship in match, tournament, and knockout formats, and also used be the world champion in rapid, blitz, and advanced chess. Man, what a legend! :bowdown:


how does the tournament work?
everybody plays everybody twice and then you watch who has the most points?

Basically. When everyone plays everyone it's called the round robin format. This one is a double round robin format, and everyone plays each other twice with colors reversed. In case there's a tie for the 1st place, they'll play for tie breakers with faster time controls.


how much time do they have in those turnaments?

2 hours for the 1st 40 moves, than an additional hour for the next 20 moves, and 30* minutes (* might be 15) for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment starting from move 61.

[gigantes]

That's what fascinates me the most, too. There will never be another ____ , but these new player are great characters as well. Ivanchuk can be considered the new Tal, as he has an everlasting love for chess, and is such a nice and childish personality. I'll post a couple of links later. Nakamura is the new "asshole" player, although he is growing up. A couple of years ago he had Kasparov as his personal coach, but in an interview he claimed that all he could grab from Kasparov was opening knowledge, and that there were much better players than him when it comes to middle game, and endgame. Thier relationship ended instantly. Boy Naka when you have the GOAT chess player as your coach, and to make it even worse, someone else is paying him, you have to keep your mouth shut. :oldlol: Than last year in the Olympiad when USA was tied first in the penultimate round they lost to China. Nakamura tweeted that "The bad thing of being in team events was that you're only as good as your teammates." In the final round he lost to Anand's second Radoslaw Wojtaszek, but USA still manages to defeat Poland. Proof that God doesn't have a baseball bat. :lol
hahahaha... that's awesome. i love these types of stories.


Anand is not the oldest champion, there were 4 older undisputed world champions before him (Steinitz, Lasker, Alekhine, and Botvinnik). However he is the second oldest to become the world champion, and the oldest one was the initial world champion Steinitz.
One important note is that Anand has made 3 successful title defenses, and is the only one to do so without the luxury of picking his own opponent, and/or draw odds. Another thing is that Anand has won the world championship in match, tournament, and knockout formats, and also used be the world champion in rapid, blitz, and advanced chess. Man, what a legend! :bowdown:
i knew right as i typed that steinitz was obviously older. :hammerhead:


but how about the fact that almost every world champion has been either half or wholly jewish? who are the rare exceptions?

morphy- irish
anand- indian
alekhine- IIRC he was straight russian
capablanca- cuban
karpov- straight russian?

but i'm not sure about kramnik and the recent string of 'temporary champs'. also, after kaspy left FIDE, most of those guys' crowns were pretty meaningless until kramnik finally brought the man down.


anyway, repped for a great post.

[dannywpt]

Rooting for Carlsen. Don't know much about chess aside from that though. Will rep thread. :cheers:

[qrich]

Aronian continuing his dominance by beating the Azeri without any issues to remain tied in the lead with Carlsen. Loving how well Levon is doing, Armenia well represented. March 24th will be a rematch between Carslen & Levon which ended up a tie to start the competition

http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4009243/candidates-r6--carlsen-aronian-win-lead-210313.aspx

http://us.cdn4.123rf.com/168nwm/huebi/huebi0805/huebi080500068/3077886-3d-rendered-and-waving-flag-of-armenia.jpg

[Flamboyant]

hahahaha... that's awesome. i love these types of stories.
Glad to hear that. Here are some links about Ivanchuk that I had promised. This one is from last years World Rapid Chess Championship. Look at 43 year old Ivanchuk's reaction when he is about to defeat the 21 year old Magnus Carlsen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4v3UoxzYDc&t=1m25s

Also here is another gem. Go to the 7 minute mark if you don't want to watch the whole thing. Ivanchuk misses a mate in one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSPhginkNQ
07:51 ISN'T THAT GAY!!


i knew right as i typed that steinitz was obviously older. :hammerhead:


but how about the fact that almost every world champion has been either half or wholly jewish? who are the rare exceptions?

morphy- irish
anand- indian
alekhine- IIRC he was straight russian
capablanca- cuban
karpov- straight russian?

but i'm not sure about kramnik and the recent string of 'temporary champs'.

As far as I know Euwe, Petrosian, Spassky, Kramnik and Topalov* (I'll touch on him in a bit) weren't/aren't jewish. I think it's a bit of a tradition/society thing. Kind of like the superiority Japanese have in Shogi, or Chinese have in Go. In late 19th/ early 20th century most advanced countries in chess were Germany and Poland. These countries dominated that era. Then Alekhine came, founded the soviet school, and the power switched to USSR. Now the information is spread much wider, and there is more balance in power. However jews definitely have a lot to be proud of in their history in chess. A lot of great chess theoreticians like Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch, Reti, Tartakower, and many world championship caliber players like Rubinstein, Najdorf, Bronstein, Geller, Korchnoi, and the GOAT female chess player Judit Polgar were/are jewish.


also, after kaspy left FIDE, most of those guys' crowns were pretty meaningless until kramnik finally brought the man down.

Yeah, chess was in a weird state during the 90's, and early 00's. But Kramnik defeating Kasparov didn't solve anything. Him defeating Topalov did. Let me put it this way: The general view the chess community has on Topalov's title is something I have a personal vendetta against. Yes Khalifman, Ponomariov, and Kasimdzhanov were not deserving world champs, but to list Topalov in the same category with them is nonsense. His title was much more deserving than Kramnik's PCA title. IN 98' Kramnik and Shirov played a candidates match to determine a challenger for Kasparov, and Shirov won convincingly. Despite earning his right Shirov was never given a chance to play a match for the title. Instead the negotiations for a match with Anand (at time world no. 2). Anand refused the offers, and stayed loyal to Fide. Kramnik was only picked afterwards. He defeated Kasparov in the same fashion Shirov had defeated him, but never offered Shirov or Kasparov opportunities for a rematch. On the other hand after a series of stupid knockout tournaments to determine challengers, and even World Champions, FIDE finally made the right choice to organize a title unification tournament. St. Luis '05 was the first time the champion was going to be decided by classical chess, and both Kramnik and Kasparov were invited to the tournament. Kasparov retired, and Kramnik didn't participate. Topalov won with one of the most dominant performances in chess history, scoring 6 victories out of first 7 games, and almost clinching the title at the half point mark. In retrospect, I am happy that Kramnik managed to defeat Topalov in the unification match, but only because of the Toiletgate incident. However Topa was clearly the best player in the world at that time, and IMO definitely deserves to be mentioned among Chess World Champions.


anyway, repped for a great post.

:cheers:

[Flamboyant]

qrich, Aronian managed to draw rather easily with black against Carlsen. They both reamin at +3 with 6 rounds to go. Unless Kramnik-Svidelr is a decisive game, no one else will have a positive score. It became a two horse race already. I'm kind of torn on who to root between these two. On one hand Carlsen is destined to greatness, and sometimes you feel that he deserves to become the World Champion already. Meanwhile, Levon Aronian is the 3rd highest ranked player of all time, but despite that he was never world no 1. On top of that to never (at least) play for the world championship title feels kind of wrong.

On the other hand I'm trying to think who would be a better opponent for Anand. Anand has a big plus against Carlsen in their head to head meetings, but in their last decisive game Carlsen crushed Anand in 30 moves. On the other hand Aronian has an even bigger plus against Anand, but in their final game Anand crushed Lev in only 23 moves. Both showed that they were class acts after that game. Levon took the loss as amn, and praised Anand for the great game he played, while Anand always referred to Aronian's superiority in their H2H games, and was extremly respectful to his opponent.

I would definitely love to see them tying first at the end, and play a rapid match to determine the challenger. That would be the most exciting ending possible, though I'd feel really bad for the one who'd lose that way. Let's wait and see.

[ripthekik]

I got interested in this a few days ago and wiki'd a few player's. Damn, I was blown away. They are basically all child prodigies.. a lot of the most famous reach the grandmasters in their teens.

I feel like they're computers.. they calculate like 3,4 moves ahead.. At first I was confused by the chess scripts.. I was like, why did it stop here? Do I have to pay to see the end of the game? Only to know that they already saw the end..

I wonder what these people would become if they didn't play chess full time. They would probably be few of the most famous engineers, scientists, physicists, or mathematicians.

[qrich]

qrich, Aronian managed to draw rather easily with black against Carlsen. They both reamin at +3 with 6 rounds to go. Unless Kramnik-Svidelr is a decisive game, no one else will have a positive score. It became a two horse race already. I'm kind of torn on who to root between these two. On one hand Carlsen is destined to greatness, and sometimes you feel that he deserves to become the World Champion already. Meanwhile, Levon Aronian is the 3rd highest ranked player of all time, but despite that he was never world no 1. On top of that to never (at least) play for the world championship title feels kind of wrong.

On the other hand I'm trying to think who would be a better opponent for Anand. Anand has a big plus against Carlsen in their head to head meetings, but in their last decisive game Carlsen crushed Anand in 30 moves. On the other hand Aronian has an even bigger plus against Anand, but in their final game Anand crushed Lev in only 23 moves. Both showed that they were class acts after that game. Levon took the loss as amn, and praised Anand for the great game he played, while Anand always referred to Aronian's superiority in their H2H games, and was extremly respectful to his opponent.

I would definitely love to see them tying first at the end, and play a rapid match to determine the challenger. That would be the most exciting ending possible, though I'd feel really bad for the one who'd lose that way. Let's wait and see.

Honestly, I don't know the first thing about chess. I used to play with friends and family when I was like 13, but haven't since.

I'm just ecstatic someone from my ethnicity is doing as well as he is. We just won the Chess Olympiad and this is gravy if he keeps it going

[JerryWest]

chess makes me :sleeping

[gigantes]

qrich, Aronian managed to draw rather easily with black against Carlsen. They both reamin at +3 with 6 rounds to go. Unless Kramnik-Svidelr is a decisive game, no one else will have a positive score. It became a two horse race already. I'm kind of torn on who to root between these two. On one hand Carlsen is destined to greatness, and sometimes you feel that he deserves to become the World Champion already. Meanwhile, Levon Aronian is the 3rd highest ranked player of all time, but despite that he was never world no 1. On top of that to never (at least) play for the world championship title feels kind of wrong.

On the other hand I'm trying to think who would be a better opponent for Anand. Anand has a big plus against Carlsen in their head to head meetings, but in their last decisive game Carlsen crushed Anand in 30 moves. On the other hand Aronian has an even bigger plus against Anand, but in their final game Anand crushed Lev in only 23 moves. Both showed that they were class acts after that game. Levon took the loss as amn, and praised Anand for the great game he played, while Anand always referred to Aronian's superiority in their H2H games, and was extremly respectful to his opponent.

I would definitely love to see them tying first at the end, and play a rapid match to determine the challenger. That would be the most exciting ending possible, though I'd feel really bad for the one who'd lose that way. Let's wait and see.
thx again for the interesting comments. kind of in a hurry right now... will have to double-dog check tomorrow. cheers. :cheers:

[Flamboyant]

Bump!!

In the last round Kramnik pushed hard against Carlsen, but Magnus proved that he is always a resourceful defender. Aronian (IMO surprisingly) lost to Gelfnad.

Today Carlsen defeated Gelfand, but Aronian also bounced back by defeating Chucky. Kramnik is making a push by defeating his compatriots. These 3 are only ones in the race, as the rest have negative scores. Carlsen is at +4, Aronian +3, and Kramnik +2. 4 more rounds to go, and still anything can happen. Tomorrow's Grischuk-Carlsen game is one that I'm really excited about.

[Flamboyant]

Oh my God!

Earlier today Kramnik defeated Aronian, and Chucky just defeated Carlsen. Both players won with black. Now Kramnik is the sole leader, and Aronian is completely out of race :( . Crazy crazy stuff. :eek:

[qrich]

I feel like cutting myself.

Oh well, we have won the last two chess olympiads :bowdown:

[Flamboyant]

The tournament is over, and that with a crazy finish. Entering the final two rounds, Kramnik was ahead of Carlsen. He drew his game with Gelfand, and Carlsen was equal with Radjabov. Carlsen kept on playing and on move 80 Radjabov blundered. Magnus won, and he got the lead again (on tiebreaks). Today Kramnik had to score better than Carlsen in order to win. He was playing with black against Ivanchuk, while Magnus was white against Peter Svidler. His strategy was to create complications, and put Chucky in the time trouble. He indeed managed to get Chucky in a the time trouble, but at the cost of an inferior position. Carlsen got himself in time trouble too, as he had just 7 seconds for his final 3 moves before the first time control. Carlsen made mistakes in the time trouble and after the time control Svidler was clearly winning. On the other game Chucky was in the time trouble too, and now all Kramnik needed was a draw. However he managed to outplay Kramnik, and made time control with a clearly winning position. When Carlsen resigned all eyes were on Chucky v Kramnik. Sure enough like half an hour later Kramnik threw the towel as well. Carlsen is the winner of the Candidates Tournament, and we will see Anand vs Carlsen in November this year.

Here are the final standings:

1. Magnus Carlsen 8.5 (+5 -2 =7)
2. Vladimir Kramnik 8.5 (+4 -1 =9)
3. Peter Svidler 8 (+4 -2 =8)
4. Levon Aronian 8 (+5 -3 =6)
5. Boris Gelfand 6.5 (+2 -3 =9)
6. Alexander Grischuk 6.5 (+1 -2 =11)
7. Vassily Ivanchuk 6 (+3 -5 =6)
8. Teimour Radjabov 4 (+1 -7 =6)

Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen for winning this tournament. :applause:

[gigantes]

thanks for this thread, mister flamboyant. brings back a lot of memories. =)


so magnus is that scandinavian prodigy who became one of the youngest GM's in history, right? back in the day i would have liked to have seen judit occupying his challenger's seat, but that was just selfish thinking. she did unbelievably, historically well in the field of men as it was.

anyway, so this will be a clear old-vs-young theme for the championship, i guess.

but for me, one name missing from that list was gata kamsky's. last time i checked, he had unretired, produced some strong results, and ranked himself way up there. but i suppose he just couldn't reach the same peak anymore. haha, at least he doesn't have his insane father beating the crap out of him anymore. i hope. :S



one of my favorite chess events was from about 15 years ago... kasparov vs. the world. not only cool because the world got to chose each move by pseudo-democracy, but because there was only one move made per day. so it drew the whole game out over months and allowed or created a whole new level of entertainment, engagement with the public, analysis, etc.

that thing was fun as SHIT to follow, and i had already given up chess by that time. but what i wonder is-- why don't they do something like that again? it was a great ambassador for the sport, i'm thinking...

[gigantes]

a few days late, but whateva.

IIRC this is the first time a young man has become champion since the mid 80's when kaspy did it. pretty cool. :banana:

http://img.izismile.com/img/img6/20131126/640/daily_picdump_1397_640_71.jpg
magnus carlsen of norway, 22 years old and new chess champion of the world.

[dr.hee]

Here are the participants for the 2014 candidates tournament...

Anand
Kramnik
Aronian
Svidler
Andreikin
Topalov
Karjakin
Mamedyarov

So does anybody of them have a realistic chance of beating Carlsen in a series? Kramnik maybe?

[gigantes]

kramnik came within a hair of beating him in the 2013 candidates, so...

OTOH, magnus has already been the world #1 ranked player for a couple years, and at age 22 should continue to improve in every way. by contrast, kramnik's technical skills may also improve, but his body's on the wrong side of 25, so that's a factor.

kind of amazing vishy held on to the crown so long considering what a low-ranked player he was. #8 currently from what i recall.


kind of too bad to me that they apparently run so many high-level tournaments these days, because i'd absolutely love for magnus to do some 'against the world' matches.

[Flamboyant]

Hey there people! Long time, no see! I checked this thread at the end of last years World Championship Match, but didn't see any posts, and decided to let it pass. Nice to see that others payed attention to the Match.

As you might know, Magnus Carlsen of Norway convincingly defeated Viswanathan Anand in last years title match, and is now the World Champion. Tomorrow the 2014 World Championship Candidates Tournament starts in Khanty-Mansiysk of Russia. The format is same as it was in last years candidates, an 8 player double round robin.

The participants, as listed previously by dr.hee, are:
1. Viswanathan Anand
2. Levon Aronian
3. Vladimir Kramnik
4. Veselin Topalov
5. Sergey Karjakin
6. Peter Svidler
7. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
8. Dimitry Andreikin

I will try write something for each player (how they qualified, their notable games, playing style, etc.) during the tournament.

Anyway, all the games start at 10:00 Central European Time, 5:00 a.m. NY time. First round is today, on March 13th. If confused, TRY THIS! (http://countingdownto.com/countdown/chess-candidates-2014-countdown-clock)

[Flamboyant]

There is something additional that makes this tournament even more exciting.

For those of you who don't know, Kramnik & Topalov have a bitter history. In 2000 Kramnik was selected to play a World Championship Match with Kasparov, even though he had lost the match to determine Kasparov's challenger to Shirov. Kramnik defeated Kasparov, and became PCA World Champion (at the time Kasparov had a break with FIDE, so there were split titles). Meanwhile FIDE Champions were changing at a high rate, and losing their credibility. To end this FIDE decided to have a title unification tournament, an 8 player DRR tournament like this one. This tournament held in St Luis 2005, saw one of the greatest performance in chess history. At the halfway point, Veselin Topalov had won 6 out of his first 7 games, and easily drew his way to the title after that. This set the stage for the unification match, held in Elista 2006. Kramnik won the first 2 games (though in 2nd game Topalov had reached a winning position, but blundered it away). Games 3 & 4 were drawn. At that point Topalov's Manager Sylvio Danailov claimed that he had found a wire in the toilet rooms, and accused Kramnik for cheating. Kramnik forfeited game 5 in protest, and this allowed Topalov to get back in the match. Topalov went on to win games 8 & 9, thus taking the lead. However Kramnik immediately struck back by winning game 10. After two more draws, the match ended in a tie, and the champion was to be decided in faster time controls. In the four game rapid match Kramnik won the 2nd game, after the draw in the first game. Topalov leveled the score on game 3, but Kramnik won the 4th, and final game, thus becoming the winner of the match.

Since that match, Kramnik and Topalov played each other only twice in classical chess. In their final meeting between them Topalov got a mini revenge, as he destroyed Kramnik in one of the best games of modern chess. After that game, both players have been avoiding each other, so their game in the 6th round will be their first match-up in over 6 years. Definitely the game that I'm the most excited about! :rockon:

[gigantes]

interesting history. thanks, flamboyant.

the cheating accusation thing definitely sounds like old times. maybe the funniest example i can think of is the one where karpov was playing korchnoi for the world championship, and karpov supposedly brought in some guy to sit in the audience and give korchnoi the evil eye during the entire match.

whether it was jedi mind control or just the discomfort of having some glowering dude staring at him every moment of the weeks-long match, it upset korchnoi enough to be thrown off.

korchnoi was also pretty interesting as a soviet defector who was contender-level until a ridiculously advanced age... like 60yo or something.

[qrich]

Let's go Aronian.

[dr.hee]

I will try write something for each player (how they qualified, their notable games, playing style, etc.) during the tournament.


Cool :cheers:

Andreikin is in the tournament and currently number 40 in the world, but no Caruana, Nakamura and Ivanchuk...he deserves his spot of course but still, would rather see some of the entertaining players who aren't featured.

My guess is either Aronian or Kramnik, less likely maybe Svidler with the upset.

[DonD13]

There is something additional that makes this tournament even more exciting.

For those of you who don't know, Kramnik & Topalov have a bitter history. In 2000 Kramnik was selected to play a World Championship Match with Kasparov, even though he had lost the match to determine Kasparov's challenger to Shirov. Kramnik defeated Kasparov, and became PCA World Champion (at the time Kasparov had a break with FIDE, so there were split titles). Meanwhile FIDE Champions were changing at a high rate, and losing their credibility. To end this FIDE decided to have a title unification tournament, an 8 player DRR tournament like this one. This tournament held in St Luis 2005, saw one of the greatest performance in chess history. At the halfway point, Veselin Topalov had won 6 out of his first 7 games, and easily drew his way to the title after that. This set the stage for the unification match, held in Elista 2006. Kramnik won the first 2 games (though in 2nd game Topalov had reached a winning position, but blundered it away). Games 3 & 4 were drawn. At that point Topalov's Manager Sylvio Danailov claimed that he had found a wire in the toilet rooms, and accused Kramnik for cheating. Kramnik forfeited game 5 in protest, and this allowed Topalov to get back in the match. Topalov went on to win games 8 & 9, thus taking the lead. However Kramnik immediately struck back by winning game 10. After two more draws, the match ended in a tie, and the champion was to be decided in faster time controls. In the four game rapid match Kramnik won the 2nd game, after the draw in the first game. Topalov leveled the score on game 3, but Kramnik won the 4th, and final game, thus becoming the winner of the match.

Since that match, Kramnik and Topalov played each other only twice in classical chess. In their final meeting between them Topalov got a mini revenge, as he destroyed Kramnik in one of the best games of modern chess. After that game, both players have been avoiding each other, so their game in the 6th round will be their first match-up in over 6 years. Definitely the game that I'm the most excited about! :rockon:

do you have a link to the game or a date or something?

[dr.hee]

do you have a link to the game or a date or something?

I think he's referring to this game from the 2008 Corus tournament, where Topalov sacs a knight at move 12.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1482320

[Random_Guy]

Nice I'm in for the ride, is there anywhere I can see live streaming?

[dr.hee]

Nice I'm in for the ride, is there anywhere I can see live streaming?

http://candidates2014.fide.com/

[9erempiree]

http://candidates2014.fide.com/

Please stick to checkers.:facepalm

Much easier for you to understand.

[dr.hee]

Anand beating Aronian, what the f*ck?

[Flamboyant]

First round started with a bang! Anand defeated Aronian in a nice technical game, and is the leader after the first round, as the other three games were drawn. Press conference is about to start. Follow it here: http://candidates2014.fide.com/


P.S:

Please stick to checkers. :facepalm

Much easier for you to understand.

Pretty please do not degrade this thread. Everyone is more than welcome to this thread, as long as they're being nice! :cheers:

[Random_Guy]

http://candidates2014.fide.com/
:cheers:

[gigantes]

i don't know a thing about aronian.

is he like, spirit of tal or something?

[dr.hee]

Anand with 2.5 out of 3 so far. I really don't wanna see him against Carlsen again.

[Flamboyant]

OMG, sh*t just got real! :eek: Topalov reached a winning position against Kramnik out of the opening!! Should be great to follow.

[dr.hee]

Anand still leading with 5 games to go. Strange tournament.

[kurple]

how is karlsen doing`?

[dr.hee]

how is karlsen doing`?

Not playing. The tournament is deciding who's going to be the contender for the next WC match.

[gigantes]

Anand still leading with 5 games to go. Strange tournament.
a somewhat close race though, if i'm seeing the latest results (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2014) correctly.

aronian one point behind anand, and three others a half pt behind him. at least there's a chance.

i guess we shouldn't be too surprised if anand wins this, but we also shouldn't be too surprised if carlsen wrecks him in the final. i wouldn't mind that too much, since magnus would get to be the man for another year, at least.

can't anand just go on a senior tour or something? :(

[RightToCensor]

All these crackers in this thread :roll:

[dr.hee]

a somewhat close race though, if i'm seeing the latest results (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2014) correctly.

aronian one point behind anand, and three others a half pt behind him. at least there's a chance.

i guess we shouldn't be too surprised if anand wins this, but we also shouldn't be too surprised if carlsen wrecks him in the final. i wouldn't mind that too much, since magnus would get to be the man for another year, at least.

can't anand just go on a senior tour or something? :(

Yeah it's kind of close, but Anand also got the tie break with Aronian, so he's quite comfortable right now. Thought he is done after the Carlsen match, and now this :facepalm

[gigantes]

All these crackers in this thread :roll:
not exactly the monkey olympics, is it?

[dr.hee]

Anand still one point ahead with only 2 games to go. So we'll have Carlsen vs Anand II.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2817947/billbored.gif

[gigantes]

Anand still one point ahead with only 2 games to go. So we'll have Carlsen vs Anand II...
there's always, what... linares and stuff like that?


on a side note, i wonder if anyone's made a list of the top rated-player of the year in order to compare it to a list of the reigning champ of the time? i bet a lot of the historical FIDE champs weren't actually the best player in the world by rating, anand included.