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.

[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

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.

[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!!

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.

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!

[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.

[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.

Keeps it going by beating the Ukrainian

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. 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.

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!

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!

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. 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.

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!

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


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.