Candidates 2014

[Jonathan Bryant]

Is it possible that Anand might qualify as the only guy in the field with a plus score?

[Paolo Casaschi]

Is it possible that Anand might qualify as the only guy in the field with a plus score?

It could be, but with so many players at 50% with one round to go, someone is likely to score a plus result tomorrow.

[Mick Norris]

Big queue on 6.5 and Anand clear on 8 may lead to lots of short draws tomorrow unless the prize money is significant, or there is some advantage in finishing second (e.g. becoming reserve for the WC match)

[Mick Norris]

well done Vishy

[Michael Jones]

Somewhat hypothetical, since there's every chance of at least one win tomorrow, but I've been trying to work out what the final standings would be if there remain five players on an even score.

First TB, as far as I can make out from the tournament site, is head to head score (or in this case, head to head to head to head to head). Of the five players in question, Kramnik would have 4.5/8 against the other four; Aronian, Andreikin and Mamedyarov all 4; Karjakin 3.5, which deals with second and sixth places. Second TB is number of wins, of which Aronian and Mamedyarov would have 3, Andreikin 2. Third is SB; Aronian and Mamedyarov would both have 0.5 against Anand, 4 against the rest of the pack with even scores, 1.5 against Svidler and 1 against Topalov, so their SBs would be equal. What's the next TB after that?

[Stewart Reuben]

It would probably be best to use a random number generator. Tossing a coin for 5 players wouldn't work at all well.

In Britain everybody would share the money and there would be a tiebreak to decide the person who came second.

These tiebreaks are nonsense. The event is to decide the challenger for the World Championship. The best is likely to be the person who loses fewest games. Yet they reward the person who loses most.

[Mick Norris]

Standings
Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts Res. vict SB
1 6 GM Anand Viswanathan 2770 IND 8 0 3 50,25
2 4 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2787 RUS 6½ 4 3 42,50
3 1 GM Andreikin Dmitry 2709 RUS 6½ 4 2 42,50
4 5 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2757 AZE 6½ 3½ 3 41,25
7 GM Aronian Levon 2830 ARM 6½ 3½ 3 41,25
6 2 GM Karjakin Sergey 2766 RUS 6½ 3 2 42,00
7 3 GM Svidler Peter 2758 RUS 6 0 3 38,75
8 8 GM Topalov Veselin 2785 BUL 5½ 0 2 36,00

[Mick Norris]

http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2014/3 ... ament.html

from which

Second, it was a nice surprise to hear (again at today's presser) that when he was unsure about playing in this tournament it was Kramnik whose strong encouragement when most of the way towards getting him to participate. In fact it was a feel-good story all the way around: it was at last year's London tournament that it happened. Kramnik had eliminated Anand, but was then eliminated in the next round by Hikaru Nakamura in a "ridiculous" ending (Anand's word). So even though Kramnik had eliminated him, he felt bad for Kramnik and wanted to encourage him, so he invited him for dinner the next day. As it turned out, it was Kramnik who encouraged him - and now it's time for a world championship rematch.

[Stewart Reuben]

So 6 of the 8 players could come second equal.
Both Kramnik and Anand have very high ratings for level-headedness.

[Nigel White]

I'd think it notably surprising if he did really. He surely wouldn't want to play another match vs Carlsen with the extra time that'll have passed in the mean time so what would be the point?

[Roger de Coverly]

Big queue on 6.5 and Anand clear on 8 may lead to lots of short draws tomorrow unless the prize money is significant, or there is some advantage in finishing second (e.g. becoming reserve for the WC match)

I thought they shared the money, but you need an order to determine the reserves for the WC match.

final round pairings
Round 14:
GM Aronian Levon ARM – GM Karjakin Sergey RUS
GM Anand Viswanathan IND – GM Svidler Peter RUS
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE – GM Kramnik Vladimir RUS
GM Topalov Veselin BUL – GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS

[Colin S Crouch]

A fantastic result by Anand. He had some enormous fortune early on in the tournament, but the main point is that he took full advantage of this. To try to beat Carlsen however, he needs to play up to Carlsen's level, and slightly beyond. Anand's tournament performance was (after round 13) 2866. Carlsen's average FIDE rating is 2882, just a little notch higher. Don't ever believe that Anand can be favourite against Carlsen - unless he can squeeze a win against him!

Inevitably there will be some anxious or aggrieved players who could legitimately have felt that had they taken all their options, they could have kept up with Anand, and even overtaken him. The point is though that they didn't.

After round 13, there were five players who each finished a point and a half behind Anand, and three of these had three losses. If each of these players had somehow, with great solidity, hsd turned each of these dtaws into losses, they would have at least equalled Anand's performance. There must be a lesson here, for any player entering the candidates' test, for this year and for last year. Don't squeeze too hard for wins, just wait for the occasional big mistake by the opponent, and concentrate on losing games.

Here the question is perhaps not so much on Aronian's high profile losses, but rather on why two exceptionally strong grandmasters collapsed againt Anand in the first three rounds. Mamedjarov had an exceptionally poor start to the tournament, sub-2200 chess ((or sub-200 in ECF gradings). He managed to gat his queen trapped in the opening against Aronian in round 2, and then, clearly disorienated in round 3, he played insipid opening moves, and quite simply got smashed. I noted at the time that I was worried that Mamedjarov's play could quite simply collapse, Fortunately his play recovered, but he had lost two half points against Aronian and Anand, and gifted another half-points against Anand. Had he started off well, this would have been an entirely different, and unpredictable, tournament. As it is, with a round to go, he came equal second.

And Kramnik got spooked by playing against Topalov, an old grudge match, and the lost two further games. He still came equal second. Had he played with the threatening solidity of last year, then no doubt he would have been in with a chance.

Plenty more to discuss, no doubt for each and every player. Anand did supurbly, no doubt, but it would be a mitake to suggest that none of the other players were intrinsicaly worse than Anand on this top form. Players are of course allowed to develop their ideas, and to improve, but it is too late to make that improvement in March 2014.

[Stewart Reuben]

I looked up the regulations if either Carlsen or Anand doesn't play.
3.6.2 If a player refuses to participate in the World Championship Match, he will be replaced
as follows: The runner up finalist of FWCM 2013, GM Viswanathan Anand, replaces the
World champion Magnus Carlsen and the runner up of the Candidates Tournament 2014
replaces the challenger. In case any or both players refuse to participate when invited, or for
any further replacements needed, the FIDE rating list of January 2014 will be used to
determine their replacements.
Thus the results in the Challengers matters only as far as the runner-up to Anand. Prize money is shared between players on the same score (hurrah for commonsense). Thus once the runner-up is determined, there are no tiebreaks.
But they have failed on commonsense by using only the January 2014 Rating List.

Spassky seemed to lose some interest when he won the World Championship. I thought the same was true of Anand. But this result suggests otherwise.

[Mick Norris]

Round 14 underway just now

[Jonathan Bryant]

Round 14 underway just now

Indeed. Topalov’s 9 Na3 is an unusual move.

Svidler playing the Marshall - reminiscent of Leko doing the same of the last round of Mexico City 2007. Pretty much a draw offer methinks - and an efficient way to get passed move 30 without effort too.

At times like this I miss Karpov’s Zaitsev draw.