2024 FIDE Candidates Toronto April 3-23

[Graham Borrowdale]

end of the Caruana - Nepo game

That footage is really raw - Nepo says he is really sorry, Caruana says “my fault”, both class acts.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks for the links to that footage. Where is the best place to see footage of the entire game (or indeed any of the games)? Are they freely available? Want to try and see the body language/time trouble at the critical moments.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

end of the Caruana - Nepo game

That footage is really raw - Nepo says he is really sorry, Caruana says “my fault”, both class acts.

Raw doesn't even begin to cover the emotion on display there!

Hopefully they will both move on from that and come back again stronger for the experience.

Any thoughts on venue and sponsorship for the match? India? China? A neutral country?

[Mick Norris]

I expect India will be interested in holding the match, maybe it will be shared with China

[Nick Burrows]

Thanks for the links to that footage. Where is the best place to see footage of the entire game (or indeed any of the games)? Are they freely available? Want to try and see the body language/time trouble at the critical moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCE-Ar9 ... el=chess24

or the raw footage with no commentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i00jNn2 ... =FIDEchess

[Paul Habershon]

Dommaraju. Who? Even if half your chess club members could name Gukesh as winner of the Candidates Tournament, I bet fewer than half could give his other name. I am never certain of the order of Indian and Chinese names or even if any could be called a surname. I suppose we always say Vishy Anand as though Anand is a surname, but does Ding Liren have a surname? He seems to be known more as Ding than Liren (pronounced Leezen incidentally). What do Gukesh's friends and contemporaries call him? Dommo? Domma? Dommy?

[Nick Burrows]

What do Vukesh's friends and contemporaries call him? Dommo? Domma? Dommy?

Giri calls him Guky

[Nick Burrows]

I cannot have much sympathy for Nakamura (should have been more adventurous in final round)

I think this is harsh. play 1.e4 and face a Berlin, so 1.d4 (which Caruana also chose, and Giri said it's accepted that this is what you try in a must win) then a QGA. Is there even an adventurous way to play against it?

[Paul Cooksey]

Dommaraju. Who? Even if half your chess club members could name Gukesh as winner of the Candidates Tournament, I bet fewer than half could give his other name. I am never certain of the order of Indian and Chinese names or even if any could be called a surname. I suppose we always say Vishy Anand as though Anand is a surname, but does Ding Liren have a surname? He seems to be known more as Ding than Liren (pronounced Leezen incidentally). What do Gukesh's friends and contemporaries call him? Dommo? Domma? Dommy?

In this Telugu name, the person is referred to by his given name, Gukesh, and not by his surname, Dommaraju.

I think you can call him Gukesh, or Mr Gukesh if you are being formal, or Gukesh D if it is not clear which Gukesh you mean. But I don't think you'd call him Mr Dommaraju.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I cannot have much sympathy for Nakamura (should have been more adventurous in final round)

I think this is harsh. play 1.e4 and face a Berlin, so 1.d4 (which Caruana also chose, and Giri said it's accepted that this is what you try in a must win) then a QGA. Is there even an adventurous way to play against it?

Yes there certainly are ways to, but none of them are risk free (certainly at this level)

[LawrenceCooper]

I cannot have much sympathy for Nakamura (should have been more adventurous in final round)

I think this is harsh. play 1.e4 and face a Berlin, so 1.d4 (which Caruana also chose, and Giri said it's accepted that this is what you try in a must win) then a QGA. Is there even an adventurous way to play against it?

Yes there certainly are ways to, but none of them are risk free (certainly at this level)

I wouldn't call accepting an IQP as white as being unadventurous, it was more that Gukesh played the middle game better than Hikaru and got a better position. From that point, I'm not sure what white could do other than focus on holding the draw.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looking at the crosstable, I did notice that the top four finishers drew all their 12 games played against each other except one. The single exception was the game where Nakamura beat Caruana (I forget which colour). Is that normal for this sort of event, or does it highlight even more how important it was for those fighting to win the tournament to score (or not lose!) against the other four (Pragg, Vidit, Firouzja and Abasov)?

[Mick Norris]

It's the weakness of the format, with a player out of form at the bottom maybe deciding the winner

Gukesh beat Abasov twice

In 2020/21, Nepo beat Wang Hao twice

In 2018 Caruana beat Aronian twice

Candidates matches, which I don't think will return, avoid this, but you are likely to get into a playoff with those at some point; there's no perfect system

[Nick Burrows]

Perhaps though the qualifying routes could be tightened ie just 1 spot from the Grand Swiss. Both Wang Hao and Abasov came via that route.

Replace that spot with the winner of a double round robin played between the highest rated 8 juniors in the world. A) this would be an awesome tournament B) the winner definitely would not finish bottom in the real candidates.

1 Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2765 2004
2 Praggnanandhaa R 2747 2005
3 Gukesh D 2743 2006
4 Keymer, Vincent 2726 2004
5 Nihal Sarin 2698 2004
6 Sindarov, Javokhir 2684 2005
7 Sadhwani, Raunak 2654 2005
8 Bjerre, Jonas Buhl 2646 2004

The current top 8

[IM Jack Rudd]

Abasov didn't come via the Grand Swiss, he came via the World Cup.