You have to pay on worldchess.com for $20/$25 to get the official stream, only the first little bit of each game has been available on YouTube for free.

I'm kinda happy to get an exciting play-off, but that was really disappointing by Magnus. If he loses on Wednesday, this is going to look even worse in chess history.

Oh, and for those looking for live chess, it's on tv in Norway and streamed live at Nrk.no - you have to be in Norway to access the stream though, or at least make them think you are...

1.346 v 3.380 says Pinnacle

I think that Magnus realized that b5 was the right move instead of a5 so he tilt offered a draw.

b5 is so ****ing natural looking too. Like wtf gives.

Magnus has been very honest about his vulnerabilities, maybe even too much so but I admire him for it. The guy has other interests, he loves chess but unlike Fabiano he has a more balanced life from what it appears on the surface. He's the better player of the two but I think Fabi is better prepared and wants it more. Doesn't mean I think Magnus loses on Wednesday but yeah the lack of killer instinct given the very high expectations on him was a slight bummer.

It's pretty amazing that we've seen 12 games and no real blunders, just some inaccuracies and possible missed opportunities. Undoubtedly that will change when we get to the blitz games.

Magnus wasnt tilting imo. His goal today was to get to rapid unless he had a risk free position. Fabi under pressure but it could've swung.

Magnus about to waffle crush now. 85ish percent to win?

I haven't researched but what's the armageddon format?

Is it 5 and 4?
They should do bids.

5 vs 4 minutes and a draw counts as a win for Black.

Kasparov tweeted this earlier today:

"In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favorite in rapids. Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his."

Shats fiyed.

Apparently they get a 55-45 split of the prize money by doing the tiebreakers. Not much difference, it seems.

Lol at penalizing Magnus for playing the format optimally. Yep let's flip with QQ vs AK now instead of being an 80% favorite in 2 days. Like wtf chess players are just as dumb as everyone else.

But how much did you lose?!!

1.311 to 3.620 now

Been following the matches closely

I don't care who has the edge in blitz games, after 11 draws I was pretty disappointed to see Magnus offer a draw in a game 12 that looked far from settled to my eye

Magnus must be very ready with lots of preparation for the playoff. At least, that makes sense of game 12. What if the challenger has a totally new plan with new openings?

From a drama/entertainment standpoint I think the tiebreak is great for chess, completely disagree with those who want them to play classical games forever (look at what happened in 1984). I get it, it's the classical world chess championship but these were the rules everyone agreed on. Kasparov is being kind of silly, Magnus is less prepared but his edge in skill over Fabiano the faster they push the settings is why his team wanted to risk a higher variance route.

Not that 538 is consistent but good table near the bottom about how the odds significantly increase for Carlsen as they go from the first couple required rapid games to blitz.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...p-to-overtime/

The issue isn't just that he offered a draw - it's that he offered a draw in a pretty risk-free position that he may be able to win.

20% risk of losing in tie-breaks (which I think may be too low) is much higher than his risk when he offered the draw. I mean, he played 7 hours in one game to try and squeeze blood from stone - playing that one out makes so much sense. And there is the human element. I translated a Russian article and Kramnik talks more about how how that is a very bad sign - that Carlsen maybe is sick of chess or is just trying to get through the match and make the nerves go away, or who knows. But that he needs to re-evaluate his life after this match as he's lost all of his hunger or will to make himself hungry.

I agree with AIM that ...a4 was likely his biggest mistake - his other stuff was justified even if he had some very good opportunities, but that "lost" him the win and likely lead to his tilt-draw offer.

Magnus has lost 2 games total in 48 WCC games, let's just pump the breaks about him trying to get through the match and being sick of it. When I mentioned that he had other interests and that the lack of a killer instinct in game 12 was a mild disappointment that only stands up vs the insane expectations everyone places in Magnus. Maybe his own expectations have changed with what he wants to achieve in chess and his life but 2 losses in the highest level show me he's still in a class by himself. Fabiano had very few if any real chances at anything over the 12 games, should count for something.

As someone who has watched all the press conferences of this match, this seems pretty likely. The transformation he went through from the pressers after the first few games, joking etc, to super tired and pissed off in the second half of the match was pretty severe.

He's pretty much said as much in the presser yesterday.

Paraphrasing, as I can't be bothered rewatching:

"Everybody could see that I wasn't going for the maximum today"
"I just wanted to..." [pause to think how to phrase it and not outright say what he actually means] "...play a risk free position in which I can put him under pressure, but if I thought a draw would be a bad result, I wouldn't have offered one"

This plus two or three answers with a similar vibe pretty much outright say that he just wanted to get done with the game yesterday and go home early.

So following your strategy (the one I mentioned a few games back when you disagreed about what he/his team viewed as mission accomplished) means you are sick of it/just trying to get through it? Just a difference of opinion then, I don't see as playing within the format as anything other than good strategy. He's stated multiple times also how much he respects Fabi's classical game, after game 10 especially he had enough.

Fun video to get you pumped for tomorrow, I'm sure most of you nerds have already seen this but for those that haven't... If you don't want to watch the whole thing start at 1hr:30. From April of this year:

Well, I think there are some things Kramnik can easily be off on (e.g. is Magnus really only a 60/40 favorite or not even a favorite according to Kasparov) but the mental aspect of things at such an elite level is something he may have as much or more experience with than anyone else.

I've often wondered how he ever won world titles since he does not really play chess to win, he is an artist - so Kramnik probably has had to shift a bunch of times to get the requisite WIM to play. For example, in the candidates I think he was so focused on creating exciting games b/c he felt strongly that if he just went in with the more optimal strategy of managing his fatigue, minimizing risks, and other things let's say Anand would do, wouldn't cut it - ultimately his overall result was of course far short of winning the tournament but he was closer to possibly winning it than it seems since if he converted his game against Caruana perhaps he could have put on the brakes and grinded out a tournament win even if he had to sacrifice WIM at that point.

It seems Magnus is playing on the memory of WIM rather than actually having it. Like he's just very burned out by classical chess. Maybe he should take the next year off and just stream on lichess.

I'm not sure what you mean with following "my" strategy, but if you think Magnus acting the way he does in the press conferences means he's in "mission accomplished" mode, we're going to have to agree to disagree. Again.