Fun tournament so far. The post Magnus world is proving exciting and wide open with 6 contenders, all of which will have a shot at the championship. Will be a big round 11 with the top 6 all playing each other. Feels like playoffs where a loss could eliminate someone.
Am amazed at how these players get into time trouble starting with 2 hours and then receiving extra time and increment after 40 moves. Must be filled with anxiety deciding between similar looking moves while trying to understand their opponent’s motives.
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Fun tournament so far. The post Magnus world is proving exciting and wide open with 6 contenders, all of which will have a shot at the championship. Will be a big round 11 with the top 6 all playing each other. Feels like playoffs where a loss could eliminate someone.
Am amazed at how these players get into time trouble starting with 2 hours and then receiving extra time and increment after 40 moves. Must be filled with anxiety deciding between similar looking moves while trying to understand their opponent’s motives.
They must be somewhat familiar with their late game positions having calculated that deeply and that long. Still, if they miss something and wind up somewhere unexpected their stomachs must drop.
Alireza gets Abasov, and teaches him to complain about noisy shoes. My shoes are noisy? How about I beat you about the head with a chessboard, and we’ll see who’s noisy!? That game wasn’t close.
Hikaru wins with the black pieces against Pragg, and Pragg goes with a Queen’s gambit. Hikaru says “opening prep? Where we’re going we don’t need opening prep, and lashes out with c5, leading to a weird pawn square in the Center and a sharp and tactical position where the queens come off the board early. As the game drags on, Pragg is out of his element and down on the clock, and the more experience Hikaru scores a huge win with the black pieces, and is tied for first place with Gukesh (who drew with Fabiano).
Not so fast though: Nepo and Vidit had a long, drawn-out battle that looked like it would be a draw forever. Then on move 37 Nepo blundered, allowing Vidit to win a pawn and probably the game. But… Vidit didn’t take the pawn! Why? Time pressure? Who knows? Now it’s a draw again until Vidit blunders on move 60, and suddenly Nepo, king of draws, scores a huge round 11 win and takes sole possession of first place.
Just 3 rounds to go, and there are still 6 players who could conceivably win this thing. Admittedly harder to see Pragg and Vidit doing it, but with this field you never know.
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Wow a three way tie for the lead with 2 rounds to go. Hikaru both controls his own destiny and has the toughest path with games against Nepo and Gukesh. Even Fabi is still alive half a point back.
How is Gukesh 17? Balls of steel under pressure while veteran GMs are crumbling around him.
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We need to have a tournament! Was looking on lichess and there are 13 members on Team Blasty but I haven’t done anything with it. Will start a blitz tournament but in like a month so everyone can plan. What time format does everyone like and is there a time and day of the week you prefer? Can also set up a Swiss tournament with a team which could be fun instead of Arena.
If anyone wants to start a chess.com tournament of any format would be happy to play that too.
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The final round of the candidates tournament is today (Sunday) it will be streaming on twitch and youtube on chess24 at 1230pm MT.
17 year old Indian player Gukesh is 0.5 points up on a 3 way tie between Hikaru, Fabiano and Ian Nepomniatchi
Fabi plays white against Ian
Hikaru plays white against Gukesh
Winner will most likely be decided today in very dramatic fashion.
Magnus Carlsen and Gary Kasperov are the youngest world champions ever at age 22 and Gukesh has a chance to play for the world championship as a 17 year old.
Any big chess fan should be locked in tomorrow.
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Huge draw from Gukesh to top off an incredible tournament for him. Would have been in tie breaks if either Fabiano or Nepo could somehow find a decisive result, but Fabi couldn’t find the right moves in a winning position under time pressure and they drew. I think Gukesh is the youngest person ever to win the Candidates, but stand to be corrected. He showed a ton of composure in the last few games when the pressure was on—very impressive.
EDIT: obviously I was beaten to it and yes he is the youngest. Very impressive.
Last edited by Iowa_Flames_Fan; 04-22-2024 at 10:55 AM.
This tournament has sort of made me wonder if Magnus might have done chess a favour by stepping aside. I don’t know if I think any of these players could have beaten him, but now the field is wide open and there is way more drama at the world championship level. I will admit I was pulling for either Fabiano or Hikaru, but a chance at the youngest world champion ever is pretty cool too.
It’s just too bad Ding Liren is having such an off year. That is the one downside. At their current level of form, Gukesh is going to annihilate Ding.
