Candidates Tournament 2013

[James Coleman]

He probably was in the final position although still very complicated. The press conference made somewhat uncomfortable viewing to be honest, he was obviously pretty disappointed.

[JustinHorton]

EDIT: All OK now, I didn't think to click "refresh"...

[clicks "refresh"]

[Jonathan Bryant]

I had problems with the main site around the same time. I also found it not refreshing properly again today.

Chessbomb is consistently ahead of the main site and the Malc Pein/Lawrence Trent commentary. Although you can't get all four games on one screen there.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I'm deliberately not using any engine... So, anyone have any idea what is happening in Gelfand-Carlsen? I would have thought the bishop better at controlling the pawns, but Carlsen seem to have offered the exchange of queens instead of repeating with Kh7 a second time, so presumably he has seen something?

[Richard Bates]

Carlsen's just winning.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Carlsen's just winning.

That puts me in my place! (I was, very slowly starting to realise why this might be, once I realised what a big threat ...a3 is).

I see Svidler won, so Aronian will be leading the tournament.

[JustinHorton]

Carlsen's just winning.

From when, do you think? Swapping queens didn't look like a brilliant idea.

[Richard Bates]

Carlsen's just winning.

From when, do you think? Swapping queens didn't look like a brilliant idea.

Swapping queens was strange. Probably tiredness - also psychologically Carlsen was probably very clever in repeating moves before offering the exchange.

Suspect he was winning before then (at some point anyway) but there are always loads of tricks when the queens are on in those type of positions. Often the 'winning path' involves playing non-human type moves as well.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

After 50.Bc1 I'm presuming 50...Na5 (huh, he just played it!). And after 51.Bd2, surely 51...b3, but then 52.Kd3 (huh, they just played those moves as I typed them, I must be channelling them!). It's a nice set of manoeuvres.

[IM Jack Rudd]

That's a nice zugzwang he's got there. Any king move allows ...b2, Bd4 allows ...b2 followed by ...Nd2, and any move of the bishop along the a5-e1 diagonal allows ...b2 followed by ...a2.

[JustinHorton]

I am disinclined to believe the 1-0 on Flash Viewer.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Quite amazing how a knight and two connected passed pawns can overwhelm king and bishop if far enough advanced,and the defending king is not close enough. The Black king just watched from the other end of the board!

[David Blower]

Ivanchuk lost on time. He only had about 20 seconds left from about move 20, and there's no increments.

Good. How on earth can anyone take 2 hours to make 20 moves. Managing the clock is part of chess so there really shouldn't be an excuse for losing on time.

[Roger de Coverly]

Good. How on earth can anyone take 2 hours to make 20 moves.

In a way, he did for himself in the opening. The boring way for White was just to play 8. 0-0 which is what you see in evening league games. The more interesting line was to not castle, punt h4 and to see if any h7 sacrifices work. The more practical players like Aronian, Svidler and Kramnik may analyse the ideas at home and wouldn't consider them if they hadn't previously looked at it. You have the impression that Ivanchuk, if he sees an interesting idea while playing, will try to analyse it with his clock running.

1.d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 e6 3. Nd2 c5 4. e3 b6 5. Ngf3 Bb7 6. Bd3 Be7 7. c3 0-0 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. h4

According to the computer engines the sacrifices don't seem to work, so he had to find ways to keep his position going, having compromised it with the h4 idea.

[Richard Bates]

Ivanchuk lost on time. He only had about 20 seconds left from about move 20, and there's no increments.

Good. How on earth can anyone take 2 hours to make 20 moves. Managing the clock is part of chess so there really shouldn't be an excuse for losing on time.

Some people will just never understand...