Candidates Tournament in Berlin March 2018

[Roger de Coverly]

What's the minimum rating for the wild card?

There's a wiki site which is kept up to date keeping track of qualifiers, potential qualifiers and those eligible for wild card status.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Che ... nship_2018

2725 is the minimum standard in any one list.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Ding & Aronian join Karjakin in Berlin

2 from Shak, Grischuk, Radjabov & MVL will qualify from the GP (decided in November)

2 from Caruana, So & Kramnik by average rating (decided when we know what the December ratings will be)

1 wildcard

So we should know by the start of December (i.e. when the rating list is published) who has qualified. Presumably official confirmation will be needed from FIDE, as well as confirmation that the players have signed the contracts.

When has the wildcard been announced in the past, was it before the contracts were sorted out?

Of the ten listed above, who would be among the favourites to win on paper/form/experience etc? Which one has the best record against Carlsen?

Personally, I'd love to see an Aronian-Carlsen match, or a Caruana-Carlsen match, and don't want to see a re-match with Karjakin. A So-Carlsen match would also be fascinating.

(I am aware of what has been said in another thread about So, and elsewhere about other players - would like to concentrate on the chess here).

Who might struggle the most in the Candidates, or have a bad tournament?

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Chris,

Aronian was given the wildcard in the 2016 Candidates in November 2015.

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/aronia ... candidates.

[Mick Norris]

Ding & Aronian join Karjakin in Berlin

2 from Shak, Grischuk, Radjabov & MVL will qualify from the GP (decided in November)

2 from Caruana, So & Kramnik by average rating (decided when we know what the December ratings will be)

1 wildcard

So we should know by the start of December (i.e. when the rating list is published) who has qualified. Presumably official confirmation will be needed from FIDE, as well as confirmation that the players have signed the contracts.

When has the wildcard been announced in the past, was it before the contracts were sorted out?

That's a good question, I think yes, it is assumed that players will sign the contracts, as Geoff has indicated happened previously

So, I'd expect an announcement in December?

[Tim Harding]

Who gets to nominate the wildcard?

There is no German player eligible so far as I can see. SO it may be open for a French sponsor to come forward and nominate MVL if he doesn't get in by the FIDE GP.

Also will the presence of Ding Liren in the final GP tournament affect the chances of the potential qualifiers? Not necessarily by beating them but just by taking some of the available GP points? Perhaps he will decide to skip the tournament now.

I note from the wiki page linked above that one tiebreak for the rating qualification is number of games played. So was slightly ahead of Caruana on that but after isle of Man, Fabiano will be ahead.

[NickFaulks]

Perhaps he will decide to skip the tournament now.

Why would he duck an interesting tournament with a first prize of $24,000?

[Mick Norris]

Kramnik needs a rating gain of 8 points at IoM and other events counting for the November rating list to overtake So in the average ratings for the Candidates

[Mick Norris]

Following IoM, Kramnik needs to gain 16 rating points at the Euro Club cup

So not scheduled to play any rated games until December; if he doesn't and Caruana doesn't, that puts Caruana in the Candidates by rating

[Richard Bates]

Following IoM, Kramnik needs to gain 16 rating points at the Euro Club cup

So not scheduled to play any rated games until December; if he doesn't and Caruana doesn't, that puts Caruana in the Candidates by rating

Find a suitable 1200 strength player and play a 20 game match against them

[Chris Rice]

Interview with Karjakin which prods at a few sensitive points such as the New York match with Carlsen, Putin, Ukraine/Crimea, break up of his first marriage but the main thing to take away was that he reckons Aronian is the red hot favourite for the Candidates.

[Roger de Coverly]

Interview with Karjakin

He's a bit disrespectful about the Isle of Man

For instance, Vladimir Kramnik was the world No. 2 chess player but now he is playing in not a very prestigious tournament and has already lost two of three games. In addition, he lost one of them to a little-known 65-year-old chess player.

[Matt Mackenzie]

He really shows his (youthful) age in claiming that GM Tarjan is "little known".

[NickFaulks]

At least he didn't call him a tourist.

[Geoff Chandler]

I still have an old cassette (somewhere) from Tarjan from the 70's called 'Bashing the Benko'.
It was part of the Audio series ran by Mike Basman. I had (probably still have somewhere) quite a few of those.

Tarjan can add Kramnik to his list of scalps, (he himself was a scalp in the 70's/80's...now again in 2017!)
Victories over Nunn, Seirawan, Ljubojevic, Soltis, Browne, Evans, Lombardy...

He had a cast iron draw v Karpov at Skopje 1976 (White to play move 38)

6k1/3R1pp1/p7/8/1P1Q1Pqp/8/5PPK/4r3 w - - 0 38

What must have been in severe time trouble White rejected 38.Rd8+ and played 38.f5 instead.

38.f5 Re4 39.Qd5? Qf4+ 40.Kh3

6k1/3R1pp1/p7/3Q1P2/1P2rq1p/7K/5PP1/8 b - - 0 40

He made time control but Karpov has and played 40...Re3+ 0-1.

He played Timman five times but no wins, 3 losses and 2 draws.
Which is a pity because it has robbed me of a 'him Trajan - me Jan' joke.

I want Tarjan for the wild card.

[Nick Burrows]

I want Tarjan for the wild card.

Haha, only if the candidates is held in Pomona!