Candidates Tournament 2020

[Matt Mackenzie]

I predicted Ding would win today on my twitter.

I really don't like Caruana's chances of qualifying at all. Just don't see it. Ding however, I think has got some momentum now. his game against Giri becomes an important game. A chance for Anish to get back into it or Ding to perhaps being confirmed as the favourite.

A lot of people (like some of the commentators) are saying Caruana is still the favourite, but I don't buy this at all. Besides, I think the general public is suffering enough at the moment, without having to endure Carlsen vs Caruana part II.

Seriously, just about the only thing wrong with that match was the lack of (classical) wins. Though that is a bit "Mrs Lincoln" I know

If only Magnus hadn't bungled that winning advantage in the very first game......

[Daniel Gormally]

i was thinking yesterday how Caruana was unlucky in a way, that it wasn't the situation like it is in other sports, where you get a world championship every year (like in snooker or darts.)

I think in some years he's looked as good or even superior to Carlsen overall. So I think in that scenario he would have won a couple of world titles by now, players like Ding and Aronian would have possibly won one, and Magnus himself would probably be on about 5 or 6. I think he's unlucky as if he doesn't qualify this time around (and I don't think he will) it'll become tougher and tougher as players like Alireza will begin to break through.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Apples and oranges, though, isn't it (chess and snooker, I mean). By my reckoning - and I confess I did look up the list, having lost track about 15 years ago - there have been 21 world snooker champions since the event was playe at the Crucible in 1977, compared with the sixteen generally recognised world chess champions since 1886. Essentially in snooker, they are not wedded to the idea that the winner must be probably or arguably the best player in the world. In chess, I think we are. So when chess tried it the snooker way between 1999-2004, Khalifman and Khazimdzhanov were two of the four winners, that was that.

(There are of course several other important differences between chess and snooker, including the presence of sponsors and TV to pay to see them all having a go each year, not to mention that in seventeen days they can have LONGER than usual matches and finish the whole thing).

[Nick Burrows]

Alright Danny, just for you I will pick Caruana.

[Mick Norris]

In a way it's Grischuk who's impressed me most so far - he doesn't seem to have been in trouble at all.

Maybe not over the board, yes, but he's been in time trouble every game I think, which is why, despite his immense talent, I suspect he's again going to fall short; it looks like Alekseenko shares a time trouble problem, so Nepo looks much the more likely of the Russians, he's certainly likely to win enough games, just a question of how many he loses

[JustinHorton]

Nepo has time management issues of his own of course. (Has anybody ever won the World Championship while having time management issues? I feel sure I've raised this before.)

[Daniel Gormally]

Alright Danny, just for you I will pick Caruana.

He won't win, I'm pretty certain about that, so waste of time in my view.

[JustinHorton]

Our man here gives him 42%

[NickFaulks]

Our man here gives him 42%

I'd be a seller, but I rather think he's not dealing.

[Chris Rice]

Is this behaviour distracting? Guess it depends on whether the opponent finds it so. Pretty sure I would but I think I'd stop short of complaining to the arbiter about it. I reserve my fury for opponents that take their lunch and snacks with them to the board...

[Jacques Parry]

I'm struggling to see anything here that anyone might reasonably object to.

[Matthew Turner]

Haircut?

[JustinHorton]

Your early openings report:

A Grunfeld

A Catalan

A Berlin

Another Grunfeld, Fianchetto Variation.

[JustinHorton]

As far as this one is concerned

A Berlin

my pencil notes in my copy of Lysyj and Ovetchkin inform me that MVL played this line last year against Nakamura in Cote d'Ivoire - and it transpires he also played it against the same opponent in Paris a couple of months later. Both games saw 17 Ne4, whereas today he's selected 17 g4.

[Mick Norris]

And Grischuk has gone for a long think, over half an hour on move 18 so far