Candidates 2014

[Graham Borrowdale]

Of the Candidates field I think that Kramnik will be highly motivated to get another crack, after missing out narrowly on tie-break last time. Aronian must be in the reckoning if he can repeat his current performance at Wijk-aan-Zee. None of the others look likely to be in serious contention, although it will be interesting to see what Topalov has in the tank.

Of those, I would say Kramnik has the best chance of upsetting Carlsen, but my view is that we could be entering a phase of having a procession of challengers for the world title for some time yet, all depending on Carlsen's motivation of course. I have a feeling that the next world champion has not yet been born, or at least is not yet playing above very low junior level.

[Colin S Crouch]

Aronian must surely be as least as highly motivated as anyone, and he will have noted down carefully how and why he did not quite knock out Carlsen from last year's Candidates'. He was level pegging in the early part of the event, but after his first loss, he seemed to have lost confidence, and lost two more games had he sensed in advance that Carlsen was in danger of crumbling in pressure towards the end (two losses out of three), Aronian would no doubt have battled hard until the very end.
Kramnik will no doubt still have a small chance of winning the Candidates', and a eve smaller chance of winning the Candidates'l and then beating Carlsen. Realistically though, it is Aronian's chance to show what he can do. His Elo rating is less than fifty points below that of Carlsen, while Aronian is a fifty points ahead of Kramnik. And Aronan is leading, with confidence at Wijk.

[Colin S Crouch]

Aronian must surely be as least as highly motivated as anyone, and he will have noted down carefully how and why he did not quite knock out Carlsen from last year's Candidates'. He was level pegging in the early part of the event, but after his first loss, he seemed to have lost confidence, and lost two more games had he sensed in advance that Carlsen was in danger of crumbling in pressure towards the end (two losses out of three), Aronian would no doubt have battled hard until the very end.
Kramnik will no doubt still have a small chance of winning the Candidates', and a eve smaller chance of winning the Candidates'l and then beating Carlsen. Realistically though, it is Aronian's chance to show what he can do. His Elo rating is less than fifty points below that of Carlsen, while Aronian is a fifty points ahead of Kramnik. And Aronan is leading, with confidence at Wijk.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I can't remember where, but someone said they felt this current WCC cycle was too soon compared to the one just gone. Is that because the previous one was delayed, and if so should this one have been delayed as well? Every two years feels about right. Every year (which is what is feels like here) feels a bit rushed.

[Mick Norris]

Yes, this is a catch up, and future cycles will be every 2 years, which is about right

[NickFaulks]

I can't remember where, but someone said they felt this current WCC cycle was too soon compared to the one just gone. Is that because the previous one was delayed, and if so should this one have been delayed as well? Every two years feels about right. Every year (which is what is feels like here) feels a bit rushed.

It's close to timetable, but when that was first announced I said it looked as though they were trying to squeeze in one extra cycle. It gets more relaxed after this one, unless of course it changes again.

[Angus French]

I can't remember where, but someone said they felt this current WCC cycle was too soon compared to the one just gone. Is that because the previous one was delayed, and if so should this one have been delayed as well? Every two years feels about right. Every year (which is what is feels like here) feels a bit rushed.

It's close to timetable, but when that was first announced I said it looked as though they were trying to squeeze in one extra cycle. It gets more relaxed after this one, unless of course it changes again.

Er... presumably it'll help FIDE's finances since they take a 20% cut of the prize fund. (It appears that FIDE netted almost 470,000 Euros from the 2012 World Championship match - see thread close to this one on FIDE accounts.)

[Graham Borrowdale]

I can't remember where, but someone said they felt this current WCC cycle was too soon compared to the one just gone. Is that because the previous one was delayed, and if so should this one have been delayed as well? Every two years feels about right. Every year (which is what is feels like here) feels a bit rushed.

It's close to timetable, but when that was first announced I said it looked as though they were trying to squeeze in one extra cycle. It gets more relaxed after this one, unless of course it changes again.

Er... presumably it'll help FIDE's finances since they take a 20% cut of the prize fund. (It appears that FIDE netted almost 470,000 Euros from the 2012 World Championship match - see thread close to this one on FIDE accounts.)

I guess Angus might have hit the nail on the head. It might have been me who said this cycle is too soon, and I stand by that whether or not it is on schedule.
Since FIDE dropped its short-match format we have had:
2005 Topalov won an 8-player tournament
2006 Kramnik-Topalov unification match
2007 Anand won an 8-player tournament
2008 Anand-Kramnik
2010 Anand-Topalov
2012 Anand Gelfand
2013 Anand-Carlsen

By my reckoning Anand-Carlsen was a year early and the 2014 match will be 2 years early. Plenty of chess for the fans though.

[Simon Louchart]

I can't remember where, but someone said they felt this current WCC cycle was too soon compared to the one just gone. Is that because the previous one was delayed, and if so should this one have been delayed as well? Every two years feels about right. Every year (which is what is feels like here) feels a bit rushed.

I agree with this, I mean being the world champion means a lot when a match happens every 4 years (for example), it starts to become meaningless if matches are organized once every year. It makes the world champion title less valuable than one century ago, which is a shame.

Yes, this is a catch up, and future cycles will be every 2 years, which is about right

Good news ! Every 2 years is more reasonable.

[Stewart Reuben]

The FIDE admin like to have more World Championship matches because this results in a bigger income as 20% of the prize money is taken. And it is not just the match, there are the other events, such as the Candidates and World Cup.
Against that there is the exclusivity of the title, the need for the champion and challenger to renew their energy and other points made above.
Indeed two years seems fine and more frequently than that very wrong. Of course it used to be 3 years.

[Mick Norris]

Pairings are out
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... rings.html

[Matthew Turner]

There seems to be something a bit odd about those pairings. The first three rounds feature two 4 player all-play-alls

[John McKenna]

There seems to be something a bit odd about those pairings. The first three rounds feature two 4 player all-play-alls

Don't know if that is a problem. The link below has more info about it -

http://en.chessbase.com/post/pairings-f ... -published

Go compare!

[David Sedgwick]

There seems to be something a bit odd about those pairings. The first three rounds feature two 4 player all-play-alls

Don't know if that is a problem. The link below has more info about it -

http://en.chessbase.com/post/pairings-f ... -published

Go compare!

The relevant rule is:

"The players who are from the same federation will play each other in rounds 1 and 8 (if only two) and if up to four players are from the same federation in rounds 1, 2, 3 and 8, 9, 10."

The same rule applied to the 2013 Candidates Tournament in London, but with only three Russians in that event, its effect was not so apparent.

[Mick Norris]

There seems to be something a bit odd about those pairings. The first three rounds feature two 4 player all-play-alls

Indeed, Russian and non-Russian, as expected