English Chess Forum

The end has come.

https://www.fide.com/news/462

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 25, 2020 4:13 pm

now it has started I hope it completes successfully.

Nope

I wonder what Teimour Radjabov will have to say about this

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:14 am

I wonder what Teimour Radjabov will have to say about this

My prediction is that he will whinge.

Well you've made your lack of sympathy for him (and for Grischuk) plain already, but other people may be more sympathetic to the point of view of players who have been expected to play under these conditions.

After struggling to defend his comments for the last couple of days on keeping the tournament going Sutovsky had the following to say on social media after the announcement to postpone it:

"The candidates tournament has been suspended. No, we had to make this difficult decision after the publication of the Russian government's decision to suspended flights outside of Russia from tomorrow. We cannot continue the tournament without the opportunity to guarantee the departure of participants, judges and officials home. It could be hard and try to solve the problems as they arrived. But we think it would be irresponsible. We continue to believe that the difficult decisions we made before were reasonable and true in the opinion of the situation. We managed to finish half of the tournament, and according to the rules agreed before the competition with players, it will continue with the same number of points as soon as the situation in the world is normal. We have taken this responsibility, and we will continue to make responsible hard decisions - no matter how bad it sounds - for the benefit of chess. Thank you to everyone who supported us in a difficult situation."

Some resignations would be welcome

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 am

Well you've made your lack of sympathy for him (and for Grischuk) plain already, but other people may be more sympathetic to the point of view of players who have been expected to play under these conditions.

I wish I had a better understanding of what "these conditions" are. It seemed to me that being in a closed group of people, with all possible precautions taken, was a pretty safe way of spending three weeks. Grischuk seemed concerned that the precautions might prove ineffective, while Nepo was more troubled that they were oppressive.

Nonetheless, they both live in Russia and know how the bureaucracy works there. Based even on my own limited experience of the country, it is possible that they were both making good points.

Appreciate it’s not exactly the main story right now but a few people have asked me why I’ve still got Nepo as a warm favourite even though MVL beat him in their individual game so wins the first tiebreak.

The main difference is that Nepo has 4 Whites to come where MVL has 4 Blacks - the model makes a small allowance for better scores with White which makes the difference. If I switch it off, or if both players were to draw in round 8 (whenever it happens) then MVL takes over as favourite.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:15 pm

Our man's oddsometer again

Damning Chess24 report.

Not that I have a vote but if I did I would scrap the tournament results so far and start again with a nine player Candidates to include Radjabov.

Gormally has suggested the perhaps less disruptive solution of giving Radjabov an automatic place in the 2022 event.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:38 am

Gormally has suggested the perhaps less disruptive solution of giving Radjabov an automatic place in the 2022 event.

That would at least call his bluff.

Why would we want to? He's not the one who needs to be answering uncomfortable questions.

I know this isn't important, but do they rate the games in the first half, and thus the second half starts eventually with different ratings?

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:10 am

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:38 am

Gormally has suggested the perhaps less disruptive solution of giving Radjabov an automatic place in the 2022 event.

That would at least call his bluff.

There seems to be a growing clamour for this idea but I agree with David Howell who thinks Radjabov will be a couple of years older and he really should get his chance in this cycle. Not just him mind you, this tournament was a nightmare for Ding Liren with Wang Hao and Grischuk not faring well and probably have lost their best chance of winning the tournament. Kramnik has just been on Russian TV and said:

"I wouldn't be able to play in such conditions.The problem isn't even getting infected-these are young, healthy people but they read & watch what's happening eg Sasha has children, all have parents in the risk group & are worried. It's not clear how you can play normally".