The Candidates 2020
March 26, 2020
From the FIDE site:
Arkady Dvorkovich: "We are ensuring the safe return of players to their homes"
Following the announcement of the government of the Russian Federation about suspending all flights to and from the country as of March 27, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) has decided to halt the 2020 Candidates Tournament which was taking place in Yekaterinburg. In an interview for the Russian news agency TASS, FIDE President explained his decision.
Q: Has FIDE discussed this decision to stop the event with the players, what do they think?
Arkady Dvorkovich: We have been in touch with the players every day during the event and we were weighing all the risks all the time. FIDE believes that this is the best course of action under these circumstances. We remain committed to popularising chess and raising the spirits at this grave time, but we have always said that people's lives and health are a priority for us.
Q: Air traffic with other countries has been suspended by Russia. Won't it be a problem for all the chess players to go home?
Arkady Dvorkovich: This unique situation transpired suddenly. We are doing everything we can to provide the necessary support to everyone and get them home safely. Tickets for all the players and most other people involved in the tournament have already been purchased, and we are organizing all necessary logistics. FIDE is organizing and paying for all the travel costs and is working closely with everyone to ensure all is done safely and efficiently.
Q: In your opinion, will the tournament be finished this year or when? Will Yekaterinburg remain the host?
Arkady Dvorkovich: We will do our best for everything to be sorted out as soon as possible, following regulations and protecting the safety and interests of all involved. We remain confident that the event will be completed this year, in cooperation with our main partner – SIMA-land. The issue of exact dates and locations will be resolved in the near future, as soon as the global situation stabilizes.
Q: Why did you decide to start the tournament when the virus was already spreading strongly around the world?
Arkady Dvorkovich: This is a very important event for the players and the chess world. The situation in Russia was different at the beginning. We looked at different trajectories of the situation, including potential cancellations. At the same time, in terms of the medical safety measures, the Candidates Tournament was well prepared.
All the players, arbiters and staff had medical checkups twice a day, tests for the detection of COVID-19 have been done and all came back as negative. Also, the spectators have been banned from the venue and the interaction between the players and the media has been put to a minimum.
However, we concluded that the flight ban announced this morning would put too much pressure on the players and participants in terms of how and when they will be able to return home. Unfortunately, the situation with the pandemic is developing in the most negative scenario. We, therefore, believe that our decision to suspend the Tournament at this moment was correct. Again, we are doing everything we can to ensure the safe and secure return of everyone to their homes.
Q: Is there a significant financial loss for FIDE due to the transfer?
Arkady Dvorkovich: Our priority was and remains to make sure that everyone involved is safe and returns to their home. Losses are minimal and definitely not a factor in making this decision. We have a mutual understanding with our partners and sponsors, and we are grateful for their support.
Q: In general, what is your view of what is happening in the spirting word and how things will develop?
Arkady Dvorkovich: It is difficult to give estimates - no one knows for how long the acute phase of the crisis caused by the coronavirus will last. There are different opinions about how long the events should be postponed – 2-3 months or six months to a year. I believe that with the joint efforts of all countries and tough measures, we will be able to defeat the pandemic. Of course, it will be a slightly different world afterwards, but we will be stronger.
The coming period will be used by FIDE to search for and find new ways and ideas, expand links between national federations, strengthen partnerships and share experiences. Nowadays we must use all the latest online formats to communicate with current and potential chess fans. We will, therefore, step up our online activities and do more to attract chess audiences to our online services and platforms through training, tournaments, and conferences.
These are challenging times, but we see this as an opportunity and want to do our best to help the chess community and promote the game.
Q: And an important question about the match for the title of World Champion. Is the match also being postponed?
Arkady Dvorkovich: The match for the chess crown is due to take place at the end of the year. There is no question of changing dates.
https://www.fide.com/news/463
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The Candidates 2020
March 26, 2020
Tweet from Fabiano Caruana:
Charter flight delayed to 4:50am. Not entirely sure we'll be let out of the country. Complete farce.
Tweet from Anish Giri:
Pity this unfortunate situation is used by people to push their political or selfish agenda. My usual childish puns would feel out of place on this hostile chess-twitter day. I am merely going to let my fans know I have safely made it to Amsterdam! And we will be back!
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The Candidates 2020
March 26, 2020
Tweet from FIDE:
Most players and officials have already left Yekaterinburg. A first group flew to Moscow in the afternoon and will continue from there on to their final destination.
A smaller group will fly to Rotterdam around 10pm local time on a direct charter flight provided by FIDE.
https://twitter.com/FIDE_chess/statu...7Ctwgr%5Etweet
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Probably necessary but too bad. The kids and I really enjoyed watching everyday, especially the St Louis coverage. They really hit a very nice balance with the 3 commentators there.Leave a comment:
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I literally laughed out loud, thanks Hans!Originally posted by Hans Jung View PostLeave a comment:
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The Candidates 2020
March 26, 2020
From the official site:
FIDE stops the Candidates Tournament
Today, the government of the Russian Federation announced that starting March 27, 2020, Russia interrupts air traffic with other countries without indicating any time frames.
FIDE can not continue the tournament without guarantees for the players' and officials' safe and timely return home. In this situation and on the basis of clause 1.5. Rules of Candidates Tournament, the FIDE President decided to stop the tournament. It will be continued later, with the exact dates to be announced as soon, as the global situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic will allow. As it was stipulated by the special rules agreed with the players before the start of the event, the results of the 7 rounds played remain valid, and the tournament will be resumed in the same composition starting with the games of the 8th round. FIDE is grateful to the players, officials, volunteers and the entire team of organizers, including the Chess Federation of Russia and the main partner of the tournament - SIMA-Land.
Sincerely,
Arkady Dvorkovich,
FIDE President
https://www.fide.com/news/462
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From Emil Sutovsky’s Facebook page:
The candidates tournament has been suspended. No, we had to make this difficult decision after the publication of the Russian government's decision to suspended flights outside of Russia from tomorrow. We cannot continue the tournament without the opportunity to guarantee the departure of participants, judges and officials home. It could be hard and try to solve the problems as they arrived. But we think it would be irresponsible. We continue to believe that the difficult decisions we made before were reasonable and true in the opinion of the situation. We managed to finish half of the tournament, and according to the rules agreed before the competition with players, it will continue with the same number of points as soon as the situation in the world is normal. We have taken this responsibility, and we will continue to make responsible hard decisions - no matter how bad it sounds - for the benefit of chess. Thank you to everyone who supported us in a difficult situation.
https://www.facebook.com/emil.sutovsky
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Other comments
Anand Nair - Very unfair to Radjabov. Extremely short sighted to proceed with the event when everything else was shutting down. Probably a 9-player double RR starting from scratch is the best solution now. If not, Radjabov should sue FIDE.
Chris Rice - Not that I have a vote but if I did I would scrap the tournament results so far and start again with a nine player Candidates to include Radjabov.
Daniel Gormally - Fairest thing would be to finish this tournament at a later date, and then seed Radjabov through to the next one in 2022 automatically.
Fabiano Caruana - The Candidates is over for now. The hard part still remains: getting home. I expect to re-enter a world I'll hardly recognize
Olimpiu G. Urcan - If history has taught us anything, it is that one should never celebrate a Frenchman's victory in Russia too early.
Olimpiu G. Urcan - Vachier-Lagrave gets an unexpected chance to actually prepare, Nepomniachtchi to fix his coughing and his Winawer, Caruana to recharge, Wang Hao to delve into Persona 5 Royal, Grischuk to get some proper sleep, Ding and Alekseenko to lick their wounds, and Giri to tweet at will.
Chess24 - Vladimir Kramnik joins the calls for Teimour Radjabov to be given a wild card in the 2022 Candidates Tournament, calling it the only option, otherwise it's "total zugzwang"
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I also want to thank all the excellent commentators and guests for all their stories and witty comments and all their variations be they real or fantasy.Leave a comment:
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I want to thank the players for the great entertainment and hours of pleasure. It brought highlights to my day, every day for more than a week.Leave a comment:
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The last important chess tournament postponed. Its online action only now.Leave a comment:
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A commentator excitingly talked about "Freddy." I didn't understand who he was referring to. And then "Gary," too. Oh, I never knew that these are files names. I enjoy playing games with Freddy (pawn to f5) and Gary (pawn to g4).Originally posted by Hans Jung View PostLeave a comment:
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The Candidates 2020
March 25, 2020
Round Seven
The guests today are Magnus Carlsen and David Howell.
Lawrence Trent is asked about Fabi and he says that he has seen his prep, glanced at this files and seen his supercomputer. Jan asks what a supercomputer looks like.
Lawrence: It looks like a normal computer but when you start it up it sounds like a small airplane or helicopter starting up. It is an incredibly loud noise. All the cylinders are firing up to get it all the power and energy it needs. It’s a monster and it requires the energy of a small village to power it up with all the cores and everything else.
Jan: That’s why they have all these power shortages in St. Louis.
Lawrence: Yes, he just switched on Leela.
Jan: A question from the Chat. “Magnus, will you grow a man-bun if you meet Nepomniachtchi for the title?”
Magnus: Naw, I’m not going to co-opt someone’s style.”
Lawrence: What about a mullet?
Magnus doesn’t know what a mullet hair style is and Lawrence tries to explain by using google to translate the term into Norwegian.
Round 7, Mar. 25
Caruana, Fabiano – Wang, Hao
C42 Petrov, Nimzowitsch Attack
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.O-O-O Nf6 10.Bd3 c5 11.Rhe1 Be6 12.Kb1 Qa5 13.c4 Qxd2 14.Nxd2 Rad8 15.f3 b6 16.g4 d5 17.g5 Nh5 18.cxd5 Bxd5 19.Ne4 f5 20.gxf6 Nxf6 21.Bg5 Kf7 22.Ng3 c4 23.Bf1 b5 24.a4 a6 25.axb5 axb5 26.Nf5 Bc5 27.Re5 Bxf3 28.Rxd8 Rxd8 29.Rxc5 Rd1+ 30.Ka2 Rxf1 31.Rxb5 c3 32.Bxf6 Kxf6 33.Ne3 Rf2 34.Rf5+ Ke6 35.Ka3 cxb2 36.Kxb2 h5 37.h4 Rxc2+ 38.Kxc2 Be4+ 39.Kd2 Bxf5 40.Ke2 Ke5 41.Kf3 Bd3 1/2-1/2
Position after Black’s 31…c3
Round 7, Mar. 25
Ding, Liren – Alekseenko, Kirill
E00 Queen’s Pawn game
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 O-O 7.O-O Nbd7 8.Qc2 c6 9.Bf4 b6 10.Rd1 Ba6 11.Nbd2 Rc8 12.Rac1 Nh5 13.Be3 Nhf6 14.Bg5 Bb7 15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Ng4 17.Bxe7 Qxe7 18.Nf3 f6 19.exf6 Nxf6 20.Bh3 Rce8 21.Qa4 c5 22.b4 cxb4 23.Qxa7 Ne4 24.Qxb6 Nc3 25.Re1 dxc4 26.a3 Bd5 27.Qxb4 Qxb4 28.axb4 Nxe2+ 29.Rxe2 Rxf3 30.Bg2 Rff8 31.Rd2 Rb8 32.Bxd5 exd5 33.Rxd5 Rxb4 34.Rc2 Rc8 35.Kf1 c3 36.Ke2 Rb7 37.Rd3 Rb2 38.Kd1 Rb1+ 39.Ke2 Rb2 40.Kd1 Rb1+ 1/2-1/2
Round 7, Mar. 25
Giri, Anish – Grischuk, Alexander
A20 English Opening
1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Nd4 d5 5.cxd5 Qxd5 6.Nc2 Nf6 7.Nc3 Qe5 8.Bg2 Na6 9.O-O Be7 10.Ne3 h5 11.d4 exd3 12.exd3 Qd4 13.Nc2 Qg4 14.Bf4 Qxd1 15.Raxd1 Bg4 16.Rd2 O-O-O 17.d4 Nc7 18.Ne3 Be6 19.d5 Ncxd5 20.Ncxd5 Nxd5 21.Nxd5 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Rxd5 23.Bxd5 cxd5 24.Rc1+ Kd7 25.Rc7+ Ke6 26.Rxb7 Rc8 27.Rxa7 Rc2 28.Be3 Bf6 29.Ra4 Bxb2 30.Kg2 d4 31.Bxd4 Bxd4 32.Rxd4 Rxa2 33.Re4+ Kf6 34.Rf4+ Ke6 35.Re4+ Kf6 36.Rf4+ Ke6 37.Re4+ Kf6 38.Rf4+ Ke6 39.h4 g6 40.Re4+ Kf6 1/2-1/2
Position after Black’s 28…Bf6
- Wow, Sasha finished a game before move 40 with 15 minutes on the clock!
Round 7, Mar. 25
MVL – Nepomniachtchi, Ian
C18 French, Winawer, Advance
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.h4 Qc7 8.h5 h6 9.Rb1 b6 10.Qg4 Rg8 11.Bb5+ Kf8 12.Bd3 Ba6 13.dxc5 Bxd3 14.cxd3 Nd7 15.d4 bxc5 16.Qd1 Qa5 17.Bd2 Rb8 18.Ne2 c4 19.O-O Rb6 20.Qc2 Rh8 21.a4 Ke8 22.Rb4 Nc6 23.f4 Ne7 24.Rfb1 f5 25.Rb5 Qa6 26.Bc1 Kf7 27.Ba3 Rhb8 28.Bxe7 Kxe7 29.g4 Rxb5 30.axb5 Rxb5 31.gxf5 Rxb1+ 32.Qxb1 exf5 33.Ng3 Qb6 34.Nxf5+ Kf8 35.Qa1 Qe6 36.Ng3 Qg4 37.Kg2 Qxf4 38.Qxa7 Ke7 39.Qa3+ Kd8 40.Qd6 g5 41.hxg6 h5 42.g7 1-0
Position after White’s 33.Ng3
Comments from the Chat
Simon Williams - Nepo's positions looks horrible. I gave up these French Defence positions where you haven't castled when I couldn't even grow a beard. You never want to play...c4 either. Predicting a @Vachier_Lagrave win, which will open things up!
- MVL plays 21.a4 - Magnus: "Cool as a French cucumber!"
Verdicts on MVL-Nepo
Grischuk: "If you put a knife to my throat I would say White is winning, but I'm unsure..."
Giri: "If you put a knife on Alexander's throat I will say White is winning"
Chess24 - French no. 1 MVL stops Nepo and becomes co-leader after crushing his opponent's French Defence!
Standings after Round Seven
1-2 Nepo, MVL 4.5
3-6 Caruana, Giri, Wang Hao, Grischuk 3.5
7-8 Ding Liren, Alekseenko 2.5
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