Chinese chess isn't rigged, yay!

I kinda stopped posting here. But today was reading through chessbase.com, and noticed a familiar position.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/baku-rd...ure-adrenaline

Look at the Wei Yi vs Ding Liren game with 12.Qg3!

Wasn't this a Rei Ayanami puzzle a few months ago? It must be theory right, being only 12 moves in....

Svidler and Wei Yi are the two players I root for the most behind Magnus, a shame that one will be knocked out here.

Eljanov's White win over Nakamura is a kind of revenge for the Nepo incident - Pavel decided to keep trolling Hikaru in the endgame instead of taking one of the two opportunities to mate him immediately. The 20. Nxb7 idea was very insightful.

SVIDLER!

Aww, it's over for Wei Yi.
Rooting for Svidler now.

FYP

Hell of a run, though.

Great day for Russia. Svidler and Karjakin into the final 4.

I think Svidler would have fine chance vs. Giri in blitz, but anything before that will be tough.


Eljanov playing incredibly well, would be cool to see him finish the job and take first place.

wow, svidler wins today with black, just one draw away from making it to the candidates tourney, pretty pumped for the guy tbh as i thought his days at that level were over

Very interesting concept by Svidler. Giving up the two bishops and pushing on the queenside is more in the style of Carlsen after all.

I think in hindsight, Giri should have played a3 somewhere between move 19-21*, so he could answer b4 with a4. In any case, I am surprised that Giri's attack on the kingside was so much slower than Svidler's attack on the queenside. During the game I thought Giri had a clear advantage until he took on a4.

* Because of that Svidler should have played 18....b4, which is actually the engine recommendation.

Notice how Svidler thinks during the game. He has his head down and his eyes closed most of the time. This is very unique and it is very similar to playing blindfold chess.

Obviously he can "see" the position like a diagram in a book and move the pieces in this "virtual diagram" around at a very high speed. For me this defines a true freak of nature and it is no wonder that he won the Russian Championship 7 times.

While Ivanchuk is a pure savant, Svidler appears to be a normal guy, but in fact he isn't.

Being able to accurately calculate variations without looking at the board is not an unusual skill for a grandmaster.

Svidler in the finals and Candidates.

A great achievement for Svidler and if he wins one more match he'll be a 2x World Cup Champion as well as a 7x Russian Champion. As self-deprecating as he can be I think it's hard for him to deny that he's had a very succesful career and he has still more to give at the highest level.

He's pretty reasonable and I really like the fact that while he's very self-deprecating, he does basically think he has more to give at a high level. He just always says it while at the same time saying he is surprised about that because he isn't any younger, lol.

I don't really think walking around or closing your eyes at the board is a sign of any sort of blindfolded "edge." Very, very few players (if any) could/can play at roughly the same level without a board. They just play at such a high level anyway that playing blindfolded is still a very high level.

Has Svidler in particular done anything remarkable to suggest he may be better at blindfolded chess (relatively) than other players?

Everytime I hear svidler I like him more and more. Plus his analysis is nice to watch also.

Very humble and self depreciating guy especially considering he has had and continues to have an amazing career.

I'm really rooting for him to win it again

also rooting for svidler to win, even though i bet 300 to win 30 against him winning, nice dude and its going to be good seeing him in the candidates

In terms of likability, I don't think anyone in the world-elite beats Svidler and Aronian. Love both of these guys and am always happy to see them succeed.

I really like Svidler for his humility and wit. He has no chance to win the Candidates Tournament, but he definitely could play spoiler.

SVIDLER

Technically he must have *A* chance of some kind. A few weeks ago before the World Cup started I announced that he had a 1.8% chance of reaching the finals.

In an eight player field, even as likely the lowest rated player in the field I'll bet he isn't worse than 2% to win the Candidates Tournament either, so be careful with your absolute statements.

Guess I'll take up arms against Svidler. Not really someone I root for as I feel he's been too happy to take lazy, quick draws throughout his career

We'll have another Russian final in the World Cup.

Army — Well, now you'll be forced to root for Karjakin, gl with that, .

What a tragedy for Eljanov Yugo: yeah I won't be spellbound by the WC final, haha