Predict the World Cup results and become famous ...

[Jonathan Rogers]

Quite a few of us then (though not I) correctly called Andreikin v Kramnik. Well done!

[Mick Norris]

Here are my guesses from Round 4 from which you may infer play-off winners:

Topalov beats Svidler

Wei Yi beats Ding Liren [see current New In Chess cover]

Giri beats Wojtaszek

So beats Tomashevsky

Nakamura beats Adams [can't see Mickey losing tomorrow; he's been conserving energy for this]

Eljanov beats Jakovenko [have to go with the guy on a streak]

Caruana beats Mamedyarov [pressure of home expectation has to tell some time]

Karjakin beats Kramnik

Continuing in this daring vein, round five:
Wei Yi beats Topalov
Giri beats So
Nakamura beats Eljanov [just think Naka can survive the regular games, after which he is sure to win]
Karjakin beats Caruana

What do I win if I'm right?

Round 4
Tomashevsky lost to MVL - I agree with your first 3 choices, but reckon MVL will beat So
Kramnik lost to Andreikin, who I reckon will beat Karjakin, agree otherwise

Round 5
Topalov to beat Wei Yi
MVL to beat Giri
Nakamura to beat Eljanov
Andreikin to beat Caruana

MVL - Andreikin final which Andreikin will win (chances of all this being correct, nil )

[Matthew Turner]

Topalov, ding Liren, Giri, MVL, nakamura, Eljanov, caruana, andreikin

[JustinHorton]

SVI
DIN
WSO
GIR
CAR
AND
ELJ
NAK

[John McKenna]

LU Shanglei to defeat Topalov and LE Quang Liem to see off Wesley So.

I see I got those results wrong.
LE Quang Liem of Vietnam and LU Shang Lei of China are both out.

In China and neighbouring countries that it has influenced - like Vietnam, Japan, etc. - personal names are always spoken and written with the FAMILY name first.

LE (pronounced "lay") is a family name and Quang Liem given names.
LU ("loo") is a family name and Shang Lei (concatenated to Shanglei) given names.

(In Japan it's NAKAMURA Hikaru, but it's Hikaru NAKAMURA in the US.)

The FIDE World Cup pairings are also shown as family name, then given name(s)
For example, SVIDLER, Peter 2727 v. TOPALOV, Veselin 2816

The remaining two Chinese players are paired together in the next round, i.e. -
DING, Liren 2782 v. WEI, Yi 2734

The winners of the two matches above will play each other in the quarter-finals.

More dingdong battles yet to come!

[benedgell]

Topalov, Ding, Vachier- Lagrave, Giri, Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Jakovenko, Adams.

[LawrenceCooper]

Anyone who knows me knows how bad I am at predictions so here goes:

Topalov v Shanghei Liu

Svidler v Radjabov

Wesley So v Le Quang Liem

Tomashevsky v Vachier-Lagrave

Nakamura v Nepomniachtchi

Adams v Dominguez Perez

Kramnik v Andreikin

Winners in bold, I also think Chelsea will beat Arsenal today but hope I'm wrong with that too

Svidler Peter (RUS) vs Topalov Veselin (BUL) [*]
Nakamura Hikaru (USA) vs Adams Michael (ENG) [*]
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (AZE) vs Caruana Fabiano (USA) [*]
Giri Anish (NED) vs Wojtaszek Radoslaw (POL) [*]
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime (FRA) vs So Wesley (USA) [*][/b]
Andreikin Dmitry (RUS) vs Karjakin Sergey (RUS) [*][/b]
Jakovenko Dmitry (RUS) vs Eljanov Pavel (UKR) [*][/b]
Ding Liren (CHN) vs Wei Yi (CHN) [*]

[Christopher Kreuzer]

My predictions (winners in bold):

Peter Svidler (RUS) vs Veselin Topalov (BUL)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) vs Michael Adams (ENG)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) vs Fabiano Caruana (USA)
Anish Giri (NED) vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) vs Wesley So (USA)
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS) vs Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) vs Eljanov Pavel (UKR)
Ding Liren (CHN) vs Wei Yi (CHN)

The USA could have more players in the quarter-finals than Russia and China combined.

Still an outside chance that there will be eight different countries in the quarter-finals.

[Jonathan Rogers]

winners in bold:

Peter Svidler (RUS) vs Veselin Topalov (BUL)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) vs Michael Adams (ENG)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) vs Fabiano Caruana (USA)
Anish Giri (NED) vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) vs Wesley So (USA)
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS) vs Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) vs Eljanov Pavel (UKR)
Ding Liren (CHN) vs Wei Yi (CHN)

Not many surprises, though the Chinese pairing is intriguing. Quite a lot of history in the top quarter. Did we all remember that Adams beat Naka, possibly at this exact stage, in Triploi 2004, his last successful KO event? I'd like to argue that this is of great signifiance and could herald a surprise this time around, but ... that may be a bit much. 2004 was actually the first time I ever heard of Naka.

[John McKenna]

Before reading the Chessbase article (link below) I came up with the following 6 -

Svidler, Ding, Wojtaszek, MVL, Jackovenko, Caruana

(Couldn't decide between Nakamura/Adams and Karjakin/Andreikin.)

Chessbase predictions here -

http://en.chessbase.com/post/eight-batt ... redictions

They are - Topalov, Wei, Giri, So, Nakamura, Eljanov, Memedyarov, Karjakin

The six I originally picked were the opposite to Chessbase.

Therefore I've decided to go for Adams & Andreikin to complete my predictions.

Can anyone do better than Chessbase? (They got 11/16 last time.)

[Jonathan Rogers]

...

Svidler Peter (RUS) vs Topalov Veselin (BUL) [*]
Nakamura Hikaru (USA) vs Adams Michael (ENG) [*]
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (AZE) vs Caruana Fabiano (USA) [*]
Giri Anish (NED) vs Wojtaszek Radoslaw (POL) [*]
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime (FRA) vs So Wesley (USA) [*][/b]
Andreikin Dmitry (RUS) vs Karjakin Sergey (RUS) [*][/b]
Jakovenko Dmitry (RUS) vs Eljanov Pavel (UKR) [*][/b]
Ding Liren (CHN) vs Wei Yi (CHN) [*]

Now, that is all very impressive (so far)!

[LawrenceCooper]

...

Svidler Peter (RUS) vs Topalov Veselin (BUL) [*]
Nakamura Hikaru (USA) vs Adams Michael (ENG) [*]
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (AZE) vs Caruana Fabiano (USA) [*]
Giri Anish (NED) vs Wojtaszek Radoslaw (POL) [*]
Vachier-Lagrave Maxime (FRA) vs So Wesley (USA) [*][/b]
Andreikin Dmitry (RUS) vs Karjakin Sergey (RUS) [*][/b]
Jakovenko Dmitry (RUS) vs Eljanov Pavel (UKR) [*][/b]
Ding Liren (CHN) vs Wei Yi (CHN) [*]

Now, that is all very impressive (so far)!

Ironically, after the opening 10 moves of Mamedyarov-Caruana I was wishing I'd gone for Caruana

[Tim Harding]

My guesses from last Friday haven't been too prophetic.
Here are my new guesses for tomorrow's play-offs and Round 5:

Svidler will lose to whichever Chinese opponent he gets, probably as I predicted earlier, it will be Wei, Yi

[Ding, Liren suspects his young rival will surpass him and this seemed to affect his play.]

Giri beats Wojtaszek (my original prediction) but now he'll have to meet MVL. Expect a Dutch win there too.


Nakamura beat Adams as I predicted, and though Eljanov hasn't won yet I expect him to be the next victim. The longer he survives in the tournament, the more likely it is that Nakamura will win. So far neither has lost a classical game (six wins for Eljanov, four for Nakamura) but that could change on Wednesday. I think that in the whole of 2015 Nakamura has only lost three classical games (two of them in Saint Louis).

[Jakovenko still plays the Candidates if Nakamura makes the final, remember. But his other banker got beaten today.]

I was wrong about Mamedyarov [home expectation has made him stronger] but can he beat Karjakin or Andreikin?
Andreikin's rapid/blitz record makes him tomorrow's favourite, but I think Karjakin would be the more likely to beat Mamedyarov in the classical games, so it's very hard to call this one.

Let's go with the more creative player, Mamedyarov?

[John McKenna]

Me 2 (Svidler & MVL) Chessbase 2 (Nakamura & So) with four about to be decided.

[John McKenna]

Chessbase 4, me nil after today's debacle in which all my picks played like me - patzers.

That means they defeat me 6-2 overall for the round.

I'll stick with Svidler and MVL to progess to the semis and the Peter to win the final.