2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

[Roger de Coverly]

Well, it looks like Aronian has a bad bishop, but there are presumably some specific features of this position that make it easy to defend (or hard for Topalov to take advantage of)

You only really have to worry about bad Bishops when your opponent has a Knight. In the positions they've reached it acts as a super pawn, supporting white's pawn structure.

[Chris Rice]

Think Topalov's going to have to agree to a Giri shortly and they have 1/2-1/2

[Martin Benjamin]

Think Topalov's going to have to agree to a Giri shortly.

Best chuckle of the day so far.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

You only really have to worry about bad Bishops when your opponent has a Knight.

That's rubbish Roger. There are plenty of classic 'same-colour bishop' endgames with level material where the side with the bad bishop is completely lost when the pawns of the side with the bad bishop have been fixed on the square of the same colour as the bad bishop. Usually due to some zugzwang where the bishop ends up tied to defending two weak pawns and in having to move, loses one of them.

[JustinHorton]

Well, they've drawn.

Very big last round and a half for Caruana, who's gone from being all but out of it to (in my view) favourite).

Giri is White against Nakamura tomorrow and absolutely has to win if he wants to keep any chances of going to New York.

Last round, incidentally, is Karjakin v Caruana.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Last round, incidentally, is Karjakin v Caruana.

If they are level going into that last round, who does the tie-break favour?

(The tiebreaks are applied in this order: head-to-head results, number of wins, Sonneborn-Berger score, rapid game match, blitz game match, and finally an Armageddon game. )

[JustinHorton]

3. 7 Tie-breaks
If the top two or more players score the same points, the tie will be decided by the following criteria, in order of priority:
a) The results of the games between the players involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
b) The total number of wins in the tournament of every player involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
c) Sonneborn - Berger System.

[JustinHorton]

Meanwhile the official site crosstable makes my head hurt. Does it actually make sense?




EDIT Chess 24 do a little better, at least in terms of being comprehensible

[Roger de Coverly]

c) Sonneborn - Berger System.

If the second direct encounter of the two leaders is a draw and the tie break of "most losses" doesn't apply, it could come down to that.

[JustinHorton]

Indeed, if they played and drew the last round now, that would be the case, wouldn't it?

[Roger de Coverly]

Indeed, if they played and drew the last round now, that would be the case, wouldn't it?

If they started the last round level and neither had lost a game, Sonneborn Berger is next in line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonneborn-Berger_score

As they've both beaten Anand and Nakamura, their S-B score is also level.

Anand would mostly likely lose out on the head to head tie break, even if he does catch up.

[NickFaulks]

Seems like a good moment to mention this, from 28th Feb.

So I will go with the boring, predictable prediction of Caruana.

Me too, with Karjakin as an each-way backup.

[Nick Burrows]

Seems like a good moment to mention this, from 28th Feb.

So I will go with the boring, predictable prediction of Caruana.

Me too, with Karjakin as an each-way backup.

You da best

[JustinHorton]

Indeed, if they played and drew the last round now, that would be the case, wouldn't it?

If they started the last round level and neither had lost a game, Sonneborn Berger is next in line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonneborn-Berger_score

As they've both beaten Anand and Nakamura, their S-B score is also level. .

If there is no clear winner with the above 3 criteria, there will be a special competition between the players who still remain
tied after using the 3rd criteria (Sonneborn - Berger): after a new drawing of colors, each tied player will play two (2) tie-break games
with the other tied opponent(s). The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes for each player with an
increment of 10 seconds after each move.

[Richard Bates]

3. 7 Tie-breaks
If the top two or more players score the same points, the tie will be decided by the following criteria, in order of priority:
a) The results of the games between the players involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
b) The total number of wins in the tournament of every player involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
c) Sonneborn - Berger System.

This reads ambiguously to me