Zurich 2014

[Christopher Kreuzer]

That Carlsen win yesterday was ridiculous, and heartbreaking for Nakamura. I'm annoyed I wasn't around to see it live. Three nice wins today. For the winners, that is! Carlsen 1-0 Caruana; Aronian 1-0 Nakamura; Gelfand 0-1 Anand. Last round tomorrow sees Anand (3) - Carlsen (7), Caruana (3) - Aronian (6) and Nakamura (3) - Gelfand (2) - they are using the 2-1-0 scoring system as the classical score counts double the rapidplay score. Feels like the tournament is ending after it only just got started. Some weekend Swisses have more rounds. Though I suppose you still have the rapidplay after the classical chess.

[Colin S Crouch]

Three decisive games today, with wins by Carlsen, Aronian and Anand. For the main part of the toyurnament, the scores with one round to are:
Carlsen +3
Aronan +2
Nakamura, Caruana, Anand -1
Gelfand -2


Aronian is way ahead of the four players behind them, none of which achieved a plus score. His performance is very close to 3000.
Carlsen was of course extremely luck, but as the old saying goes, “the good player is...”. To avoid losing any games in that tournament, and in particular to win for a “resignable” position, shows great strength of character. And Aronian too did not lose any games.
Looking forward to the world championship match later in the year.

[Steve Rooney]

An interesting twist on the early draw scenario, Zurich is enforcing what it calls a rapid Show Game if the players agree a draw before move 40. It doesn't count towards the points total and, according to the website reports, has only occurred once so far in Aronian-Gelfand. It does at least provide some additional spectator value (although not sure if it broadcast with the live coverage?) even if is is a "pointless" game.

[John McKenna]

An interesting twist on the early draw scenario, Zurich is enforcing what it calls a rapid Show Game if the players agree a draw before move 40. It doesn't count towards the points total and, according to the website reports, has only occurred once so far in Aronian-Gelfand. It does at least provide some additional spectator value (although not sure if it broadcast with the live coverage?) even if is is a "pointless" game.

Sounds like another really excellent idea from Michael Gove - is he throwing his net so wide?

(Sorry, just couldn't resist - I'll get back in the box.)

[Ian Kingston]

An interesting twist on the early draw scenario, Zurich is enforcing what it calls a rapid Show Game if the players agree a draw before move 40. It doesn't count towards the points total and, according to the website reports, has only occurred once so far in Aronian-Gelfand. It does at least provide some additional spectator value (although not sure if it broadcast with the live coverage?) even if is is a "pointless" game.

It can lead to pointless moves though: witness the last-round game between Anand and Carlsen, which reached an utterly drawn opposite-coloured bishops ending at move 31 and was then prolonged by shuffling the bishops around until move 40 in order to avoid playing the rapid game.

[Steve Rooney]

I missed the end of that contest, but saw the comments on twitter by Mark Crowther which question the value of the extra rapid game option as nothing rides on the result.

[Colin S Crouch]

Yes, it's looking like, in effect, the end of the tournament, with another win for Carlson. Mathematically, it is possible that Aronian could catch up with the champion, but it is not going to happen. Caruana is a pawn up, although the position is, it seems, safe enough to hold the balance. I would agree with the general sentiment that the extra rapid-plays seem pointless.

[Colin S Crouch]

I suspect I have misassessed the position. Caruana is making considerable progress.

[Barry Sandercock]

Yes, Caruana looks like winning now.

[Colin S Crouch]

Looking at the game afterwards, it looks like Aronian, when running short of time before the first time control, allowed his pieces to get tangled up. 37...Be6?! blocks the e-files, and so Black can no longer make full use of the rook on that file. Aronian started to lose control, when quite possibly his position was playable, but difficult.
One senses that when comparing Aronian with Carlsen, Aronian is slightly the less confident player in the endgamm e. Carlsen will of course will have taken full notice of this, in a likely World Championship match.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Last rounds don't seem to be Aronian's favourite, really

[Mick Norris]

Last rounds don't seem to be Aronian's favourite, really

Which might be a problem if the Candidates is as close as last time

[Simon Louchart]

Not many players can say they have won against Aronian's Marshall gambit. Congratulations to Caruana !

Which might be a problem if the Candidates is as close as last time

Carlsen actually qualified despite losing the last round. I still remember the tension during these last games, with Kramnik and Carlsen losing both their games. Let's hope for Aronian he will get as lucky as Carlsen did.

[MartinCarpenter]

Well, Aronian wasn't involved at the end partially because he rather seemed to buckle under the pressure a few rounds before then. That isn't that promising as regards his chances this time, but experience can help with such things

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The rapidplay games have finished with a victory for Caruana:

Caruana (+3,=2,-0) - 4/5
Nakamura (+3,=1,-1) - 3.5/5
Aronian (+2,=2,-1) - 3/5
Carlsen (+1,=2,-2) - 2/5
Gelfand (+0,=3,-2) - 1.5/5
Anand (+0,=2,-3) - 1/5

Because the classical points count double, the overall scores (classical plus rapid) are:

Carlsen (8+2) - 10
Aronian (6+3) - 9
Caruana (5+4) - 9
Nakamura (4+3.5) - 7.5
Anand (4+1) - 5
Gelfand (3+1.5) - 4.5