Madrid Candidates 16th June to Tue 5th Jul 2022

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any thoughts on what openings we might see? I know there isn't much time left for this round.... But maybe for the tournament as a whole?

[IM Jack Rudd]

I predict that the opening rounds will feature a lot of play-for-a-small-edge stuff like the Ruy Lopez. Later on, as people need to explicitly play for a win, we may get some sharper stuff.

[Jonathan Rogers]

It occurs to me that there are fewer 1 e4 players than usual. Various random reasons for this: the replacement of Karjakin by Ding, the postponed participation of Radjabov included. In fact Caruana and Nepo are the only likely committed 1 e4 players among them, I think, although Naka and Rapport could try almost anything. Having those latter two in the event already makes almost one half of the openings in games very difficult to call!

[JustinHorton]

Judit Polgar has:

Duda v Rapport draw
Ding v Nepo White 1-0
Caruana v Naka draw
Radjabov v Firouzja 0-1

Jan Gustafsson:

Duda v Rapport 1-0
Ding v Nepo White draw
Caruana v Naka 1-0
Radjabov v Firouzja draw

[Jonathan Rogers]

By contrast every previous candidates has has at least one extra committed 1 e4 player (Anand, Svidler, Karjakin, MVL).

[LawrenceCooper]

Commentary teams located so far on Twitch:

Chess.com "Your expert hosts today are GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and IM Almira Skripchenko, with touchscreen analysis by IM Daniel Rensch and interviews by WGM Dina Belenkaya."

Chess24: "Live Commentary with Judit Polgar and Jan Gustafsson"

GMHikaru: Irina Krush & Benjamin Bok.

STLChessClub: Yasser Seirewan & Alejandro Ramírez.

On Youtube:

WorldChess: Fiona Steil-Antoni & Daniel Yuffa.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Two wins (for Duda and Ding).

[JustinHorton]

Duda has played 5 Bf4 in a Sicilian Taimanov

[JustinHorton]

Eccentricity-hunters are also directed to the position of Caruana's queen's knight

[LawrenceCooper]

Commentary teams located so far on Twitch:

Chess.com "Your expert hosts today are GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and IM Almira Skripchenko, with touchscreen analysis by IM Daniel Rensch and interviews by WGM Dina Belenkaya."

Chess24: "Live Commentary with Judit Polgar and Jan Gustafsson"

GMHikaru: Irina Krush & Benjamin Bok.

STLChessClub: Yasser Seirewan & Alejandro Ramírez.

On Youtube:

WorldChess: Fiona Steil-Antoni & Daniel Yuffa.

Also Jon Speelman: https://www.twitch.tv/jonspeelman

[Jonathan Rogers]

Duda doing well already. Could someone help me out on whether he is usually a 1 e4 player, in the way that Nepo and Caruana clearly are? I am trying to work out whether he might just have selected 1 e4 against Rapport - often this is a good idea against players with a host of eccentric/provocative Black openings.

[Nick Burrows]

Nice to see Firouzja is here to take his opponents souls.

[Tim Harding]

I predict that the opening rounds will feature a lot of play-for-a-small-edge stuff like the Ruy Lopez. Later on, as people need to explicitly play for a win, we may get some sharper stuff.

After about 70 minutes, te early course of the games (especially Firouzja and Duda's openings) suggest that the young guys think otherwise.
Nepo is also playing aggressively with Black.
Caruana-Nakamura follows Jack's template.

[JustinHorton]

Rapport is just much worse against normal, easy-to-find moves

[Nick Burrows]

4k2r/p3npbp/2p1b1p1/4p1B1/4P3/N7/PP2BPPP/R2r2K1 w k - 0 16

Duda missed that 16.Rxd1 Bxa2 17.Nb5!! is very strong