Candidates Tournament 2020

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JustinHorton
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:58 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:41 pm
Dvorkovic defends FIDE's position against some pretty blunt questioning from Danny Rensch.
Funny that Danny Rensch should be interesred in blunt questioning, he's not so keen to face any questioning himself.
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NickFaulks
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Mar 27, 2020 7:52 am

JustinHorton wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:58 am
Funny that Danny Rensch should be interesred in blunt questioning, he's not so keen to face any questioning himself.
Yes, I thought that too, and that was without your own experience even coming to mind.
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Paul Cooksey
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:00 am

I understand Justin being unhappy, given chess.com's poor handling of his account. But I though Rensch did a reasonable job as interviewer.

Of course, not what we are used to seeing from a political interviewer. I was a bit frustrated Dvorkovich not challenged on the "it was a difficult decision, given what we knew at that time" position that he, Sutovsky and FIDE in general seem to be taking. At the time the event started the NBA and Premier League were already suspended. The situation was already a serious, global one, on the front pages of the newspapers.

Definitely not a surprise that the event was unable to complete. FIDE even set up regulations on how to handle calling the event off. I understand giving the sponsor their money back is a thing that you might not be able to recover from. But seems the only factor that led to this big, failed gamble.

NickFaulks
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:43 am

Paul Cooksey wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:00 am
Definitely not a surprise that the event was unable to complete.
I can honestly say that I was surprised by the speed with which nations retreated behind their own borders, given that the virus is equally prevalent on both sides of them. Perhaps I assumed that, as something of a nationalist myself, if I didn't see the point then the supposed globalists certainly wouldn't.
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Chris Rice
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Chris Rice » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:48 am

Image

David Howell "On a lighter note, the previous FIDE administration had a decisive advantage over the current one in the light of the Russian government's decree grounding all international flights that stopped the FIDE Candidates: easy access to an alien spaceship."
Last edited by Chris Rice on Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Paul Cooksey
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:51 am

social distancing probably less of a priority if you have been tested twice a day for the last week.

I take Nick's point that predicting exactly what would happen is rarely possible,But given literally everyone of note except FIDE seem to have made a different decision, the argument they assessed the risk correctly already weak, even if we ignore the fact it turned out to be wrong.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:59 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:43 am
Paul Cooksey wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:00 am
Definitely not a surprise that the event was unable to complete.
I can honestly say that I was surprised by the speed with which nations retreated behind their own borders
I don't think it's necessarily anything to do with nationalism, though for sure that will come. Right now it's just about trying to cut down on people moving around: if I can't go from my house to the next street, let alone the next village, without a good reason, it's no particular surprise that I couldn't go across the border either.
"Do you play chess?"
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Paul Cooksey
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:37 am

And again, labouring the point, when the tournament started some countries had already closed borders.

I'd accept an argument a lot has changed between say, Dec 2019 and now. But I think the position FIDE could not have foreseen this in mid-March is at best disingenuous.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Mar 27, 2020 1:39 pm

Given that the event had started, if it had to be interrupted, then the halfway stage seems sensible. It was then quite convenient that the scheduled closure of Russian airports should be on the date specified.

Andy Howie
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Andy Howie » Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:31 pm

Alistair Campbell wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:11 pm
I hope Alex and Andy can get home safely. (And everyone else, obvs)
Alex was remote so didn't have to travel. I got a flight to Paris from Moscow last night and a flight to Heathrow this morning, currently on the West Coast line heading home. From what I have been able to see, only Nejbosa could not get home as Serbia had closed its borders. He is waiting (in Moscow I believe) for a Humanitarian flight home

NickFaulks
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:54 pm

Andy Howie wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:31 pm
Alistair Campbell wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:11 pm
I hope Alex and Andy can get home safely. (And everyone else, obvs)
Alex was remote so didn't have to travel. I got a flight to Paris from Moscow last night and a flight to Heathrow this morning, currently on the West Coast line heading home. From what I have been able to see, only Nejbosa could not get home as Serbia had closed its borders. He is waiting (in Moscow I believe) for a Humanitarian flight home
Good news, Andy. Once you get home, stay there!

You must feel a bit like Frodo Baggins.
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Michael Farthing
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Michael Farthing » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:46 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:54 pm
Andy Howie wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 6:31 pm
Alistair Campbell wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:11 pm
I hope Alex and Andy can get home safely. (And everyone else, obvs)
Alex was remote so didn't have to travel. I got a flight to Paris from Moscow last night and a flight to Heathrow this morning, currently on the West Coast line heading home. From what I have been able to see, only Nejbosa could not get home as Serbia had closed its borders. He is waiting (in Moscow I believe) for a Humanitarian flight home
Good news, Andy. Once you get home, stay there!

You must feel a bit like Frodo Baggins.
Sadly, Frodo, once home, was so psychologically and physically wounded that he could not settle there - let's not wish that on Andy.

Chris Rice
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Chris Rice » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:13 pm

The Azerbaijan National Team have written an open letter regarding Radjabov.

Here's an extract from the letter;

"As it is known, the Candidates tournament got started but did not reach the end. FIDE had to stop it because of the growing pandemic in the world. It was the only event on such a high level held in the world during the pandemic, despite the ban issued by the Russian government and the Russian ministry of sport, as of March 16, 2020, which demanded full cancellation of any international competitions with participation of foreign athletes in the territory of the Russian Federation.

We consider that, by starting the tournament and stopping it, FIDE violated the principles of the standard selection procedure in sports, because the tournament was split into parts separated by an indefinite period of time while FIDE was dismissive of concerns about the health of the players. Therefore, it should be held responsible for its inadequate steps towards the candidates and to the entire chess community. Beyond that, we request and demand that the FIDE management returns our fellow member of the national team of Azerbaijan GM Teimour Radjabov into the world championship qualifying cycle as he suffered undeservedly in the circumstances, which could have been avoided by timely postponing the tournament until better days."

Dvorkovich has already issued a response:

"“Half the tournament has already passed, 28 great chess games have been played, some of which will be studied and analyzed for a long time. This situation cannot be compared at all with a complete cancellation of the tournament. Teimour has made a decision, and it was his choice. We would have guaranteed him the same safety measures and medical examination as the other participants."

Karjakin, a good friend of Radjabov and part of his team during the preparation for the Candidates tournament, gave his support on Twitter:

"FIDE can call its semi-legal decision to hold the Candidates heroic as much as it likes, but after the decision by the ministry of sports to ban all events in Russia, it was OBVIOUS that the tournament should not have started. Now we have Radjabov unjustly excluded.

"Besides that, the logical course of the tournament has been completely destroyed, because if you continue it now or in a few months from now, the result can be diametrically opposed. The tournament, for which all chess fans waited for two years, has now been totally discredited. I hope that FIDE will at least apologize and try to find a compromise with Radjabov, who spent a lot of time and money on preparing for the most important tournament of his life... "

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:23 pm

"Now we have Radjabov unjustly excluded."

Shirov was unjustly excluded a few years ago. I don't think he got any recompense.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Candidates Tournament 2020

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:05 pm

Unjustly?

In a way maybe, but ultimately withdrawal was his own decision. Nobody else made him do it.
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