Candidates Tournament 2013

[Greg Breed]

Actually I'm really enjoying the new Kramnik style. In a sense I almost wish he had won the Candidates as Carlsen still has years ahead of him... but I am also happy that Carlsen - the World #1 - will be the World Champion Challenger.

[Mick Norris]

Actually I'm really enjoying the new Kramnik style. In a sense I almost wish he had won the Candidates as Carlsen still has years ahead of him... but I am also happy that Carlsen - the World #1 - will be the World Champion Challenger.

Agree, i would have preferred Kramnik - Anand the rematch, but Anand - Carlsen gives us all an opportunity to raise the profile of chess, and take advantage of it

Maybe rather than arguing about the minutiae of the membership scheme, we could leave the ECF Board to come up with some positive ideas to do this

[Roger de Coverly]

but I am also happy that Carlsen - the World #1 - will be the World Champion Challenger.

I would presume it will be a much easier match to gather spectator interest and sponsorship. Gelfand as challenger only worked because a former junior chess colleague of Gelfand from the Soviet days had become a successful businessman and was prepared to put up a prize fund.

[Roger de Coverly]

Maybe rather than arguing about the minutiae of the membership scheme, we could leave the ECF Board to come up with some positive ideas to do this

The membership scheme has of itself made it more expensive and possibly difficult to promote events to players totally new to competitive chess, unless you ignore the ECF and run it as ungraded.

[Ian Thompson]

Agree, i would have preferred Kramnik - Anand the rematch, but Anand - Carlsen gives us all an opportunity to raise the profile of chess, and take advantage of it

... we could leave the ECF Board to come up with some positive ideas to do this

Building on the publicity they generated from the Candidates perhaps? I would have hoped so, but there is currently nothing about the Candidates on the ECF website home page, and a search of the ECF website says the most recent entry about the Candidates was posted on 4 February. If there's no publicity for an event taking place in England, what likelihood is there for an event that probably won't take place in England?

[Alex Holowczak]

Agree, i would have preferred Kramnik - Anand the rematch, but Anand - Carlsen gives us all an opportunity to raise the profile of chess, and take advantage of it

... we could leave the ECF Board to come up with some positive ideas to do this

Building on the publicity they generated from the Candidates perhaps? I would have hoped so, but there is currently nothing about the Candidates on the ECF website home page, and a search of the ECF website says the most recent entry about the Candidates was posted on 4 February. If there's no publicity for an event taking place in England, what likelihood is there for an event that probably won't take place in England?

I would see this as the natural responsibility of the Publicity Officer. Unfortunately, no one has volunteered for the role.

[Mick Norris]

I actually think Anand could beat Carlsen. Vishy has been there before and will out-prepare Magnus.

Some articles from the press in India:

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-spo ... 573447.ece
http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/1818356/r ... than-anand

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/carls ... /1096789/0

[Nick Ivell]

'Mozart was a genius. I'm just a guy who can't get a girlfriend.'

Article on Magnus, in today's Sunday Times, which reveals little.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

'Mozart was a genius. I'm just a guy who can't get a girlfriend.'

Article on Magnus, in today's Sunday Times, which reveals little.

Thanks for the pointer to that. Here is a link, behind a paywall:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/new ... 241256.ece

What also might be of interest is Carlsen's comments on his Arctic Securities blog (dated 4th April):

http://www.arcticsec.no/index.php?blog_ ... n_image=35

He says there that "the last three rounds were just painful". He then goes on to thank a lot of people, and confirms the presumed reason for the blog falling silent between Tata Steel and the end of this event: "I decided to not blog during the event to focus fully at the tournament". He ends by saying that in a few days he will be adding more on the tournament and the games.

[Mick Norris]

I do hope Kramnik takes one more tilt at it, as I would love to see him rise to the top again

Good news on that front:

I will try the next cycle, and even if I don’t succeed, maybe I will go for another one. I don’t think you can write me off in terms of chess strength. One can play all sorts of tournaments, but the Candidates is a pinnacle which everyone attends fully motivated and prepared. It’s some kind of an ultimate test of your chess level. Obviously, everyone was using all their novelties and other trumps. I managed to share first, which means that I still have a reserve since I know that I could have done a few things better. I can still improve. It’s ok

http://pogonina.com/index.php?option=co ... ng=english

[Christopher Kreuzer]

http://pogonina.com/index.php?option=co ... ng=english

I just read that interview again on Chessbase - it is an excellent interview:

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211 ... 20413.aspx

Two-part republication of Kavalek's Huffington Post column with analysis of two Candidates Tournament games:

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211 ... 00413.aspx

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211 ... 30413.aspx

Both games are the ones by Ivanchuk. Both Carlsen and Kramnik missed draws. The lines in the Kramnik game (involving a rook sacrifice) are particularly spectacular.

[Angus French]

Justin Horton has written a very good piece on a possible missed opportunity for Kramnik in the last round.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Justin Horton has written a very good piece on a possible missed opportunity for Kramnik in the last round.

Quoting from that blog: "Which came first, Carlsen's blunder, or Kramnik's?"

I was there and watching the Carlsen game but not following the Kramnik game closely enough to be sure. I know both Carlsen and Kramnik were looking at each other's positions at various points earlier in the game, and I know that Carlsen had to stop that and stay at the board in his time trouble, and I have a vague recollection that Kramnik glanced up at the big screen or maybe even got up and walked over to Carlsen's board during those last 15 moves or so for Carlsen, but I can't remember what position Kramnik's game had reached.

I do know that Carlsen ran very low on time and the display on the big screen (not always accurate) showed something like only 10 seconds or so for the last nine moves. I can't recall the exact amount, but it was definitely down to something close to a move a second for the last few moves, not helped by him knocking over pieces for one of those moves. What the exact timing was at Carlsen's move 31, I'm not sure. Surely some of the video footage shows that? What were the timings on the Chess Casting for Ivanchuk and Kramnik when Kramnik made that 35...Rc8 move?

[Jonathan Bryant]

What were the timings on the Chess Casting for Ivanchuk and Kramnik when Kramnik made that 35...Rc8 move?

I don't know about the video but the chess casting times are unreliable. I watched some of the candidates' with Angus F in a coffee shop in streatham. We noticed on one day that his tablet and my laptop showed different clock times for the games.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What were the timings on the Chess Casting for Ivanchuk and Kramnik when Kramnik made that 35...Rc8 move?

I don't know about the video but the chess casting times are unreliable. I watched some of the candidates' with Angus F in a coffee shop in streatham. We noticed on one day that his tablet and my laptop showed different clock times for the games.

Sure, but the video footage is where the answer would be if anywhere.

http://new.livestream.com/WorldChess/Round14

Around about 1hr 36 minutes into part 3 of round 14.

The video embedded on Justin's blog post appears to be part 4 for some reason, which is just after the time control.