OT: 2024 FIDE Chess Candidates Tournament
Chess has popped up on the board at least a few times over the years, most recently with the Chess.com Michigan FB team event. Regardless, I was just curious if anyone else was following the tournament or am I the lone wolf out here.
For those out of the loop the Chess World Championship is basically a 2 year cycle. Year 1 determines the qualifiers for the candidates tournament and year 2 you have the candidates tournament to determine who gets to play the current world champion for the title at the end of the year.
Regardless, this year has been a super exciting edition with a lot of decisive games and with only 2 rounds left (today and tomorrow) there are currently 3 players tied for first: Ian Nepomniatchi (Russia), Dommaraju Gukesh (India), Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and with Fabiano Caruana (USA) only a half point behind. (A win is 1 point, draw is a half point).
Rooting interests:
Nepo- Before the tournament started he was the last person I wanted to see win only because he has had 2 chances at the title and I am not interested in a Nepo Liren rematch.
Hikaru- He has a ton of fans and while I'm not one, I'm not a hater. He is playing like a beast right now and controls his own destiny (double edged) playing both Nepo and Gukesh in the final rounds.
Gukesh- What a story this kid has been. He will not turn 18 until after this tournament is over but along with Hikaru is playing the best chess in the tournament so far IMO.
Fabi- It would be legendary if he somehow pulls this off. He will certainly need 1 win but probably 2 to make it happen.
How to watch: Youtube chess 24 has a live feed with commentary and analysis so you can follow what is going on. For the record I don't watch all 6 hours I basically check in every hour to see if anything interesting is happening then hunker down as they get close to time controls (each player has 120 minutes to make 40 moves, then you get 30 additional minutes for the rest of the game.) Games start at 2:30pm Eastern.
Like a lot of people, I got into chess over covid. Tend to follow Hikaru's games because of his recap vlog's on Youtube. Very interesting to hear how he thinks through positions and strategy.
Should be a fun weekend of chess. Can't believe I just said that
The next two rounds should be exciting and in general it has been a great tournament.
Round 13 Nepomniachtchi (w) versus Nakamura (b) - will Nakamura press for a win or wait until Round 14 when Nepo faces Caruana. Caruana is Black against Praggnanandhas who can't be too disappointed in his performance.
Vidit Gujrathi also shows he has potential - he surprised Nakamura twice in the opening.
Really hope that either Nakamura or Caruana win - because that makes it more likely the whole WCC match or at least half will be held in the USA. No doubt the St. Louis Chess Center would be the logical site.
April 20th, 2024 at 10:18 AM ^
A draw today will benefit Nakamura. He would control his own destiny tomorrow with white against Gukesh, Nepo will finish with black vs Caruana, a tough task. Nakamura would also be favored in tiebreaks which are contested at faster time controls.
Thanks for posting. This is all new to me—another reason I love this board.
Might be the first chess tournament break down post. Hopefully no more vibrating anal beads controversy!
Thanks! Always cool to learn new things. Here's pretty much all I know about chess.
I had somehow never seen that before. Very funny, thanks for sharing!
i don’t find professional chess/go interesting anymore after human players are dominated by AI. Now they just mimic AI’s strategies and worry about their opponents cheating during the game.
I would argue that computers have made chess more rich demonstrating that so many openings/positions are playable.
Will butt plugs be involved?
King Me!
Sounds like me. Playing checkers when others are playing chess.
I find it amusing that Magnus, perhaps the best ever, has essentially quit chess to try his hand at high stakes poker. Definitely different skills required.
This is not really the case. He did play in some poker tournaments, but he is still very much a chess player and loves chess. He just doesn't like the "Classical" time format. He is in favor of shorter time controls and what they are no calling "freestyle chess" or aka "Fisher Random."
He is still the world champion in the blitz time format.
And he still finds time to Touch the Banner.
Blitz chess? That's like being the champion of 7-man football. 40 years ago I used to play alot of blitz in Washington Square Park, where part of Searching for Bobby Fischer was filmed. Those Guys just learned a variety of patterns to rely on but would have been decimated in classic games by decent players.
April 20th, 2024 at 10:00 AM ^
Magnus is still quite active in chess, and still competes in classical chess. He seemed to have lost interest in continuing to defend his world championship title, I think mostly owing to the months of the prep work required.
I’m sure it will be a show with everything but Yul Brynner..
April 20th, 2024 at 10:17 AM ^
Ooh, is it in Bangkok again?
April 20th, 2024 at 10:20 AM ^
Don’t forget the women’s candidates happening at the same time! (This has nothing to do with me having 2 daughters who plays chess). With Tan and Lei running away from the pack, next year’s women championship looks like to be an all Chinese affair again.
Another item of interest is neither the top ranked man nor woman is contending in the championships. Magnus Carlsen has stepped away from the championship after trashing Nepo in 2021, while Hou Yifan has not played in the women’s championship since 2016 (after first winning it as a 16yr old in 2010).
Thanks for mentioning women's, which has been super exciting with some wild swings in evaluation. I just didn't mention it because I thought my post was already kinda long.
April 21st, 2024 at 12:08 PM ^
I can see why some sports have separate men's and women's divisions, but why is it necessary in chess?
April 20th, 2024 at 10:28 AM ^
Thanks OP. A clarification about the time controls. The first one is 40 moves in 2 hours and without a time increment after each move. That's familiar territory for those of us who played in the era of anolog clocks, but not for the younger players. It has added some excitement, especially in the dramatic finish of Firouzja-Gukesh.
After move 40, each player gets an additional 30 minutes to finish the game. But they also get 30 seconds added after every move, so the games can run much longer than 5 hours.
April 20th, 2024 at 11:26 AM ^
yeah, became a big chess fan in recent years.
really enjoy Gotham Chess recaps of these games. Makes them fun and understandable, mostly...
I think Gothams recaps have been great. I love how he covers both the open and women's.
Gukesh won! Fabi won! Huge Sunday, Round14 - both Nakamura and Caruana have a chance to win!
Great day of chess with some tense moments and setting up for an epic final day. Best part is everyone with a chance is paired up and we should see some fireworks.