2024 World Championship (25 November to 13 December)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Uh oh. Mutual blunders from Ding (30...Qf7) and Gukesh (31.Ne4).

7 mins and 12 mins respectively for 9 and 8 moves.

[Nick Ivell]

Q-side pawn majority may win the game, but Black's king is less safe.

[LawrenceCooper]

Ding has made it to move 40 with his clock and position still intact.

[Paul Cooksey]

Fabi got up at 6 am to pour scorn on Gukesh's prep. He said he had considered 7. a3 for rapid games but decided it was not good enough even for rapid. Asked if he believed Ding had really only done three weeks prep, he said he saw no evidence of that much!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Makes you wonder how long Fabi might have reigned as World Champion if things had gone differently against Carlsen (rinse and repeat for Karjakin and Nepo as well).

[LawrenceCooper]

Makes you wonder how long Fabi might have reigned as World Champion if things had gone differently against Carlsen (rinse and repeat for Karjakin and Nepo as well).

Anand may have been champion for longer too.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

If Anand had done more prep? Not sure what the logic is here (or are we talking about different things)?

[LawrenceCooper]

If Anand had done more prep? Not sure what the logic is here (or are we talking about different things)?

If Carlsen hadn't appeared on the scene.

[LawrenceCooper]

Queens and queenside pawns exchanged so Gukesh has rook & 3 against rook & 2 to play on for a little while.

[LawrenceCooper]

Queens and queenside pawns exchanged so Gukesh has rook & 3 against rook & 2 to play on for a little while.

Drawn in 68 moves.

[Joey Stewart]

Makes you wonder how long Fabi might have reigned as World Champion if things had gone differently against Carlsen (rinse and repeat for Karjakin and Nepo as well).

If anything we might still have carlsen as world champion right now if he had been defeated for the title, his goal was always to be the best player in the world and part of the reason he gave for retiring was that he felt like he'd proven that point - losing the title would have likely reinvigorated him into trying even harder to regain it and he'd then want to hold onto it tighter to ensure his reign was not disrupted again.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Makes you wonder how long Fabi might have reigned as World Champion if things had gone differently against Carlsen (rinse and repeat for Karjakin and Nepo as well).

Anand may have been champion for longer too.

Is this the "had it not been for Carlsen conversation" then?

If so, then I think that Anand might well have had longer as champion. Even if he had lost to, say, Kramnik in 2013, he might easily have regained the title the following year, as he showed when he gave Carlsen a much closer match in 2014. This would have been just a little while too early for Fabi and the other challengers. He might have been able to withstand Karjakin too (indeed he beat him in the candidates of 2016).

Karjakin - I think not quite WC status but he was at least as dangerous a challenger as can be.

Fabi has the best claim to have been consistently the strongest player this century not to become WC. He must have been even more appalled by the last WC match! I don't really know why he underperformed in both the 2020/21 and 2022 candidates, but he should have made the play offs at the end of the last candidates and had he been the challenger today, I think he would have won.

Nepo was as strong a player in the candidates as we have seen, but he overperformed in those events. We cannot really say "what if" in his case regarding WC status, because there were so many things in his favour in the last match, probably having more chances than many who do actually become champion, that failing to win it must mean that he was not at the required level.

[Jonathan Rogers]

What was the missed win by Gukesh today then - was it the line where he exchanges rooks on e8, and then plays Ne4-d6, Qd5+ and Re1-Re6? If so, it strikes me that a human would do well to realise in advance that the resulting position is so strong as to be winning, although I could imagine Carlsen finding it, and who knows, perhaps there is the difference between your champion who finishes the job and your challenger who did still play remarkably well to get the position.

[LawrenceCooper]

What was the missed win by Gukesh today then - was it the line where he exchanges rooks on e8, and then plays Ne4-d6, Qd5+ and Re1-Re6? If so, it strikes me that a human would do well to realise in advance that the resulting position is so strong as to be winning, although I could imagine Carlsen finding it, and who knows, perhaps there is the difference between your champion who finishes the job and your challenger who did still play remarkably well to get the position.

Both players had missed that after the immediate Ne4 (without first exchanging rooks on e8) that black can survive starting with Rf8. Had Gukesh seen that black has the Rc7 move (after Ne4 Rf8, Nd6 Rc7 then he may well have checked the intermediate move exchanging on e8.

[Nick Ivell]

I find that the standard of the openings has been quite poor. Interesting thereafter though.