Carlsen only needed to draw to make the finals, and passed up several opportunities for it, then pressed very hard, and almost lost. Exciting times.
Carlsen finishes out in strong style to win the World Cup.
Typically the two finalists are seeded into the world championship qualifying matches, and then the third place playoff resolves a third person going. However, Carlsen has said he isn’t going to participate in the world championship, so the three participants are already set. Among them, I will note parochially, is the American Fabiano Caruana.
The legal brouhaha has been settled. Somewhat surprising to me:
“I acknowledge and understand Chess.com’s report, including its statement that there is no determinative evidence that Niemann cheated in his game against me at the Sinquefield Cup," Carlsen said in his statement. "I am willing to play Niemann in future events, should we be paired together.”
Brian
As much as I like watching Carlsen play, a lot of this has been about his immaturity, and that has been somewhat continuing. A day after the settlement was announced, I was watching the streaming interview, and he said this about the opponent he had beaten:
You get one guess who that player’s good friend and training partner is.
After losing to a much lower rated opponent, Magnus is now saying that the very possibility of cheating has unraveled him.
Hikaru analyzes, and basically tells Magnus to toughen up. (extra T in url)
htttps://youtu.be/J6FjK0PlIgs?si=Ff1oM9ewi6hhqx_n
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik has become so obsessive about accusing various chess players of cheating that chess.com has finally shut him down.
Though to be clear, Kramnik would say that he has not accused anyone of cheating, he has just repeatedly said that someone’s play is “interesting,” and that they should be investigated by the Fairplay group of chess.com. And, he has added, if you accuse him of accusing people of cheating, he will sue you for defamation.
The whole thing is kind of nutty.
Yeah, it seems he’s had some sort of breakdown. The play he thinks is cheating isn’t even that remarkable if you crunch the numbers. I wonder if there’s some sort of personal vendetta against Nakamura.
From what I’ve seen, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Magnus is so bored with chess that he is challenging himself by playing drunk online, trying weird offenses and defenses, challenging moves in game that are either brilliant or stupid depending on what results.
Magnus has made occasional drunk appearances online for years, and he’s been playing weirdo offenses and defenses for years as well. But to your question, he’s become bored with classical chess matches, and mainly prefers faster times and quick tournaments. He’s pretty much done with the grind of preparing for half a year for a match, and a whole bunch of intense games back to back.
Yeah one of his handles was Dr. Drunkenstein on chess.com, since at least 2018. There’s many videos of him out there where he’s partying with his posse and playing online.
The 2024 Candidates tournament wrapped up yesterday, and what a brutal finish. In one of those delightful serendipities, the four candidates still in contention after 13 rounds faced each other, with the Indian 17-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju (“DGukesh”) holding a half-point lead over the other three and facing one of the Americans, Hikaru Nakamura. The other match was American Fabiano Caruana against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi; Nepo was in the WC match last time.
Gukesh either found or planned a new idea 11 or 12 moves in, putting Hikaru briefly on his heels, and then Hikaru couldn’t find an edge, and eventually it was a draw. If either Caruana or Nepo could win they would go into a tiebreaker with DGukesh, and in fact Caruana slow ground out a huge edge, but it cost him a lot of time to get there, and Nepo kept throwing up complications with Fabi missing at least three clear winning chances while just having seconds to move.
Eventually that game also went to a draw, with both players exhausted. Afterwards Nepo said “I’m so sorry”, and Fabi responded “My fault” as he walked away. Their post-match press conference was just brutal, neither wanted to be there; eventually Nepo just put his head in his hands and stopped talking.
So DGukesh, a 17 year old, will be facing Ding Liren in November! (and will most likely win) It’s been exciting to see this whole new wave of (very) young Indian GMs, and I expect they will be dominating matches and tournaments in a few years.
Thanks for that great summary!
Nepo and Caruana have had their chances at the championship, and Nakamura has been so close so many times. I can’t help but feel bad for all of them as they watch a young star slip past them.
Thank you for posting the summary that I couldn’t be bothered to find out for myself (waiting for GM Ben Finegold’s recap to appear on YouTube). Sporting of Nepo to offer such an apology. And equally sporting of him to keep on fighting for the draw even when he was very unlikely to win (though I guess a blunder by Fabi could have gifted him the win).
Interesting that you see Gukesh as favourite - I think Ding might grind him down. Could be interesting, as could the India vs China geopolitical angle.
It’s my understanding that Ding has basically quit chess to the point that there’s speculation that he won’t even defend. I know he’s played very few games since winning the championship and significantly underperformed his rating in those games. Earlier this year he finished 9th in a tournament, although I do see one of his wins there was against Gukesh.
I don’t understand this. Why is he doing this, and why does he bother going through the process if he doesn’t want to finish it with a run for the title?
He likes chess? And there’s prize money.
He’s not doing it. He declined to defend his title two years ago, and is declining to attempt to regain it this year.
He’s still widely regarded as the world’s top player, despite no longer being the titular champion.
My question was and is, “Why?”
But he’s not “going through the process.” He’s not involved at all.