2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

[Matt Mackenzie]

Where was this Trump endorsement by Magnus, I missed it?

[Andrew Bak]

Where was this Trump endorsement by Magnus, I missed it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/com ... _1_ranked/

[Paolo Casaschi]

Where was this Trump endorsement by Magnus, I missed it?

Carlsen's opinion about who'll win the American presidential election looks as interesting to me as Trump's opinion about who'll win the candidates chess tournament.

[Mick Norris]

I didn't realise that Karjakin had never beaten Vishy before yesterday

[MartinCarpenter]

Now that it is interesting - well done him Have to slightly share (iirc) Dubov's comment on the live stream that he found elite GM's going 1 Nf3 d5 2 e3 slightly depressing, but what can they do?

[Roger de Coverly]

Have to slightly share (iirc) Dubov's comment on the live stream that he found elite GM's going 1 Nf3 d5 2 e3 slightly depressing, but what can they do?

The Karjakin game transposed to a line that Smyslov and Larsen (starting 1. b3) had played fifty years ago or more. The other idea might have been to play d4 and attempt to transpose into one of Kramnik's lethal Colle System positions. The line 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 d4 followed by .. f6 is now considered strong for Black, and the e3 move order avoids it.

[MartinCarpenter]

Well, yes actually. Compare the historic standards of leadership in the two countries!

Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Politicians can go down as well as up.

Apologies for drifting this further off topic. That wasn't the point

Look at how 'well' Russia has ended up being run historically and you'll quickly see that its entirely rational for someone in Russia to support Putin.

American politics hasn't been remotely perfect for while now but still..... Anyway Carlsen was clearly being entirely ironic

[Mick Norris]

Starting with 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3!? Karjakin, not a bad theoretician himself, decided to circumvent most of Anand's preparation. As he pointed out himself, Karjakin had done something similar at the previous Candidates' Tournament against Anand, when he played a setup akin to this one but with d2-d4 included.

For what it's worth, with this result Anand is now the #2 Indian player, dropping below Pentala Harikrishna on the live ratings list. A historic development, if this remains the case!

After 13 years since his first game against the Indian legend, Sergey Karjakin finally got rid of what the Germans call Angstgegner. As it turned out, he had never ever managed beat Vishy Anand, whether it was classical, rapid, or blitz.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Today against Caruana Vishy went 5 c3, which later transposed back into his earlier game. Avoding prep, presumably, but since he obviously had something lined up for 5 ... Nd4 why not play it against Caruana?

Well judging from Anand - Nakamura today, the answer to the question "What did Vishy have up his sleeve for 1 e4 e5, 2 Nf3 Nc6, 3 Bb5 Nf6, 4 d3 Bc5, 5 0-0 Nd4 is "bugger all".

Unusual choice from Nak in reply, mind. Perhaps Anand wasn’t ready for ... a6 and ... b5

[LawrenceCooper]

Anand-Nakamura has ended in perpetual check.

[JustinHorton]

The computers don't think Aronian has nearly enough for his pawns against Caruana and I'm not seeing any reason to disagree.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Anand-Nakamura has ended in perpetual check.

Yup. I was wondering why Naka would play ... h6 and then after g5 hxg5, Qxg5 the penny dropped.


Idle ill-informed speculation - Vishy will abandon 4 d3 in the Berlin for the rest of the tournament having got zilch out of the opening with it three times out of three.

[LawrenceCooper]

The computers don't think Aronian has nearly enough for his pawns against Caruana and I'm not seeing any reason to disagree.

Strange game. When he got in the thematic 20 e5 followed by f5 I thought he was doing well but the computers seemed to think it was nothing special and I suspect there was a big miscalculation somewhere as the Ne4/Bc1/d6 sequence seemed to only help black.

[JustinHorton]

Well Caruana was convinced enough, they've agreed a draw.

[JustinHorton]

(Chess24 haven't got it yet, but that's what the Worldchess site says.)