Chess: Observing the Mating Patterns of King, Queens and Bishops.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I'd go with the better player, so if Carlsen doesn't play it better be Fabi or Ding vs Nepo.

Nakamura in WCC match, the idea is on its face absurd. Nepo would just pummel him. That'd be Kasparov-Short reloaded. Radja is semi-retired, so that's also firm  NO! from me.

But the idea of Carlsen commentating a title match with Naka on a stream, that is quite funny. 

Anyway, the situation of Nakamura and Ding were not similar. Nakamura had black against Nepo (the better player). Ding had white against Radjabov (weaker player). 

Ding had half a point more than Nakamura and a tiny, tiny chance to maybe catch Nepo, if he won his game. So he felt oblige to try. But he should have just done his thing and slowly grind down Radjabov instead of going beserk.

[Rorshach]

I think I'd perfer to see Ding right now, should I be able to choose. He's been solid for years, and hasn't had a shot at the WC yet. Fabi has had a try, and Naka / Radja would not be viewed as good opponents or, if shock happens, not real champions either, I'd suspect. 

I do doubt Nepo's ability to hold a match game against either Fabi or Ding, though, I have to say.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Before this tournament, I'd have agreed with questioning Nepo's match skills. But he has shown during this candidates, that he has improved metnally. Altho, he has not really faced much adversity he had to overcome. So if he had lost a game, things might have played out differently. But as it was, this was smooth sailing for him. Not a criticism of him obviously, as he can only respond to the moves his opponents make. And there have been some absurdly poor choices by them. Rapport and Firouzja being the main culprits. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Uff, Duda blundered away his advantage against Nakamura. I think he missed the Zwischenzug 35.Bd6!

This is mildly annoying. Just when I was thinking that Duda would win and just allowing Ding to climb back to second in the standings Duda blunders away his advantage. So annoying. Naka might actually ending up winning this game that silly 33...d5 push.

Edited July 3, 2022 by A Horse Named Stranger

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And it's gone. This will be 1-0 instead of 0-1.

Duda you freaking donk.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just checked today's games.

Radja won with the black pieces against Rapport.

Ding restores some sanity to a potential Carlsenless WCC match by getting his on-demand win against Nakamura. At least his position looks very promising. Technical position with Ding being in the driver's seat. I don't fancy Naka one bit there.

In the clash of tournament disappointments Firouzja is winning against Caruana.

Oh yeah, Duda-Nepo ended in a draw.

[Rorshach]

Nakamura offered Caruana not believeing in Carlsen as an explanation for pushing hard for first after Fabi suffered his first couple of losses. Which I think is absolutely believable.

Harder to accept the tailing off, in a way - his last losses have come with him in no position to claim first, or now, even second. Simply very disappointing.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Fabi simply imploded in the second half. No idea what happened, whether the lack of actual tournament play and too much blitz took its toll on him, or whatever. After the first half he was on +3 (I think), after the second half he was on -1, so on -4 for the second half. I really cannot recall any event in which he collpased like that. I really don't know, when the classical tournament was, in which he suffered four losses (or if there indeed was any). That's Ivanchuk territory of erraticness. For comparission's sake. Wang Hao who was drifting through the previous candidates finished with 5 losses. 

[Rorshach]

Yeah. I think this is the first time I've ever witnessed Fabi drifting like that. Generally, he tends to be very hard to beat, even when he's not firing on all cylinders, so it's just very surprising to see him implode.

I'll be interested in how he responds to it.

[Plessiez]

Congratulations to Ding Liren on qualifying for a world championship match, I suppose.

[Rorshach]

Wasn't a big surprise, I think, but that may be for us Norwegians?

Always felt it was more probable than not that Carlsen would stand by his hinted-at desicion.

[TheLastWolf]

Olympiads with an Oscar winner scoring theme songs? Nice

https://chessolympiad.fide.com/

[A Horse Named Stranger]

About no new blood in the 2.700 club.

Gukesh is running amok at the Olympiads. 8/8. Collecting thirty rating points, that puts him solidly into the 2.700 club. And some nice scalps there. Caruana, Sargissian, Shirov, Vocaturo.

Granted, Caruana is having horrid tournament, but still.

Abdusattorov and Erigaisi are also inching closer to the 2.700 mark. Abdusattorov in particular has been impressive. 6.5/8. Too bad he lost against Hari(krishna).

Sarin is also enjoying a pretty good tournament, but he is some way off the 2.700 mark.

Also Deac is right now above 2.700, at age 20 he qualifies as another young hopeful.

Edited August 8, 2022 by A Horse Named Stranger

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ok, Gukesh has taken a few hits now.

First Shak ended his winning strake with a draw. And now Abdusattorov inflict the first loss on Gukesh in this event. 

ABdusattorov is now also very, very close to crossing the 2.700 threshold. 

Tomorrow sees India 2 (the better Indian team in this tournament with the kids (except for Erigaisi, who is playing for India 1)) versus Germany.

Basically Keymer-Gukesh as the encounter to watch there. But overall the kids should win this.

Armenia is facing off against Spain

Uzbekistan Netherlands features Abdusattorov vs. Giri

And India 1 is facing off against the US and their all-star line up.

Fabi and Lev both merely on 50% sums is up, disappointing overall performance by the pre-tournament favorites.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Erigaisi defeated Dominguez in the final round of the Olympiads. That puts him above the 2.700 mark, too.

Abdusattorov vs. Giri resulted in a draw (surprise). That leaves the Uzbek around 2 points short of being a 2.700 player.

He will get there. And he will have the team gold to console him for the moment.

Gukesh was the emerging star player of the event. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Abdusattorov mauled a few players in the Turkish league (8.5/10) and is now also above the 2.700 mark on the live rating list.

Erigaisi crashed the Abu Dhabi Open with a 2.890 performance.

Keymer is having some fun at the German Masters and is now also pretty close to the 2.700 mark (2.692).

So the next Generation now has an established presence at the top level. I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of Abdusattorov, Erigaisi or Gukesh plays in the next candidates.

Further somewhat bolder prediction, I think Abdusattorov won't be the only Uzbek in the 2.700 club. At least one of his team mates will cross the threshold within the next 2 year, too.

Edited August 26, 2022 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Arakasi]

Surprised no one has chimes in about the Magnus/Neimann controversy. Apparently Hans has been cleared but cheating these days can be pretty high tech so it’s hard to say. You’d hope Magnus would do his homework before setting something off like this.

[Wade1865]

5 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Surprised no one has chimes in about the Magnus/Neimann controversy. Apparently Hans has been cleared but cheating these days can be pretty high tech so it’s hard to say. You’d hope Magnus would do his homework before setting something off like this.

Arakasi -- hahaha, I read about this by way of Elon and his theory on how Hans may have cheated.

[Arakasi]

Yeah I heard that too and my wife and I had a conversation about how many different types of vibration a person can detect. Just had to make sure to have it out of earshot of our 7 year old. Especially in regards to different options available to different gender.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Arakasi

[Wade1865]

8 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Yeah I heard that too and my wife and I had a conversation about how many different types of vibration a person can detect. Just had to make sure to have it out of earshot of our 7 year old. Especially in regards to different options available to different gender.

Arakasi -- it would have to have been in Morse, hahaha. Mark the date of this incident and compare with future successes.

Notable is Hans admitting to cheating as a youth, though why admit that now? Offering unasked information makes one seem guilty, and would only be used against him; i.e., "once a cheater, always a cheater." As you mentioned, though, Hans was cleared, but the stigma (reinforced by Elon!) will never be forgotten amongst that crowd of players.