2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

[Jonathan Rogers]

Is there anyone competent, and sufficiently mischievous, to capture the Chessbase headline before it is hurriedly removed? It currently says

3/28/2016 – Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana go into the final round of the Candidates tied for first, with Caruana needing to win with black to qualify. That was not to be – Sergey played a cast-iron draw against his opponent's Rauser. Fabiano's final hope was Anand beating Svidler, which would have made the American the tiebreak winner. But that too was not to be. So all games were drawn and Sergey Karjakin is the Challenger for the World Championship in November.

[MartinCarpenter]

Looks like you did a good job It did take some really impressive mental strength from Karjakin to win it like that of course. Could well be no fun at all for Carlsen to play.

Nepo/Karjakin were both clearly fairly unhappy about the tie break system in that final press conference. Karjakin has apparently always said it should be games vs each other then an actual tie break.

[LawrenceCooper]

Karjakin has apparently always said it should be games vs each other then an actual tie break.

Isn't that what they had?

[David Shepherd]

Nepo/Karjakin were both clearly fairly unhappy about the tie break system in that final press conference. Karjakin has apparently always said it should be games vs each other then an actual tie break.

I think there should be the word game at the end .

[MartinCarpenter]

Yes, there should! Sorry. Games even you'd presume Seems very fair to me too, but it would be extra stuff to organise of course.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Has he threatened anybody with jail yet?

Do be fair. It wasn’t Dylan who threatened anybody with jail. He merely threatened members of this board with complete financial destitution should the games be discussed live here. You know, like we have been doing for 60+ pages or so.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Who on earth is this hateful twerp running the press conferences and co-commenting with Ian?

FM Dylan McClain from USA.

Dylan McLain seems pleasant enough ...

Not something you always hear

Told you so.



All in all <edit for clarity>on the official site</edit> the presentation of the games and all the issues around it, have been an extreme embarrassment. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody from World Chess or Agon was actually embarrassed.

[Carl Hibbard]

The presentation pairing on Chess24 rivalled even Svidler over the last few days.

[Mick Norris]

Has anybody worked out a table for a 7-player APA imagining that Toppy didn’t turn up. Literally didn’t turn up in a hypothetical world, I mean, as opposed to metaphorically as in the real one.

Karjakin - 7
Caruana - 6.5
Anand - 6
Svidler - 6
Giri - 6
Aronian - 5.5
J'adoubeamura - 5

Of course, Caruana would have been leading before the last round, and able to play for a draw

[Mick Norris]

Karjakin says he was helped by Potkin, Motylev, Dokhoian "and secret coach Shakhriyar Mamedyarov"

Interesting, wonder if that will be his line up v Magnus? There may be others who would help, possibly even Svidler

[MJMcCready]

They will be up against it whoever it is. I'm not sure if we are in for an exciting match as they are rather similar to one another.

[Mick Norris]

They will be up against it whoever it is. I'm not sure if we are in for an exciting match as they are rather similar to one another.

Depends what you mean by exciting, it will, as always, be interesting to see what openings they go for

Hopefully we will see a few Berlin endgames before Jonathan gets withdrawal symptoms

[Martin Benjamin]

Who on earth is this hateful twerp running the press conferences and co-commenting with Ian?

FM Dylan McClain from USA.

Dylan McLain seems pleasant enough ...

Not something you always hear

Told you so.



All in all <edit for clarity>on the official site</edit> the presentation of the games and all the issues around it, have been an extreme embarrassment. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody from World Chess or Agon was actually embarrassed.

Jonathan B - I am clearly unaware of something going on, as I have not had time to follow closely the business of limiting the transmission
of live moves and comments, so I don't know who has written what about whom. I am going only on the basis of his commentary, in which it seemed to me that Dylan McCain was pleasant enough (in the sense of not being too full of himself, not attempting gauche humour etc.), but without adding insight to what was going on in the games, beyond what I could see quickly for myself, whereas strong GMs can spot things quickly which would take me a long time to see or which I would not see at all.

[Martin Benjamin]

They will be up against it whoever it is. I'm not sure if we are in for an exciting match as they are rather similar to one another.

Depends what you mean by exciting, it will, as always, be interesting to see what openings they go for

Hopefully we will see a few Berlin endgames before Jonathan gets withdrawal symptoms

Perhaps to be accompanied by a chorus of .....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNrt7_DbLG0

[MJMcCready]

Here's an alternative chorus singing about the Berlin Wall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ah1JM9mf60