Vishy closing in on locking it up nh5!

wtf bbq draw!

I didn't see the press conferences but based on the chess.com article Karjakin criticized the tiebreak rule (I think most would agree) and also the time control ("First I'd like to mention that this is a stupid time control").

He had 13 seconds to make 6 moves until the first time control. Aronian was also in time trouble against Anand. What would be the ideal time control for classical? Increment from move 1?

The time control being used is this:
120 minutes for the first 40 moves
60 minutes added for the next 20 moves
15 minutes + 30 second increment per move starting from move 61

100 for 40, 50 for 20, then 15 for the rest, with 30 sec added from move 1 would be a much saner time control. The current way gives you strictly more time at every point in the game, but stupid chess players are addicted to using all their time and getting in time trouble if at all possible.

Also, didn't fide outlaw this time control at one point? If an increment is used it has to be the same throughout the game.

Ideal would be that players don't burn all their time and then complain about it. The time control is fine.

They should at least be consistent in which time control they use. Almost all other tournaments use an increment, I don't see why the candidate's tournament is the only one that doesn't.

i rather prefer the delay that we use in the good ol' US of A

Eh, if they're only playing one game per day, make it 6 hours each for the whole game, no increment, no additional time, no time delay. Not even Chucky could screw that up.

I was all set to write a nice post after Anand won that game with how he earned it and I hope to see another 2900 performance from him in the match. But that ending in a draw hurts a little.

Definitely seems odd that this isn't +30 from move one. Why not?

Ive been out of the chess scene since I was probably 14, reading about magnus sparked my interest to get back into chess. Been playing a few games and following this candidates tournament.

Maybe I don't understand the format correctly, but it appears that the only position with a payout here is to win the tournament? So first place gets a chance to play for the world title, whereas all other finishing positions get nothing?

Basically it doesnt make sense to me why players are drawing after 19 moves, calling games drawn when it gets down to 2 rooks each, moving back and for 3 moves quite frequently, and generally just being happy to call it a tie and go home. Doesn't it make sense to maximize variance given this stipulations? Im not saying purposefully blunder, or to take unnecessary risks in the early-mid game to win. But why not play out a relatively equal endgame and attempt to take a win? Doesn't make sense to me why the only draws that occur are with a few pieces left or when it is absolutely mandatory for the threefold repetition.

There's a 600,000 Euro prize fund and these guys like to protect their ratings. Magnus seems to be the only player confident enough not to do this.

Aronian is disappointing a lot of people this tournament by playing it safe and passing up what seemed to be several situations where he could have pressed to take the lead.

Ya, one of the ways to qualify for the Candidates tournament is by rating so the guys at the very top are super protective of each point.

Don't really agree that Aronian has been playing it safe given some of his opening choices.

I haven't seen a complete list of the payouts, but the information I found is that first prize is 135,000 Euros, while 8th/last place gets 25,000 Euros.

qfmft

Honestly, I don't know why they use any other time control for 1g/day events. In my league (3rd division in Germany), we're stuck with 90/40 + 30/rest and 30 sec/move from move one, which is OK but long endings are still played on the increment mostly. One league further below, they do not have mandatory electronic clocks and have the luxury of 2h/40, 1h/20, 30 min rest which is much more time overall. The top division plays with RT's control, which they also use at Wijk.

He would end up with less than an hour on move 20 and blitzing on move 40.

Understandable to see Anand take a draw against Andreikin because of the tournament situation. Anand-Andreikin reached a position from the FIDE World Championship in 2000 between Topalov and Dreev where Andreikin's 18...a4 is a clear improvement ( apparently played in some correspondence game, if a comment from chessgames.com is accurate ) whereupon 19. Rhe1 is a novelty. It's pretty certain that Anand was out of his opening preparation; for if he were still in his preparation, then a possibility would be 19. c5!? with the idea of 19...Nd5 20. Nh5 Nf6 and now the "Tal-like" 21. Nxg7! Kxg7 22. g4 where it's difficult for Black to find the best defence ( maybe 22...Ne8 is objectively best; still, from a practical perspective, Anand might reject going into such a position if he is not confident in the analysis given the tournament situation ).


Quite gutsy/crazy of Aronian to have the nerve to play 2...g6 against Andreikin's Trompovsky ( hopefully, his opening choice won't lead to a really bad position )! For the most exciting tournament finish, Karjakin needs to win against Anand and it's not that unlikely that he'll have at some point during his game a comfortable position with the White pieces. Mamedyarov seems to have a much worse position against Svidler after 17...Qxd4 from a 6. Be3 Ng4 Najdorf, so he needs to hold his position to have any chance. As mentioned by some kibitzers on chessbomb, two former world champions are fighting from last place!

g6 against the Trompowsky is not that unusual, but i've never seen Aronian's 4...Bb4+ before. It seems like a pretty interesting idea.

And Vishy Anand is YOUR next World Championship challenger!

he earned it fair and square, it's not the match-up i was hoping to see but i'm pleased for him, i didn't think he had a chance

Second place with one round to go is an even score...incredible.

Unfortunately, despite "how well" Anand is playing here, a comparable TPR would be, what, a 40% score in the match? But really it's just the lack of a standout performance by anyone else.

Anand's earned another shot--let's see what he does with it.

This round robin format is kind of boring to a casual fan like myself. I'd rather see them do knockout rounds like the World Cup last year. But I suppose the way they do it minimizes the effect of variance.

Why is everyone hating on Anand? He earned it. He's one of the 16 world champions or whatever in modern chess history. He's not a scrub and if Aronian was "supposed" to win, why didn't he?

I think the major concern is whether an Anand rematch will be all that interesting. For all the excitement surrounding Carlsen's victory, it didn't seem like there was a lot of excitement about the chess itself. (So many Berlin defense games with early draws, for one thing.)