2021 World Cup

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MJMcCready
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Jul 21, 2021 2:43 am

Oh yeah, I suppose there was that. Just seemed odd because the plan to push the e-pawn looked straight forward even to the likes of a poor old county player for me but like you said he did need to win, forget about that.

Chris Rice
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Chris Rice » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:23 am

MJMcCready wrote:
Tue Jul 20, 2021 4:05 pm
More of the top seeds have fallen, Giri and Mamedayrov also. Giri's loss seemed a bit unusual. For someone of his strength he should surely have known the ending was completely lost.
I did like Nigel Davies quote on FB this morning "The FIDE World Cup shows that there are more than 10 people in the World who can play chess. For some reason this always happens in mixed strength events and comes as a great shock on the rare occasions in which such events are staged..."

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MJMcCready
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by MJMcCready » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:21 am

Well, chess has become elitist in recent years. There are dozens of players rated over 2650 but are never invited to major events.

Paul Cooksey
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Paul Cooksey » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:53 am

Glad to see Nigel has moved on from racism at least. But I don't think anyone is shocked that Vitiugov is a good player. Whether there should be more invites for people like him a different matter. I think you could replace our friend Radjabov in any elite tournament with him or one of a dozen others and make the chess more interesting. But there are good reasons Radjabov is invited.

Grand Chess Tour certainly likes to invite the highest rated fields, with a few wildcards. Elitist seems fair. But not more elitist than Linares thirty years ago in my opinion.

There is a bit of a trick in the WC format because the fields is so big and the matches so short. So it looks like there are a lot of upsets, but round by round the average Elo goes up remorselessly.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:00 am

MJMcCready wrote:
Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:21 am
Well, chess has become elitist in recent years. There are dozens of players rated over 2650 but are never invited to major events.
This is indeed the case, but it's also the case that there are many more players 2650+ than there used to be. (There are currently 95 active players with 2650+ ratings; how often was the world #95 invited to major events back in the day?)

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:29 pm

To put that into perspective, back in the 1980s the world number 95 would have been rated around 2500.
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NickFaulks
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:10 pm

Carlsen does appear to have missed an instant win with 25.Rxh7.
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Mick Norris
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Mick Norris » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:17 pm

Yes, looks that way, although I assume Magnus will win the tiebreak

I see Tabatabaei (2613) has knocked out Berkes (2673), Yu Yangyi (2705) and Harikrishna (2730) in successive rounds, which is impressive
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:27 pm

And he's still not the lowest-ranked player in the last 16 (that's currently 2608-rated Kacper Piorun, although Durarbayli and Ivić could still make it through the playoffs).

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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:00 pm

Suggestions that Carlsen's entry to the tournament affects the seedings of Caruana, Aronian and Giri in the semifinals already seem like ancient history.
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:56 pm

Heh, yes, and his bumping Dominguez Perez out of the list of players seeded to make the quarter-finals.

Mick Norris
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Mick Norris » Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:11 am

IM Jack Rudd wrote:
Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:27 pm
And he's still not the lowest-ranked player in the last 16 (that's currently 2608-rated Kacper Piorun, although Durarbayli and Ivić could still make it through the playoffs).
Yes, he's beaten Ragger (2680) and J van Foreest (2701); next up is Bacrot or Ponkratov

Tabatabaei held Harikrishna in 115 moves, and next plays Martirosyan who knocked out Shak
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sun Jul 25, 2021 1:05 pm

I'm watching Tabatabaei - Martirosyan and Fedoseev-Ivić. Both games have seen an early Bd2 (in the Nimzo-Indian and Grünfeld respectively).

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sun Jul 25, 2021 1:29 pm

In other news, MVL and Karjakin's opening choice suggests they're angling for an invitation to the London Chess Classic.

Mick Norris
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Re: 2021 World Cup

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:04 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 1:29 pm
In other news, MVL and Karjakin's opening choice suggests they're angling for an invitation to the London Chess Classic.
Yes, see they've already agreed a 35 move draw; maybe MVL likes tiebreaks
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