Biel 2018

[JustinHorton]

Magnus blundered and lost. Why not 56...Bb4 which might hold (at least to R v R+B)?

And why 57 Kh3 rather than push the pawn? Did he think he was going to be mated on h2? Even more inexplicably, why did Magnus then forget about the e-pawn?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Transmission errors? Analysis after the game finished? Or did Carlsen really blunder?

EDIT: It was a gross blunder. He thought there was a mate, presumably.

[Jonathan Rogers]

So, we keep waiting for Magnus to get his form back. He starts tournaments with +2 after two or three rounds and each time we think "finally!". But we have really lost track of for how long this has carried on, and by now all ordinary indicators are surely that Caruana is the favourite for the title. (Of course, there may be more to it than that - maybe Carlsen is just impatient to play the match and can't concentrate in the interim. Still,..)

[JustinHorton]

by now all ordinary indicators are surely that Caruana is the favourite for the title

Slight exaggeration possibly

[JustinHorton]

Transmission errors? Analysis after the game finished? Or did Carlsen really blunder?

EDIT: It was a gross blunder. He thought there was a mate, presumably.

In fact I think "transmission errors" might be right, since the online services are now showing 56...Bc1 57 e7 1-0 where they previously had 56...Bc1 57 Kh3 Rxf5 58 e7 1-0.

[Mick Norris]

Shak reaches his highest ever live rating of 2817.7; Magnus down to 2835.1 (Caruana at 2822)

[Matt Mackenzie]

So, we keep waiting for Magnus to get his form back. He starts tournaments with +2 after two or three rounds and each time we think "finally!". But we have really lost track of for how long this has carried on

In round 4, he almost effortlessly got a superior position against the tournament minnow - and then promptly messed it up.

That seemed to bother him, and he does seem more vulnerable to such things these days.

Having said that, if he gets a similar good start against Caruana it really *is* hard to see him getting caught. Even now.......

[Jonathan Rogers]

by now all ordinary indicators are surely that Caruana is the favourite for the title

Slight exaggeration possibly

perhaps, because he (Carlsen) has still his slender rating lead, and we might also argue about the "ordinary indcators" are. But I do ask, in which event did Caruana last make a real impression on you? and now Carlsen?

[JustinHorton]

OK who else forgot it was an early start today

[JustinHorton]

Georgiadis has the sort of position you'd reckon you had every chance of winning if your opponent wasn't three hundred points stronger than you and you weren't down to about a quarter of an hour plus increments for more than twenty moves.

[JustinHorton]

MVL wins at a canter in a very last-roundy game against Navara.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Georgiadis has the sort of position you'd reckon you had every chance of winning if your opponent wasn't three hundred points stronger than you and you weren't down to about a quarter of an hour plus increments for more than twenty moves.

A good call, not quite sure how Magnus won that but he did!

[Tim Harding]

Georgiadis has the sort of position you'd reckon you had every chance of winning if your opponent wasn't three hundred points stronger than you and you weren't down to about a quarter of an hour plus increments for more than twenty moves.

A good call, not quite sure how Magnus won that but he did!

Georgiadis made a terrible blunder ...b3 (presumably envisaging ...Ba3) but after Nf3 going to d2 the sac doesn't work and he just loses the c4-pawn.
Instead he had various decent moves such as ...Be5 which could have simplified and made a draw pretty certain?