And Magnus Carlsen, the defending champion, is not playing so it is the top 2 finishers of the Candidate’s Cup Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding Liren. It is 14 classical games and then a tie-break if necessary and after two games, Nepo is up 1.5 to 0.5 games. I’m shocked because I though Ding would be much stronger but he barely managed to get a tie the first game then was completely outplayed in the second.
Nepo’s higher rated. Winning as black is pretty big, but curious why 1.5-0.5 is shocking? After only 2 games I don’t think I’d be shocked at any result, really.
Nepo dominated the challengers’ tournament and I imagine is a heavy favorite here. (Is there betting on chess?) He didn’t just win the 2nd game, but did so playing black, which gives him an enormous advantage after just two games.
I enjoy “watching” the games with Anton Radić, whose short videos do a great job of dissecting the lines (both played and unplayed) of games between top players. His channel is a lot of fun.
It’s not so much the score as how much Nepo has dominated Liren. This could have easily started out 2 - 0.
Game 3 is a quick draw.
Game 3 is up. (Of course it is agadmator’s analysis) Notice Ding’s quote at the top.
Ding was outplaying Nepo and I don’t know why Ding settled for the draw. It seems like he should have pressed and go for the win.
Honestly, draws are so common in high-level play that it’s almost shocking to see any non-drawn game. A lot of matches have remained nothing but draws after 6 or even 8 games, and only produce a champion after successively tighter time controls (which make it much easier to make mistakes). To be up a game after only the second game makes Nepo a huge favorite to win the match.
My point exactly. If you have any chance to get the win, why not go for it? It seemed the way that the game was going was a draw was worst case for Ding.
14 game series, 11 left to go, he was playing black (and apparently seemed not entirely focused), the advantage wasn’t all that great and pretty much disappeared at the end, and this draw gives him a reset and confidence rebound to rest and press as white in the next game
There is the psychological/physical benefit of testing your opponent’s stamina by having them keep playing, as Magnus has been known to do, but that works both ways.
Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been flipping through some of his other videos and I really like the way he breaks down the played and unplayed parts of the game.
Of course there is.
And yes, Nepo is a strong favorite. I think. I hate odds quoted this way.
Nepo is currently like 7:1 favorite. Not sure what he was pre-tournament.
Do they keep track of “breaks of serve” (winning as black) like they do in tennis?
Ding wins game 4!
He played white, so it’s not quite the “service break” that Nepo’s win in game 2 was, but this may not be the Nepo blowout many were expecting.
This seems to be an unusually exciting championship and it’s a bit of a pity that no one believes that the winner will be the best player in the world. Of course if Magnus had been playing it probably wouldn’t have been that exciting…
If Ding ends up winning I wonder what impact that will have on the popularity of chess in China?
I watched recaps of both games and I agree with you on both points – the games are exciting, and Magnus wouldn’t likely lose any of them. In classic OTB chess, he doesn’t have the weaknesses both Ding and Nepo are exploiting in each other’s games, and at worst would be coming out of them with draws.
Wow. Four non-draw results in the first six games? You have to go back to 2014 with three in six to approach that kind of start. Last championship it was six games until the first decisive result, and the one before that was draws until the tie breaker games (13, 14,15).
Quite an eventful start! I had totally forgotten about the championship so will have to follow up on some recaps.
To a dumb non-chess layman like me: Can someone tell me just how far Magnus is above the rest of the world? He seems to be spoken of as an essentially shoo-in-to-win every contest that he enters. Is he basically head and shoulders above the whole planet or is he still beatable on any given day?
In the five world championship matches Magnus won from 2013-2021, he only lost two full-time games total. Nepo and Ding have each lost that many in this year’s event, which isn’t even half over.