Candidates Tournament 2020

[JustinHorton]

Last game of the day is Wang v Grischuk, which is also drawn though Black in particular had a probably winning edge after White sacrifced unsoundly.

Nepo a point clear now going into the rest day.

[Mick Norris]

Would Grischuk have won if he had more time?

Round 11 Friday
Nepo (6.5) v Caruana (5.5)
Giri (5.5) v Ding (4)
Grischuk (4.5) v MVL (5.5)
Alekseenko (4) v Wang (4.5)

[Ian Thompson]

Would Grischuk have won if he had more time?

Would Wang Hao have played it if Grischuk had had more time?

[Jonathan Bryant]

Nepo a point clear now going into the rest day.

On the assumption that against Caruana in round 11
(a) nerves don't get the better of him
(b) he just hoovers everything from the board asap

That will leave him a point clear with only three games to go. Hard to see Caruana coming back from that.

[Nick Burrows]

Honest and generous assessment of Nepomniatchi by Carlsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wff9PI0gxs

[JustinHorton]

Nepo a point clear now going into the rest day.

On the assumption that against Caruana in round 11
(a) nerves don't get the better of him
(b) he just hoovers everything from the board asap

That will leave him a point clear with only three games to go. Hard to see Caruana coming back from that.

Maybe. But if that game's drawn (which I would generally expect) he'll have two Whites left to Nepo's one, and he'll also have a better tiebreak if he does get the two wins he'll maybe need, if Nepo tries to draw his way home.

The guy who needs to win on Thursday or forget about it is Giri.

[Mick Norris]

TWIC

Alekseenko said afterwards "It was an awful game, I didn't remember the opening, probably I didn't have to play 8...Be7 and then I also started to play bad moves and my position became worse and worse."

[Jonathan Bryant]

Maybe. But if that game's drawn (which I would generally expect) he'll have two Whites left to Nepo's one, and he'll also have a better tiebreak if he does get the two wins he'll maybe need, if Nepo tries to draw his way home.

True - but he'd have to beat Giri to order. No easy feat.

If he does he'd have a last round game against Grischuk- the Ivanchuk of our days. YOu get the feeling that anything could happen there depending on which Grischuk shows up.

[David Sedgwick]

The guy who needs to win on Thursday or forget about it is Giri.

On Friday, actually. Thursday is a rest day.

[JustinHorton]

You're quite right. Friday is a holiday here and it's put me out of whack. (I know that doesn't entirely make sense, but that's kind of the point.)

[Matt Mackenzie]

TWIC

Alekseenko said afterwards "It was an awful game, I didn't remember the opening, probably I didn't have to play 8...Be7 and then I also started to play bad moves and my position became worse and worse."

Already people suggesting that he "tanked" deliberately to help his countryman.......

[Matthew Turner]

TWIC

Alekseenko said afterwards "It was an awful game, I didn't remember the opening, probably I didn't have to play 8...Be7 and then I also started to play bad moves and my position became worse and worse."

Already people suggesting that he "tanked" deliberately to help his countryman.......

I am surprised that you didn't take the time to note that like any sane person you thought this was total nonsense. After all, with his second win against a compatriot, Alekseenko would have been just half a point off the lead, with a decent chance of victory himself.

[Chris Rice]

You would think that playing a game of chess would not be so complicated but I saw the following from Andy Howie on social media:

Measures in place:
Badge Zone access,
Airport scanner at entrance to the playing hall,
Non-linear Scanner,
Thermal Imaging,
Signal Acquisition and Identification,
Bluetooth and Zigbee scanning,
PGN scan on Regan system.
Methodologies:
Only security, forward operating team and players are allowed in the playing area and players’ premises. Any player wanting to leave the playing hall (e.g., lavatories, a smoking area) had to be accompanied by one of the arbiter team or a nominated volunteer.
Players passed through the airport scanner and any mobiles etc were placed in a locker. The locker area was manned by security at all times.
On arrival in the hall, the players were scanned with the non-linear scanner and thermal imager to determine if they had any non-metallic transmitters in their possession.
During play, the full wireless spectrum was monitored along with Bluetooth and zigbee scanning to ensure there were no communication devices on in the hall that were not accounted for.
Lavatories and the break-out area were examined a minimum of 3 times a round checking for devices and signals (visually and using equipment).
At the request of the players, no spectators were allowed in for the second half of the tournament. This simplified matters as we no longer had to be wary of signals being passed.
At the end of each round, the PGNs were sent to Prof Ken Regan for analysis and the results communicated to the CA and Supervisor.

[Paul Cooksey]

I watched a stream before the first half where someone suggested to Peter Svidler that maybe Nepo would be persuaded to conspire to give Grischuk a better chance. Peter's response was that he really wanted to see someone trying to have that conversation with Nepo

Oddly I think Alekseenko played so badly it makes the conspiracy theory less plausible. I saw the you tube clip quoted above. Alekseenko was either the worlds most embarrassed chess player yesterday, or a truly brilliant actor.

[JustinHorton]

And it was pretty embarrassing, wasn't it? It was an absolutely standard Reti position.