I think I'm gonna root for Anand.

Rooting for Anand is ridiculous. These tournaments are all about taking calculated risks. Anand can only be successful if everyone takes too much risk while trying to beat him, just like last cycle.

Today unfortunately Naka messed up and even blundered Rc7 in the end.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1817777

Can someone explain why Anand agreed to a draw here. If he exchanges Queens, it's an opposite colored bishop ending, but he is a pawn up. It seems -EV not to go for it. This seems like exactly the kind of game Magnus somehow turns into a win.

I don't think Anand was in any time trouble either.

Agon is now suing everybody.

http://www.agonlimited.com/news/2016...t-restrictions

Lovely! I doubt that it will work out well for them, but you never know.

I'm a bit disappointed Chessbase didn't call their bluff, but I'd sooner watch it on chess24 anyway.

I especially love this, from their claim that they suffered a DDOS attack:



ALTERNATE THEORY: No one ever goes to worldchess dot com, except for during these games, when worldchess dot com is the only place in the whole wide world to get any information on the biggest chess tournament of the year. Millions of people worldwide trying to use your website is not "an attack."

**** these *******s.

LMAO @ "10 to 20 times normal levels" being their baseline expectation for traffic increase when games are being broadcast.

Incompetence or malice? I go with both. Incompetent ****s. I hope this company dies a slow and painful death.

I don't particularly love chess24 (Lichess ftw!), but I want them (and their lawyers) to absolutely crush the living ****e out of Agon.

Last time I checked I'm allowed to root for anyone for any ****ing reason I want to.

It's called being a fan.

So how about you step aside and know your role, jabroni.

Sure, you can root for Anand. You can also root for Lincecum to throw 100 mph again one day. People love to root for underdogs and guys who are well past their prime. The only thing they are forgetting is that it makes really bad championship games. I'd rather see Caruana or Giri facing Carlsen than having to watch Anand getting his ass handed to him for the third time in a row.

It kinda depends where Agon will sue them. In Germany for instance there is already a verdict from the LG Berlin where the organizer lost. I have no idea how russian courts decide on the issue though.

glad i stopped in to find the chess24 broadcast. I was going crazy watching it on the official broadcast.

really shocked at some of the tactical blunders so far. especially topalov missing Bxf2 in round 1, and Nakamura's hallucination yesterday.

Don't see how they can possibly win. Its not like chess24 is stealing their broadcast of the event. They're playing the moves on their own boards and then commenting on them. And there's no way a sequence of chess moves can be considered IP.

Re: Naka

One can not see clearly through a red cloud.

You're not me.

Thanks, have a nice day.

Naka didn't implode and held the draw.

Color me surprised.

#Aronian

Rooting for everyone but Toppy, Anand, and the Putinbooster. Actually, I'd root for Anand if be could win and then someone else could play the wc match instead but I don't think it works like that.

Hoping for the red bull or Italian stallion but any of those other 5 guys winning would be awesome for different reasons. Probably Fabi winning is the best outcome. Usa#1, svidler can commentate the wc match, he has a shot unlike Naka, giri will have plenty of other chances and Levon can go back to banging his hot wife/fiancee/whatever.

Snoopy I like your style.

maybe it's me, but i'd much rather watch chessexplained's 1 hour post-coverage videos on youtube. things shown might not be nearly as in depth, but it is so much more palatable than watching coverage from basically anyone that is not the st louis people.

they don't need to win, they just need to make the other guys scared to lose

To be fair, the chess24 coverage isn't exactly bombastic. In my opinion worldchess has much better commentary. Miro is better than the spanish dude Pepesomething and Sasha Kosteniuk is better than Anna Rudolf. While chess24 has Gustafsson vistiting every once in a while, worldchess has Kramnik and Nepo. The only thing they don't have is an established community and that's where chess24 has the advantage.

Chessbomb is a different subject. It's more like a big chatroom where people discuss engine analysis. If a player makes a red move (= blunder), then they everyone goes crazy.

Personally I don't see them as a huge threat to the worldchess and if worldchess can't keep their viewer rates up, it's basically their own fault. The best show draws the most viewers, regardless what they want to believe.

Obv.

Any of the chess wizards here care to give a rundown of todays action to pedestrians like me?