3rd Grand Prix Series KO 4 - 18 Nov 2019, Hamburg

[Keith Arkell]

What a ghastly building!

[Paul Cooksey]

Difficult to predict all the possibilities, but looks like the winner of the MVL-Grischuk semi will get one of the candidates slots, with the loser, Shak and Nepo the contenders for the other one in the last leg in Jerusalem

[Tim Harding]

Drama in the Dubov-Duda playoff right now. Dubov won the first game with Black and looked like coasting to a draw in a rook ending after Duda missed a chance at move 44.
But now they are very short of time anything may happen. Dubov went wrong at move 68 and it seems he will lose and bring on blitz.

CORRECTION: Not blitz yet but two games at 10+10

[Tim Harding]

First 10/10 game drawn after 16 moves in an unclear position. Dubov was White and maybe wanted more recovery time.

[Tim Harding]

After the Polish GM wins the second 10/10 game it will be Duda v Grischuk tomorrow.

[Mick Norris]

Rest day tomorrow

[JustinHorton]

A draw today, though Duda came under a lot of pressure from early on, despite having the White pieces, which surprised me.

[LawrenceCooper]

Duda wins game 3 with white.

[JustinHorton]

Was anybody else watching on Chessbomb and found that towards the end, the moves and the board position didn't match?

[LawrenceCooper]

Grischuk wins game 4 to level at 2-2.

[JustinHorton]

And game five, which Duda played extraordinarily badly.

[LawrenceCooper]

Grischuk comfortably gets the draw required in game six to win the match and the tournament.

[Mick Norris]

That puts Grischuk up to 20 points

There are scenarios where that's not enough to finish in the top 2 but not many

[JustinHorton]

Martin Bennedik

[Mick Norris]

Yes, also explained in Pete Doggers' report

The worst-case scenario for Grischuk—and the only scenario in which he would not qualify for the Candidates'—would be that either Mamedyarov or Nepomniachtchi beats MVL in the Jerusalem final after MVL has won his first three matches without a tiebreak and Mamedyarov or Nepomniachtchi win sufficient matches without a tiebreak to reach 20 Grand Prix points.

In that case, both finalists would overtake the current leader: MVL by getting eight points, and either Mamedyarov or Nepomniachtchi by equaling or surpassing Grischuk's 20 points; and in case of equaling 20, winning on the first tiebreak—having two GP victories—compared to Grischuk's one.

It is theoretically possible for Grischuk to qualify for the Candidates' before any matches in Jerusalem have been played. That happens if his three rivals—MVL, Mamedyarov and Nepomniachtchi—are all in the same half of the bracket because in that case it's impossible for two players to eclipse Grischuk.

On current ratings, MVL & Shak will be on opposite halves of the draw (I think there's only the Bundesliga next weekend that can affect the ratings)