Candidates Tournament 2013

[Geoff Chandler]

Boris was born in Minsk, is that not part of Russia, or it was when Boris was born. (1968)

I stayed on late at work as they were paying double time up till 6.am.
Usually do a 6pm to midnight for 3 nights. I get paid more than I did at the bank
doing 9-5 Mon- Fri so I have a 3 day week and I sleep late till noon just like a real chess player.

Not that tired though. Saw 24...Nf5 in an instant in blitz a few minutes ago at Gameknot.

I'm Black v some lad called montazeri32

[FEN "r4rk1/ppp1n1b1/6pp/7n/3PQ3/2B3P1/PP3P1N/3q1NKR b - - 0 24"] 24... Nf5 25. g4 Nfg3 26. fxg3 Rxf1+ 27. Nxf1 Qxf1+ 28. Kxf1 Nxg3+ 29. Kg2 Nxe4 {.....and I cleaned up in the ending.}

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Boris was born in Minsk, is that not part of Russia, or it was when Boris was born. (1968)

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. I'm not entirely sure of the history of Belarus versus Russia and what the borders of Russia were at various points in its history, but the point about the Candidates Tournament was more that 7 of the 8 players were either from or born in former Soviet countries, so it was effectively Carlsen against the ghost and legacy of Soviet chess if you want to put in those terms (which I'm not sure is entirely accurate, as I'm sure many of the players themselves would object to being lumped together like that, post-Soviet players like Radjabov, and now-Israeli Gelfand probably foremost among them). Also, Svidler is very much an Anglophile, as others have pointed out, though I believe he was talking Russian when he swept past me in a corridor at the IET yesterday.

Does anyone know, out of interest, if all the 8 players speak English and whether English was the lingua franca at the tournament? Were translators part of the entourage? I think Ivanchuk spoke English at one of the press conferences, but I may have misheard that.

Not that tired though. Saw 24...Nf5 in an instant in blitz a few minutes ago at Gameknot.

Maybe too tired to realise you were a rook up?

Speaking of tiredness, someone commented yesterday how shattered Carlsen appeared immediately after the tournament had finished. I remember Kramnik making the comment that at least Carlsen doesn't have the distractions, tribulations (and joys) of family life and fatherhood, unlike Kramnik and Anand. And thinking about stamina required for top level chess over several weeks, you have to keep returning to that first Kasparov-Karpov match. That marathon match (48 games played of a potentially infinite number) took place from September 1984 to February 1985. Karpov was 33 and Kasparov was 21. I don't know how many games they played (one per day) between rest days - does anyone have that information to hand? I wonder how today's grandmasters would have coped with a match like that? The 1985 match was 24 games from 3 September 3 to 9 November 1985, which was two months compared to the 14 games over 18 days of this Candidates Tournament. The other big difference, of course, is that they had adjournments, at least in the 1984 match - when were adjournments abandoned at World Championship level (they still had them in 1990, so presumably 1993 was the first one without adjournments, though having looked I now see adjournments were still in use for 1993 as well)?

Adjournments, incidentally, are mentioned in this Guardian column by Nigel Short a week ago (23 March):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... enaissance

"Under new rules, older contestants are finding it increasingly onerous to survive long games, which now demand a gladiatorial fight to a finish. Before the advent of computers it was still possible to stop play and adjourn the game after five hours play. No longer."

So when were adjournments abolished at this level?

[JustinHorton]

A pedant writes: Anand v Gelfand didn't have a Russian-born player in it either.

Well I really must have been out of it last night to also overlook something I had already pointed out on Twitter.

[Jonathan Bryant]

So when were adjournments abolished at this level?

I'm pretty sure that the last adjournment in a world championship match was the last Kasparov-Karpov encounter in 1990.

Kasparov-Short and (I think) Kasparov-Anand in 1995 allowed for them but there weren't any - perhaps because by that time they would adjourn at move 60 not move 40.

Kasparov - Kramnik 2000 was the first match where the rules did not allow for adjournments. They had a seven hour playing session with a blitz finish instead.

I'm pretty sure this is right but I'm away from home and don't have access to usual sources so I may have to be corrected on detail.

[JustinHorton]

Belarus, when part of the Soviet Union, actually had its own a separate seat in the United Nations. Fans of chess-related clichés will like this section of the relevant Wikipedia entry.

[Graham Borrowdale]

That marathon match (48 games played of a potentially infinite number) took place from September 1984 to February 1985. Karpov was 33 and Kasparov was 21. I don't know how many games they played (one per day) between rest days - does anyone have that information to hand?

If my memory serves me, they played something like 3 games per week, with a number of timeouts allowed for each player. 48 games over 5-6 months works out about 2 per week on average. So, not quite as demanding as current schedules, but no doubt mentally draining.

[JustinHorton]

Chess Today reckons Kramnik missed a draw before the time control. Has anybody seen this claim anywhere else, and if so was Kramnik asked about it at all?

[Ray Sayers]

As far as I know, he was busted after Rc8.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some news reports:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... rld-title/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... chess-mat/
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/04/02/ ... atest-win/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ap ... number-one

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The ceiling had an intriguing display, presumably some engineering diagram/artwork, and gravitas was provided by portraits around the room of eminent engineers.

Returning briefly to this description of the hall in which the chess was held (the Lecture Theatre at the IET London Savoy Place), I found a website describing what the ceiling design was and who the portraits were of:

http://www.theiet.org/resources/library ... yrooms.cfm

"The room retains its original panelling and carved cartouches made of Cuban mahogany, designed by W S Frith. The ceiling was designed in the 1990s by artist Tony Raymond, and is based on an engraving from William Gilbert’s De Magnete, published in 1600. The fibre optic lights show the magnetic declination from 1871 (when the Institution was founded) to 2001, with each light representing a decade."

The portraits depict the following engineers and scientists:

André Marie Ampère
John Hopkinson
Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin
Michael Faraday
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti
Alessandro Volta
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan
Alexander Graham Bell

Two of these (the ones at the front) were covered at the time by the large event posters.

[Mick Norris]

Returning to the chess, it looks like Gelfand had a significant impact

His 2 losses to Carlsen obviously feature heavily in the winner's score

However, if he had beaten Kramnik after the Ne8 blunder in their first game, but then not held the defence fantastically in their second, Kramnik would have had the same number of wins as Carlsen, and then the better tiebreak

Alternatively, if Gelfand had lost his first game to Svidler, as looked likely, then Svidler would have been in a 3 way tie for first and the tie breaks would have fallen differently too (even ignoring the fact that Svidler might not have lost game 1 to Carlsen depressed after failing to beat Gelfand)

I think if the Candidates tournament is to be repeated, which I assume it will (thinking of Karjakin, Caruana, maybe Giri qualifying), then the tiebreak needs looking at - I would favour a playoff, but appreciate that the players might be too tired after 14 rounds

The other point is the qualification - the wildcard has no place, although on rating (pre-event) Radjabov was world number 4 and a worthy contender - I would also limit qualification to the winner of the World Cup, rather than places 2 and 3

Finally, has Svidler played in many top tournaments in the last couple of years (London, Dortmund, Linares, Bilbao, Sofia, Wijk)? Seems the invitations don't go the right players

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Returning to the chess, it looks like Gelfand had a significant impact

I agree. Good analysis.

I think if the Candidates tournament is to be repeated, which I assume it will (thinking of Karjakin, Caruana, maybe Giri qualifying), then the tiebreak needs looking at - I would favour a playoff, but appreciate that the players might be too tired after 14 rounds

The other point is the qualification - the wildcard has no place, although on rating (pre-event) Radjabov was world number 4 and a worthy contender - I would also limit qualification to the winner of the World Cup, rather than places 2 and 3

I agree. Wildcards already have a way into the process, namely via the World Cup. No need to have a wildcard for an event of only eight players. Is eight players the right number, though? Should it be more? Less? Is a knockout tournament better than a round-robin event?

Finally, has Svidler played in many top tournaments in the last couple of years (London, Dortmund, Linares, Bilbao, Sofia, Wijk)? Seems the invitations don't go the right players

Not sure how such invitations are offered or decided. But do remember that some of the top players might have spent a number of years being seconds to other top players, earning their living that way.

What I'm wondering is who people would want to see in the next Candidates tournament? What would be the ideal line-up for some time in 2015? The loser of the Anand-Carlsen match, plus seven others.

I'd hope to see Topalov in there again. I fear Ivanchuk and Gelfand will be too old by then, though to give an idea of their longevity in world chess, they tied for first in the 1990 Interzonal tournament in which Anand came third and Nigel Short came fourth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Ches ... nship_1993

I think it is absolutely incredible that they are still competing at the very top 23 years later.

I do hope Kramnik takes one more tilt at it, as I would love to see him rise to the top again. And I sometimes wonder if Shirov (back in the world top 50) would be able to mount a comeback.

[Roger de Coverly]

No need to have a wildcard for an event of only eight players.

FIDE are notorious for making up rules as they go along. Wasn't this year's wildcard a condition of one the major sponsors? You could imagine a top ten or twenty player, not otherwise qualified being offered a shot by a company based in the same country.

[Mick Norris]

I agree. Wildcards already have a way into the process, namely via the World Cup. No need to have a wildcard for an event of only eight players. Is eight players the right number, though? Should it be more? Less? Is a knockout tournament better than a round-robin event?

I think the financing for a proper series of matches is absent now, and Kazan was too short and unsatisfactory, therefore the all-play-all is here to stay

The players seem agreed beforehand that 8 players was right, I wonder now if they think it is too tiring, and 6 would be better (allowing time for a playoff too)

However, I think it is excellent preparation for a world title match over 14 rounds, which must be very tiring too (and does have a potential playoff)

[Mick Norris]

What I'm wondering is who people would want to see in the next Candidates tournament? What would be the ideal line-up for some time in 2015? The loser of the Anand-Carlsen match, plus seven others.

I'd hope to see Topalov in there again.

No

I fear Ivanchuk and Gelfand will be too old by then

Yes, they have had their chance, possibly Svidler and Grischuk too

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

Yes, I'm biased as he is my favourite player, but I think what he has done over the last 18 months to change his style has been incredible (although he needs to drop the Pirc)