Candidates Tournament 2016 Round 14

Round 14 of  the Candidates Tournament has concluded and heartiest congratulations to Sergey Karjakin for winning the tournament.

The round saw an epic clash between the two leaders of the tournament - Fabiano Caruana and Sergey Karjakin. Other rounds ended in a draw quite quickly.

It was clear from the start that Caruana had to push on with his pieces, even though playing with black because Karjakin had a better tie break than him. It was an interesting game but as the time control drew nearer, black had to make some bold choices which might have led Caruana to play the only losing move of Rd5. Karjakin didn't made any mistake and grab the opportunity, few moves later, Caruana resigned.

Well... with this win, fans atleast would be glad that the game is not being decided by tie-breaks but actually a deserving win for Karjakin.

What next? Well, Karjakin might have won the right to take a shot at the world championship, but he needs to make an intense preparation as playing against Magnus is no cake walk who is at his prime.

Sergey Karjakin needs to do intense preparation to take on Magnus Carlsen

  What would be even more exciting to watch will the championship match itself.

Many believed that age was the factor in Anand-Carlsen match and the former could not cope up in the endgame grind that Magnus was putting him through. Well... now you have a challenger born in the same year as Magnus. So that factor is out of the way. In fact now that I think of it, Sergey holds the record for being the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess at 12 years 7 months.

Subscribe to my blog as any event these two guys would be playing will be covered here.

Candidates Tournament 2016 Round 13

Round 13 of the candidates tournament concluded today.

5 times world champion Vishy anand went down in a grilling battle against the Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri fighting for a win. But the latter seems to have no intentions to stop his drawing streak. He now has 13 draws in this tournament so far and would be the first player in the world to draw all the games in a candidate tournament, if he draws his last game.

As for Anand, Indian fans will be a bitter disappointed because this means that he is out of contention to win the tournament. Only Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana has a real chance to become the next challenger to Magnus Carlsen.

In other games, Hikaru Nakamura came out on top against Veselin Topalov, but the victory is too late to win the tournament.

Sergey Karjakin made a difficult draw against Levon Aronian, involving moves lasting more than 100.

Fabiano Caruana could not convert his rook + bishop vs rook endgame to a win against Peter Svidler. Analysis showed he had a real chance of mating, but threw it all back away a few moves later. Though the endgame was difficult and hardly you can blame Caruana as they played more than 6 hours and here also moves lasted more than 100, the time pressure and the 50 move rule were all acting against him.

American Fabiano Caruana

Sergey Karjakin

Anyways what this means is that we are going for an epic clash between the two leaders of the tournament! Karjakin vs Caruana. Without going into the details, this is how the Bermuda Triangle works:-

The one who wins becomes the winner of the tournament.

If the game is drawn between them, then :-
If Anand draws or loses to Svidler, then Sergey Karjakin is the champion.

If Anand wins, Caruana is the champion.

Taking a look at the standings one more time:-

#	Name	Pts	SB
1	Caruana, Fabiano	7.5	47.5
	Karjakin, Sergey	7.5	46
3	Anand, Viswanathan	7	43.25
4	Giri, Anish	6.5	43.5
	Svidler, Peter	6.5	41.75
	Aronian, Levon	6.5	40.75
	Nakamura, Hikaru	6.5	39
8	Topalov, Veselin	4	27.75

Candidates Tournament 2016 Round 12

Candidates Tournament has entered its 12th round. There were two decisive games.

5 times world champion Vishy Anand lost to American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in a miniature lasting only 26 moves. In another game , Sergery Karjakin had simple win against bulgerian grandmaster Veselin Topalov. Anish Giri continued his drawing streak, and made a comfortable draw against Peter Svidler. Finally , Fabiano Caruana made peace with Levon Aronian.

The lost against Nakamura would surely upset Anand fans as now the Indian Ace finds himself second to two co-leaders of the tournament - Caruana and Karjakin (with Karjakin having a better tie-break).

Nakamura in the press conference revealed that he had studied this line earlier and took a gamble that Anand would play the most suitable "human moves" and then went on to clinch the victory. This preparation payed off quite well as he was able to trap Anand in his jinx very early in the game. As expected Anand didn't utter a word in the press conference, his face clearly showing the look of disgust. The only problem facing Anand is that he gets to play the white pieces, but his opponent is someone who clearly preferes to have an all throught-out drawn tournament than winning or losing. He is Anish Giri.

Meanwhile Karjakin was able to pull out a win in an important game against Topalov. This put him in joint lead with Caruana. It is quite clear now, with two games left, the contention for the top spot is being grilled between these two players unless if out of miracle, someone comes from behind.

Caruana and Karjakin lead the tournament with 7 points each.

Taking a look at the scoresheet now.

#	Name	Pts	SB
1	Caruana, Fabiano	7	40.5
	Karjakin, Sergey	7	39.25
3	Anand, Viswanathan	6.5	37.25
4	Giri, Anish	6	36.75
	Svidler, Peter	6	35
	Aronian, Levon	6	34.25
7	Nakamura, Hikaru	5.5	32.75
8	Topalov, Veselin	4	25.75

1

Caruana, Fabiano

7

40.5

Karjakin, Sergey

7

39.25

3

Anand, Viswanathan

6.5

37.25

4

Giri, Anish

6

36.75

Svidler, Peter

6

35

Aronian, Levon

6

34.25

7

Nakamura, Hikaru

5.5

32.75

8

Topalov, Veselin

4

25.75

Candidates Tournament 2016 Round 11

Candidates Tournament never fails to show its audience the entertainment they expect out of one of the important tournaments in chess. With the tournament coming to an end, blood is spilling everywhere for the first place.

Round 11 saw the game of the day between Anand and Karjakin. Anand opened with e4 and the Russian Grandmaster opted for the berlin defense, one of the best defense against the e4 which slowly steers the game for a draw. What looked to be drawn endgame of opposite coloured bishops and a rook, Anand managed to find the win by slowly improving his position. Anand only have one game with the white pieces , but the opponent is Anish Giri who has not lost any games and have drawn all.

Vishy Anand now is in the lead with Fabiano Caruana

The other decisive game was between Peter Svidler and Levon Aronian. With his loss, Aronian has slipped a few ranks and is tied in 4th place with Anish Giri and Peter Svidler. The task of achieving a victory in the tournament means going all in in the remaining three games for a win, most probably.

Aronian Loss with the white pieces against Svidler may have cost him the tournament.

With that being is said , lets take a look at the current standings.

#	Name	Pts	SB
1	Caruana, Fabiano	6.5	34.5
	Anand, Viswanathan	6.5	34
3	Karjakin, Sergey	6	32.25
4	Giri, Anish	5.5	30.5
	Svidler, Peter	5.5	28.75
	Aronian, Levon	5.5	28.25
7	Nakamura, Hikaru	4.5	24.5
8	Topalov, Veselin	4	23.75

1

Caruana, Fabiano

6.5

34.5

Anand, Viswanathan

6.5

34

3

Karjakin, Sergey

6

32.25

4

Giri, Anish

5.5

30.5

Svidler, Peter

5.5

28.75

Aronian, Levon

5.5

28.25

7

Nakamura, Hikaru

4.5

24.5

8

Topalov, Veselin

4

23.75

Candidates Tournament 2016 Round 10

Round 10 of the Candidates Tournament saw only one decisive victory between Fabiano Caruana and Vishy Anand with the American winning the game with the white pieces.

The opening used was the English and Caruana had come with deep preparation. His theoretical knowledge was very deep and kept the India Ace to the edge the whole game. Anand could not find a concrete response to the attacking forces of Caruana and the latter came up with a bishop sacrifice which sealed the deal and few moves later , Anand resigned.

Fabiano Caruana

The rest of the games ended in a draw.
With the win, Caruana has catapaulted himself to the top with Sergey Karjakin. Both share 6 points lead and it also seems the competition is between the two for the title. There are only 4 rounds remaining in the tournament.

Candidates Tournament 2016

It's been a long time since I published a post on chess. So I kind of decided to go on and regularly update my viewers about things happening in chess right now.

So we have got these candidates matches going on and it has just become interesting and turning out to be something really special. Err... just before I tell you about the things that are going on , it is worth looking at the current standings as far as the competition is concerned in the tournament.
For anybody who does not know what candidates tournament is all about. It is a tournament conducted to find the rightful challenger to the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen to fight for the epic ...the most prestigious...World Champion status.

#	Name	Pts	SB
1	Karjakin, Sergey	5.5	23.5
	Anand, Viswanathan	5.5	22.5
3	Caruana, Fabiano	5	21.25
	Aronian, Levon	5	21
5	Giri, Anish	4.5	20.75
6	Svidler, Peter	4	17.5
7	Nakamura, Hikaru	3.5	15.25
8	Topalov, Veselin	3	14.25

Well, so that's about it, To be honest I'll tell you who are most likely players already out for contention. Those are the bottom two and probably Peter Svidler too.

It's been a spectacular event with lots and ups and downs.

Sergey Karjakin and Vishy Anand are really fighting it out for the place in the top. If things goes on like this, the result of a tie would favour the Russian Grandmaster due to his SB score, unless Vishy overtakes him or beats him with a head-to-head game.

Looking forward to the game and it is going to be intense.

The match is currently being played at Moscow, the beautiful city of Russia.

World Chess Championship 2014

( 6 November-25 November 2014 )

The World Chess Championship is around the Corner.

Venue for the site is Sochi, Russia.

Will the defending champion, Magnus Carlsen, be able to defend his title against former world champion , Vishwanathan Anand, from whom he just snatched the crown only last year?

The 23 year old Norwegian chess prodigy,the  “Mozart of Chess” will take on 44 year old  “Madras Tiger” later this year in a match of 12 games and if necessary, tie-break games.

Anand, who proved his critics wrong earlier this year by winning the prestigious Candidates Tournament held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, with dominating 3 wins, earned him the right to match Carlsen for the world championship title bout.  

Carlsen, already the world no. 1 player in the world and the highest rated player of all time, won the Rapid and Blitz tournament held in Dubai this year. While his positional style of play resonates as those of Anatoly Karpov, Jose Raul Capablanca and Vasily Smyslov.

“Carlsen is a combination of Karpov and Fischer. He gets his positions and then never lets go of that bulldog bite. Exhausting for opponents.” - Garry Kasparov

Magnus Carlsen

“Carlsen has been known to say that he isn't all that interested in opening preparation; his main forte is the middlegame, in which he manages to outplay many of his opponents with positional means. ... Carlsen's repertoire is aimed at avoiding an early crisis in the game. He invariably aims for middlegames that lend themselves to a strategcic approach.” - Jan Timman

His challenger, is Vishwanathan Anand from India. Vishy, as he is known, is a five time world champion. He also has rapid and blitz title in his bag. He is a deep tactical master who calculates his position very quickly. As white, e4 is his best choice and prefers solid classical defences as black. For him its a revenge match against Carlsen, whom he was humiliated at his hometown in Chennai, India last year. He went down against the 22 year old without winning a single game and losing three.

The match between the two would finally put an end to the speculation of many as to whether age is a factor in chess.

Vishwanathan Anand

The following are the dates as set by FIDE for the scheduling of the tournament.

Date                 Day         Event

06 November 2014 Thursday Game 1

07 November 2014 Friday        Game 2

08 November 2014 Saturday Rest day

09 November 2014 Sunday Game 3

10 November 2014 Monday Game 4

11 November 2014 Tuesday Rest day

12 November 2014 Wednesday Game 5

13 November 2014 Thursday Game 6

14 November 2014 Friday Rest day

15 November 2014 Saturday Game 7

16 November 2014 Sunday Game 8

17 November 2014 Monday Rest day

18 November 2014 Tuesday Game 9

19 November 2014 Wednesday Game 10

20 November 2014 Thursday Rest day

21 November 2014 Friday Game 11

22 November 2014 Saturday Rest day

23 November 2014 Sunday Game 12

24 November 2014 Monday Rest day

25 November 2014 Tuesday Tie-break games

Be sure to subscribe to my blog as I would be posting everything regarding to the events leading up to the world championship and the world championship itself. Leave comments to whom do you support and consider favorite.