English Chess Forum

Had no idea that Radjabov is a lawyer, by the way. Actually I now see that I knew altogether very little about him!

My guess would be breach of contract (implied term that competition in which he was entitled to play and earn momey would be organised competently) - and he only withdrew in response to that breach. So recklessness from FIDE does come into it, yes; and it would really NOT be so strange!

Well, if I must, I would have to guess 64.

I am impressed by the numbers so far, I must say; and to state the obvious, we are all very grateful to Alex for undertaking this extra role of organising the event.

I had some idea that 1...d5, 2...e6 and 3...a6 was named after Janowski. But as for ...Nf6, ...e6...a6, I really don't know, though I think that IM* Andrew Webster occasionally played it in 1990s.

* I don't normally bother giving people's titles but some of you might not remember!

"ultimately withdrawal was his own decision. Nobody else made him do it." Repeating myself here, but while I think that this must be right as far as it means he is now excluded from playing in the current cycle, it really should not mean that he is not entitled to compensation (and I expect he will ...

There was only ever talk of "herd immunity" in the UK. Sweden are persevering with it, and they're The Guardian's favourite country. I stand corrected on THAT then; SWEDEN! But the point remains that a variety of scientific advice was out there, and our government initially went for one of the mino...

David's comment reminds me of one of the funnier Frasier scenes (where Frasier is protesting against an upstairs neighbour draping his American flag over his window, and is accused of being unpatriotic and exhorted to move to Iraq). It is a bit much to imply that the only alternative to the present ...

Mick, would you rather have had Corbyn and his cronies. At least, the current lot have had the good sense to rely on the scientific advice. All scientific advice included testing people as much as possible, I should imagine - NOT followed for a long time And more generally it seems as though they c...

Was 1. e4 d5 already known as the Scandinavian - or just the Centre Counter - when Larsen beat Karpov with it in 1979?

(My 4,000th post! Thanks to those who read them all)

I'm not holding anything against Radjabov, but you can't unplay the games that have already been played. Are you suggesting that all of MVL's games be discounted and Radjabov plays the 7 others before the event is restarted? Danny G's solution is obviously the way to go. I misread you, apologies - ...

Radjabov had his chance and decided not to play, I don't see why he should be given another chance this year. All credit to Grischuk for speaking his mind about the situation, it would have been good to see the other players doing likewise. He had the chance to play an event which was most irrespon...

well, utter shambles it is, and grossly irresponsible of FIDE ... at the same time those of us (including myself) who still took an active interest in the games played under the (well known) conditions are not in a great position to lead the criticism.

Update on the openings and results, after the first half: 14 x 1 e4 games (7 x Ruys, 3 x Petroff , 1 x Italian, 2 x French, 1 x Sicilian) white on plus three. Notably joint leaders Nepo and MVL have each been involved in five of these 1 e4 games: non-1 e4 player and negative surprise so far Ding inv...

Three White wins and a draw in Giri's game. I don't think that Giri's first win in 20 attempts heralds a sudden tsunami of wins and Grischuk is this time the one person with all draws so far.

(I just noticed that Giri's game still has play left in it. Still - who believes in it?)