FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 - Isle of Man

[JustinHorton]

McShane v So is an interesting draw, partly because either Wesley thinks he's out of the running, or he thinks plus two after nine rounds keeps him in with a chance.

[Mick Norris]

Is there a route where So wins both remaining games and Carlsen and Caruana do too?

Unlikely I think he is out of it

[JustinHorton]

I'm guessing that if you're not on at least six tonight (i.e. plus three) you can forget it because even if you won the last two games you'd never have the tie-break, but I'm not sure it actually works that way with this particular system.

[JustinHorton]

Antón gets his draw against Aronian so we have four tied in the lead with 6.5/9 overnight (those two plus the two Americans) unless either Vitiugov or Wang Hao can beat the other.

David Howell has beaten Kasimdzhanov to get to 6. There should be at least fourteen players on that score or above.

[Tim Harding]

Vitiugov-Wang Hao was another instructive ending misplayed in time trouble.

Under great pressure in the middle game Vitiugov defended very well but after the queens came off into a double R ending his 56 Kg2 and 57 Rxb5 look like mistakes.
It came down to two pawns versus one with Black having a rampant passed f-pawn.
But at move 69, when a pair of rooks had just been exchanged, Wang Hao didn't find the unique winning move 69...Kf6.

(You may recall that a couple of days ago he missed the unique drawing move against Aronian in another R ending.)

A draw was agreed after 78 Re7 - Vitiugov found the unique drawing move although online Stockfish implies a jump to -2.40.

So there are only 4 players leading on 6/9: Caruana, Anton, Aronian and Nakamura.

So I think it will be Nakamura v Aronian (Levon has already played the other two) and Caruana White (because of colours) v Anton.

Maybe Nakamura can make the Candidates after all. Especially as he has played neither of the other leaders so has a good chance of avoiding Magnus in the last round, whereas Levon and Anton have not met the world champion.
A win for Naka tomorrow and a draw on Monday should clinch it even if Caruana wins the tournament.
Or am I missing something?

[LawrenceCooper]

Antón gets his draw against Aronian so we have four tied in the lead with 6.5/9 overnight (those two plus the two Americans) unless either Vitiugov or Wang Hao can beat the other.

David Howell has beaten Kasimdzhanov to get to 6. There should be at least fourteen players on that score or above.

Vitiugov somehow held so four on 6.5 and eleven on 6.

[JustinHorton]

Yeah, Wang Hao grafted all the way to plus seven and then let it all slip away, like water from an opened hand

[Tim Harding]

A win for Naka tomorrow and a draw on Monday should clinch it even if Caruana wins the tournament.
Or am I missing something?

Two wins for Anton might be a problem for him (however unlikely that is).

That doesn't actually contradict what I wrote because if Anton and Hikaru win in round 10 they will meet in round 11.
It's true that if Anton then beat him he would become the qualifier.
Presumably there are some circumstances where 1.5 (or perhaps even 1 point) out of 2 might be sufficient for Nakamura, Anton or Aronian, but I am not attempting to calculate them.

[JustinHorton]

(6.5) Caruana v Antón (6.5)
(6.5) Nakamura v Aronian (6.5)
(6) Carlsen v Matlakov (6)
(6) Anand v Wang (6)
(6) Karjakin v Alekseenko (6)
(6) Howell v Grischuk (6)
(6) Vitiugov v Rakhmanov (6)
(5.5) Le Quang Liem v Maghsoodloo (6)

[Matt Mackenzie]

That unbeaten run record must be weighing a bit on Carlsen's mind right now......

[Keith Arkell]

That terrifying moment when you realise that of the 152 players in action tomorrow, in the strongest tournament in the history of chess (not including Round-Robins), you are the OLDEST

[John Moore]

Morning Keith. Vlastimil Jansa is 76 so you will have to settle for being second oldest!

[Leonard Barden]

Morning Keith. Vlastimil Jansa is 76 so you will have to settle for being second oldest!

Jansa has the bye in round 10.

[JustinHorton]

Ha ha good spot

[JustinHorton]

I notice by the way that Wang Hao has the best tiebreak of any competitor.