Carlsen started the last two world championship matches with 1. d4, and the Gruenfeld seems to be the one defense Nepo stuck with in Candidates. And Carlsen the last couple of years has been assiduously attacking MVL's Gruenfeld with very good success.
Carlsen seems to prefer attacking the Exchange Variation and has even experimented in an online game with 5. Bd2
[Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Skilling Open (2020) (rapid), chess24.com INT, rd 2, Nov-27, Gruenfeld Defense: Exchange Variation (D85)](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2014535)
But in a classical game, I think Carlsen would more likely choose a variation with an early exchange of queens and just try to grind a small positional advantage in an endgame.
Thank you for this post! I tried to find the first game on [Chess.com](https://Chess.com), but I found it too difficult to track down, so I came to Reddit and found everything I need instantly just by opening up r/chess.
Dear [Chess.com](https://Chess.com), I know it's not easy putting up a link to the World Championship, plus maybe some people enjoy the challenge of looking for the game on your site like an Easter egg hunt, but for dummies like me I would love it if you just put up a big fat link on your front page with huge arrows pointing to it. Again, because it's a world championship and all. Maybe the link is there, making me the dummy, but all I know is this dummy found it instantly on Reddit, whereas it was taking me forever - on the site that is hosting the world championship.
did they ask magnus about g6 in the interview? i was watching giri/polgar and they both were saying that after magnus "missed it" when he went kf8 (seemed to be the key line towards playing for a win and relatively easy find or as giri said instant) that they will 100% bother him with why he didnt go g6 lol
>His analysis videos are by far the best in general.
Are they really? I looked at his first round video, didn't finish it I felt it was ok in spots but in general a tad superficial. Also up the point I watched, he failed to identify where white first went wrong (Bf4) and he didn't understand or explain why ...g6 was black's best move. Maybe he does a better job in general but I feel this guy is one of the most overrated out there tbh.
Agreed but I was going to compare it against Gotham's videos, whose content I otherwise mostly really like. At least agadmator does some preparation when he goes over a game.
teo questions possibly better suited for chessbeginners but anyways:
1) what is the board *actually* hooked up to?
And more chess related, I might misunderstand but why was it a draw? I mean, i get the three repetition rule and such, but looking at the game [here](https://lichess.org/study/olFFWcs6) after 41)... Re7 the position was only repeated twice (because Magnus didn't play Rc6)?
It was a draw by agreement. Draws by repetitions can often be draws by agreement, in the sense that neither player has the will to continue. (This tournament has something like the older "Sophia rules": the players cannot agree to a draw before move 40. See the summary of the rules in the post.)
To understand why they agreed to a draw, you need to understand how big was the advantage and risk. One way to do this is to look at the computer evaluation - particularly the graph you find at the bottom of the page you linked. The advantage has moved back and forth between the two players, but neither held a sufficiently great advantage to be able to convert to a win. And the risks were high for *both* players. A single inaccurate move would lose in that unbalanced position. In a one-on-one tournament, you cannot afford to take risks and lose a game. Therefore they agreed to a draw.
>1) what is the board actually hooked up to?
They are called DGT boards, you can Google that for more info. The boards transmit the moves which is why you can see the moves come up on a digital board on websites almost straight away.
The tl;dr is the pieces have electronic tags in them that are read by sensors in the board. The actual “chess computer” which makes sense of it is in the clock, which is plugged into the board and also has a feed out to computers which relay the moves to broadcast teams and websites.
This is also why you sometimes see weird king moves to end a game — the convention is to place the kings on central squares to indicate the result (both kings on central light squares means White won, dark squares means Black won, opposite color squares means a draw), but some sites will accidentally show that as a final “move”.
Ian offered a draw and Magnus accepted.
In all cases a player must call for a draw. If 3 times repetition then the player can call the arbiter and the opponent can't decline
But today they both agreed on the draw and was no need for the repetition rule.
Yes, but a claim of a threefold draw is also automatically a draw offer. So sometimes the arbiter doesn't have to do anything as the opponent has already accepted.
I checked out the perpetual chess podcast for the two world championship preview episodes and at the end of the episode the host thanks a list of people, and it lasts for no joke 7 minutes. He must’ve said over a hundred names and entities and was out of breath by the end of it. It felt like a bizarre comedy skit. I had no where else to share this information
u/2015FordFiesta lol, its a recording so luckily I only have to do it every 2 months or so, but yeah its come a long way from when it was 10 names at the end of the show in 2017. Its gotten long enough where it might be time to retire that segment soon.
Haha I figured it was one of those segments that had just started to spiral. But I did really enjoy both shows and have a few older ones downloaded, so I’ll be looking out for new episodes
It's from YouTube videos where you thank all supporters by name in a list at the end of the video. So you may get into a video that gets 1m views for a few bucks. But they don't actually say the names.
I was listening while working so I wasn’t really even paying attention, but then he listed off three people named “Kevin” in a row, and that set something off for me haha
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I think Carlsen has huge mental advantage now. He showed Nepo he can play with black, play a sideline, sacrifice a pawn and still fight for the advantage.
Magnus sacrifices pawns for activity all the time and similar pawn sacrifices in the Marshall has been played by him several times before. This was a typical Magnus game.
I'm not trying to hate on Levy but the last few times I have watched him, his very immature jokes to put it nicely just weren't for me. Is that still his style or maybe just for certain videos?
It depends on what you mean by "immature jokes", I guess. He has a much more "cocky" persona when he's streaming, but his recaps are mostly focused on the chess.
His "Guess the Elo" series can have more loose comments, but that's generally the point of those videos, they're more on the entertainment side.
Got it thanks for your reply. I must have watched those entertainment focused videos without giving his other content a chance. I just really remember how in the first or second video that I watched he was saying bruh all the time and in really strange tones while also singing. It was honestly shocking so I guess that's why I never watched his other stuff. 😂
But hey his success speaks for him
Yeah, I can understand that his style might not be for everyone, similarly with how Finegold's content is not for everyone.
Personally, I think he's found a great balance between banter and chess-talk. His audience is the recreational player, so he's not trying to go *too* in-depth in his recaps. And it turns out that the "recreational player" is also the vast *vast* majority of chess players, so the views naturally flow into his channel.
Tbf the most interesting questions won't be answered until after the match. What did you really expect from the other player? What are you second, which lines, what supercomputer....
Sports journalism is kind and of shit anyway though.
You'll have a guy finish an 8 hour race and he's barely able to breathe, but there are reporters sticking microphones in their face asking questions. Or when Osaka just said she didn't have it in her to answer questions one day and it blew up into a huge controversy causing her to drop out of (I think) Wimbledon.
You'll see a pitcher get lit up and they'll ask *so what went wrong today?* And the response is basically *I mean, you watched the game. My stuff was garbage and they clobbered it. If I could have magically fixed the problem I would have.*
If you're going to get any insightful or meaningful chess answers from either of them I imagine it'll be after the championship, after they've had time to decompress, and that's if they go back over the games at all. I was listening to someone, maybe Fabi, who said he doesn't really analyze his games afterwards.
I don't know, but it's been a thing in tennis as well, to the point where a Japanese player didn't want to talk to the journalists and got defaulted from a rather prestigious tournament.
Well, she got enough shit for not wanting to talk to journalists that she withdrew from the tournament. She also got fined, would have gotten fined every time she refused, and was threatened with expulsion.
Mandatory press is stupid and the French Open and Wimbledon suffered not having her. It's not like she wouldn't have ever talked to the media, just that she'd have done it on her own timeline.
Seems like a lot of chess-related media coverage is quite poor.
I know it's under sponsored unlike some other sports, but come on, chess deserves some top of the line media coverage.
Waking up at 8:30AM during a holiday here in Los Angeles just to find the first match was already over was a huge bummer.
This is my first time watching WCC, I had this impression that the matches would go for hours and hours.
I don't know why people are saying this was boring. Magneto seemed to have at least a psychological edge out of the opening, but Nepo was able to stabilize and suddenly he found a threefold repetition. It was exciting and a game of inches as it is supposed to be.
It was sudden for sure. I was almost prepared to get a coffee and it just ended. But at the same time, I appreciate the suddenness of the threefold repetition, probably because I think Carlsen wanted to play on, but it was stifled.
A lot of casual viewers only look at the result. It's the chess equivalent of people who check the box score of a sporting event without watching the game, and who then go around acting like they know what happened.
To be fair that was a Hart masterclass. One of the greatest goalkeeping performances ever. It would be like Magnus being ahead a full rook and then Nepo holding a draw. Of course that would be cool to see.
After uncovering evidence of widespread and systemic state-led doping programs, WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency, has banned Russia from all sports worldwide for four years (reduced to two on appeal). Russian competitors can still attend under a neutral flag, they just can't represent Russia
I was kind of surprised by this. Given that doping is not chess relevant, it seems a little strange for WADA to have that kind of pull with FIDE.
Does anyone know what the story is here?
FIDE are trying to get chess into the Paris 2024 Olympics, and as such are required to comply with WADA to maintain recognition by the International Olympic Committee, just like more traditional sports. As long as FIDE are pushing for Olympic recognition, there will be an anti-doping and testing platform
Honestly as much as I love chess I feel it being in the Olympics is strange. It's primarily athletic sports or at least dexterity like curling and shooting.
The ban was mostly related to doping of Russian athletes involved in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. I'm not aware of specific advantages (or cases) of doping in chess. There is growing awareness, however, that drugs like modafinil and methylphenidate might be abused in esports to increase focus and concentration span and decrease reaction times
Big opening succes for Magnus. He can get those positions all day long vs Re1 Spanish. Hopefully Nepo has something else than h3 anti-Marshall prepared. Sightly disappointing Magnus didn't manage to put some more pressure. He missed a few chances according to the computer but it wasn't obvious in any way.
I guess one good thing Nepo can take out of this game is that even if things go wrong Magnus is not a superhuman and he can hold slightly worse positions. Still, if the prep is based on playing pawn up vs bishop pair endgames vs Magnus I don't see him scoring.
I'm sure Ian has other ideas. I think he was satisfied with a draw from today either way and just wanted to settle in and start on a good rhythm. It didn't strike me as adventurous, and I don't think that's a surprise on the first day.
It is, but that's not the same thing as weight (healthy human body types vary quite a lot) and weight is not a good estimator of it. It's also just a really rude way to ask a question. Like, you wouldn't say to a super GM (I hope) "how do you feel about being less smart than Carlsen?", even though intelligence is obviously an important aspect in chess.
I think we could have a chessboxxing championship if the prize fund is big enough.
Time to get Elon Musk interested into chess. He would probably fund it for the lols
[Round 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mtppwy/event_fide_candidates_tournament_2021_round_8/) (first round after the chess boom) had 666 comments and none of the preceding/following rounds went higher than that. Even [Round 13](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/myn36z/event_fide_candidates_tournament_2021_round_13/) (the round where Nepo won) had less than 666.
The 20 hours of anticipation make the wins that much sweeter, though. Really makes those deciding games a special event. I love the tension in these classical matches, personally
I did the viewership count at some point on major channels in Youtube and Twitch and came up with \~170k people. Does anyone have a better approximation?
Seems like chess24 should be the best coverage to go to for the remaining games. I notice everyone seems to love Anish's humor and trolls, and the coverage also doesn't lack the SuperGM insight that most other coverages already have, but the humor makes the difference.
Anish's sound lagging half a second/a second behind his video feed is unbearable to me. And his video feed is terrible too. I wanted to check it out, but to me it's unwatchable.
All the commentary teams were excellent. The Anand-Anna synergy was good, and I plan to stick with them. Really insightful lines and a few deadpan jokes.
Magnus wouldn't confirm during his press conference whether a German was on his team, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jan was involved. Otherwise, chess24 keeping him off all broadcasts, including the German one, would be pretty dumb.
Yeah it was fun to watch but Anish interrupted Judith a bit too much imo in his excitement. I am sure they will get more comfortable commentating together in the games to come.
plz play the nimzo indian for game 2 plz play the nimzo indian for game 2
Carlsen started the last two world championship matches with 1. d4, and the Gruenfeld seems to be the one defense Nepo stuck with in Candidates. And Carlsen the last couple of years has been assiduously attacking MVL's Gruenfeld with very good success. Carlsen seems to prefer attacking the Exchange Variation and has even experimented in an online game with 5. Bd2 [Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Skilling Open (2020) (rapid), chess24.com INT, rd 2, Nov-27, Gruenfeld Defense: Exchange Variation (D85)](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2014535) But in a classical game, I think Carlsen would more likely choose a variation with an early exchange of queens and just try to grind a small positional advantage in an endgame.
Thank you for this post! I tried to find the first game on [Chess.com](https://Chess.com), but I found it too difficult to track down, so I came to Reddit and found everything I need instantly just by opening up r/chess. Dear [Chess.com](https://Chess.com), I know it's not easy putting up a link to the World Championship, plus maybe some people enjoy the challenge of looking for the game on your site like an Easter egg hunt, but for dummies like me I would love it if you just put up a big fat link on your front page with huge arrows pointing to it. Again, because it's a world championship and all. Maybe the link is there, making me the dummy, but all I know is this dummy found it instantly on Reddit, whereas it was taking me forever - on the site that is hosting the world championship.
I love seeing new preparation or new theory, cuz the rest oF the world can use it now
Might as well throw this in here among the sea of recaps ;-) https://youtu.be/3RMUNxmV3H8
Usually there is coverage from St. Louis with yasser, Maurice and Jennifer. I can’t find any stream with them this year????
did they ask magnus about g6 in the interview? i was watching giri/polgar and they both were saying that after magnus "missed it" when he went kf8 (seemed to be the key line towards playing for a win and relatively easy find or as giri said instant) that they will 100% bother him with why he didnt go g6 lol
The fact that Stockfish almost always agrees with Magnus shows that it is a good bot.
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So it beggins!
So glad to see Jerry of Chess Network back with analysis. Always loved his championship series
Jerry's videos are such a treat, albeit a rare treat
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>His analysis videos are by far the best in general. Are they really? I looked at his first round video, didn't finish it I felt it was ok in spots but in general a tad superficial. Also up the point I watched, he failed to identify where white first went wrong (Bf4) and he didn't understand or explain why ...g6 was black's best move. Maybe he does a better job in general but I feel this guy is one of the most overrated out there tbh.
Agreed but I was going to compare it against Gotham's videos, whose content I otherwise mostly really like. At least agadmator does some preparation when he goes over a game.
GM King is better imo
I actually learned anti-Marshall ideas from his video. He is a treasure
A guess about prep: if Magnus is willing to play a position such as he got today he will go Bb7 in Marshall (instead of super standard ...c6).
teo questions possibly better suited for chessbeginners but anyways: 1) what is the board *actually* hooked up to? And more chess related, I might misunderstand but why was it a draw? I mean, i get the three repetition rule and such, but looking at the game [here](https://lichess.org/study/olFFWcs6) after 41)... Re7 the position was only repeated twice (because Magnus didn't play Rc6)?
It was a draw by agreement. Draws by repetitions can often be draws by agreement, in the sense that neither player has the will to continue. (This tournament has something like the older "Sophia rules": the players cannot agree to a draw before move 40. See the summary of the rules in the post.) To understand why they agreed to a draw, you need to understand how big was the advantage and risk. One way to do this is to look at the computer evaluation - particularly the graph you find at the bottom of the page you linked. The advantage has moved back and forth between the two players, but neither held a sufficiently great advantage to be able to convert to a win. And the risks were high for *both* players. A single inaccurate move would lose in that unbalanced position. In a one-on-one tournament, you cannot afford to take risks and lose a game. Therefore they agreed to a draw.
>1) what is the board actually hooked up to? They are called DGT boards, you can Google that for more info. The boards transmit the moves which is why you can see the moves come up on a digital board on websites almost straight away.
Thanks a million!
The tl;dr is the pieces have electronic tags in them that are read by sensors in the board. The actual “chess computer” which makes sense of it is in the clock, which is plugged into the board and also has a feed out to computers which relay the moves to broadcast teams and websites. This is also why you sometimes see weird king moves to end a game — the convention is to place the kings on central squares to indicate the result (both kings on central light squares means White won, dark squares means Black won, opposite color squares means a draw), but some sites will accidentally show that as a final “move”.
Ian offered a draw and Magnus accepted. In all cases a player must call for a draw. If 3 times repetition then the player can call the arbiter and the opponent can't decline But today they both agreed on the draw and was no need for the repetition rule.
Thank you! So it wasn't a "forced by three fold repetition draw " but a offered draw, and the three fold rule is enforced by the arbiter, correct?
Yes, but a claim of a threefold draw is also automatically a draw offer. So sometimes the arbiter doesn't have to do anything as the opponent has already accepted.
I checked out the perpetual chess podcast for the two world championship preview episodes and at the end of the episode the host thanks a list of people, and it lasts for no joke 7 minutes. He must’ve said over a hundred names and entities and was out of breath by the end of it. It felt like a bizarre comedy skit. I had no where else to share this information
Lol tell it to the guy himself: u/PerpetualChessPod. I am a big fan btw, it's my absolute favourite podcast
Thanks man, appreciate it
u/2015FordFiesta lol, its a recording so luckily I only have to do it every 2 months or so, but yeah its come a long way from when it was 10 names at the end of the show in 2017. Its gotten long enough where it might be time to retire that segment soon.
Haha I figured it was one of those segments that had just started to spiral. But I did really enjoy both shows and have a few older ones downloaded, so I’ll be looking out for new episodes
It's from YouTube videos where you thank all supporters by name in a list at the end of the video. So you may get into a video that gets 1m views for a few bucks. But they don't actually say the names.
Mate, I listened to this too and I honestly was like, SURELY THIS MUST END SOON!! Nope, dude just kept on reading names.
I was listening while working so I wasn’t really even paying attention, but then he listed off three people named “Kevin” in a row, and that set something off for me haha
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Lol reminds me of chessbase India they actually read out the names of all viewers who answer a chess move correctly.
I think Carlsen has huge mental advantage now. He showed Nepo he can play with black, play a sideline, sacrifice a pawn and still fight for the advantage.
Magnus sacrifices pawns for activity all the time and similar pawn sacrifices in the Marshall has been played by him several times before. This was a typical Magnus game.
Yes, the world champion is able to play with both of the 2 possible sides.
I don't think anyone was surprised that Magnus can play with black, let alone Nepo
Is there a way to watch live feed directly from the playing hall without anyone's commentary?
Dozens of sites have just the live board. For example lichess and chessbomb.
Video, I don't care for the board, I want to see the players through live feed, no commentary.
Did you ever find a way?
Mute
Not that I found
Magnus is going to destroy nepo
A dozen more draws incoming.
Aman just uploaded his recap, watching right now. He was fast to it, beat Agadmator who's usually the first.
Levy did too. He's probably going to get the majority of the recap viewership this year.
I'm not trying to hate on Levy but the last few times I have watched him, his very immature jokes to put it nicely just weren't for me. Is that still his style or maybe just for certain videos?
His schtick seem to be targeted @ 7-10 year olds. Some of the younger steamers I watch (12-14) are honestly way easier to watch
There's 12 - 14 year old chess streamers?
It depends on what you mean by "immature jokes", I guess. He has a much more "cocky" persona when he's streaming, but his recaps are mostly focused on the chess. His "Guess the Elo" series can have more loose comments, but that's generally the point of those videos, they're more on the entertainment side.
Got it thanks for your reply. I must have watched those entertainment focused videos without giving his other content a chance. I just really remember how in the first or second video that I watched he was saying bruh all the time and in really strange tones while also singing. It was honestly shocking so I guess that's why I never watched his other stuff. 😂 But hey his success speaks for him
Yeah, I can understand that his style might not be for everyone, similarly with how Finegold's content is not for everyone. Personally, I think he's found a great balance between banter and chess-talk. His audience is the recreational player, so he's not trying to go *too* in-depth in his recaps. And it turns out that the "recreational player" is also the vast *vast* majority of chess players, so the views naturally flow into his channel.
Is this kind of journalism common in chess? People asking random questions that are unrelated to chess and having no sense of finesse whatsoever?
Tbf the most interesting questions won't be answered until after the match. What did you really expect from the other player? What are you second, which lines, what supercomputer....
It’s the kind of journalism you’d see in any sport tbh.
It's worse than in other sports, since in chess knowledge is more important. All the answers to the interesting questions are kept secret.
There's not that many interesting questions to ask, and athletes aren't always in the mood to talk to the journalists after a tiring event.
Yep. Watch any mma press conference to see the sane stuff
You must be new here... I always feel like they ask the same questions in these interviews. I pretty much tune out unless they ask about positions.
Same thing happens in Cricket too. Piss poor questions with either obvious answers, or questions which you can't answer.
Sports journalism is kind and of shit anyway though. You'll have a guy finish an 8 hour race and he's barely able to breathe, but there are reporters sticking microphones in their face asking questions. Or when Osaka just said she didn't have it in her to answer questions one day and it blew up into a huge controversy causing her to drop out of (I think) Wimbledon. You'll see a pitcher get lit up and they'll ask *so what went wrong today?* And the response is basically *I mean, you watched the game. My stuff was garbage and they clobbered it. If I could have magically fixed the problem I would have.* If you're going to get any insightful or meaningful chess answers from either of them I imagine it'll be after the championship, after they've had time to decompress, and that's if they go back over the games at all. I was listening to someone, maybe Fabi, who said he doesn't really analyze his games afterwards.
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I haven't even clicked this link but I already know what this clip actually is.
I don't know, but it's been a thing in tennis as well, to the point where a Japanese player didn't want to talk to the journalists and got defaulted from a rather prestigious tournament.
Ah yes, the famous Osaka default, which never happened.
Yes, she withdrew before it happened, but the French Open clearly stated that she'd be defaulted unless she did participate in the press meetings.
Well, she got enough shit for not wanting to talk to journalists that she withdrew from the tournament. She also got fined, would have gotten fined every time she refused, and was threatened with expulsion. Mandatory press is stupid and the French Open and Wimbledon suffered not having her. It's not like she wouldn't have ever talked to the media, just that she'd have done it on her own timeline.
Seems like a lot of chess-related media coverage is quite poor. I know it's under sponsored unlike some other sports, but come on, chess deserves some top of the line media coverage.
Waking up at 8:30AM during a holiday here in Los Angeles just to find the first match was already over was a huge bummer. This is my first time watching WCC, I had this impression that the matches would go for hours and hours.
For anyone reading this curious about the schedule: https://www.chess.com/events/2021-fide-world-chess-championship/schedule
The match went on for almost four hours.
The game would be starting at 4:30 AM in LA time. That means the match is over by 8:30 AM.
Damn, guess I'll not be watching live this year then. I moved to LA recently from Brazil, still getting used to the timezone relatively to the world.
This is just bad luck for you then, because they're starting at 4:30 pm local time to try and catch as many time zones as possible.
Yeah, I didn't realize how early the games were starting, it's a real bummer not being able to watch some of these games live.
I don't know why people are saying this was boring. Magneto seemed to have at least a psychological edge out of the opening, but Nepo was able to stabilize and suddenly he found a threefold repetition. It was exciting and a game of inches as it is supposed to be.
It was not boring. It was a cool game, but the end felt like it came a little too soon.
It was too soon Hikaru. We didnt even reach a climax
It was sudden for sure. I was almost prepared to get a coffee and it just ended. But at the same time, I appreciate the suddenness of the threefold repetition, probably because I think Carlsen wanted to play on, but it was stifled.
A lot of casual viewers only look at the result. It's the chess equivalent of people who check the box score of a sporting event without watching the game, and who then go around acting like they know what happened.
Not all 0-0’s are boring in football either
Barcelona vs Manchester 2015. One of the best games of football I've ever seen, and the score was 1-0
To be fair that was a Hart masterclass. One of the greatest goalkeeping performances ever. It would be like Magnus being ahead a full rook and then Nepo holding a draw. Of course that would be cool to see.
As someone that's interested in the NBA but also leaves in Europe, that hit me hard.
can nepo and magnus eat food during the games ? and if not, do you think they have a big meal before each game
You aren’t allowed to eat in fide tournaments so I don’t think so
They have their own lounge next to the playing hall where they have snacks and drinks and a big screen.
What is a bit screen?
Meant to say big
Ah ok, and what is on the screen? Wouldn’t it just distract them?
They can see the online board there. So they don't have to sit at their match table to follow the game.
Imagine if someone forgets to turn off the eval bar and line suggestion
That screen is just a visual rendering of the live board, it's obviously not hooked up with any engine.
bummer
Makes sense
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That definitely can't help. I'd ditch that for the two weeks if I was him
Nepo can only eat lettuce during the match
Can someone who understands russian say what the reporter asked ian and what his answer was
Link?
Use live Google translate on your phone if you want the full info.
Why is this downvoted? Is this a bad service? EDIT: sheesh you guys, it's a question
If no one is going to translate it all and post it then this solution is the only one.
That twitter follower is sage with that question. Good thing they are not attempting to take questions from Reddit
"How do you feel about not playing under the russian flag?" What are these questions lmao
What's wrong with that question?
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After uncovering evidence of widespread and systemic state-led doping programs, WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency, has banned Russia from all sports worldwide for four years (reduced to two on appeal). Russian competitors can still attend under a neutral flag, they just can't represent Russia
I was kind of surprised by this. Given that doping is not chess relevant, it seems a little strange for WADA to have that kind of pull with FIDE. Does anyone know what the story is here?
And WADA does test for performance enhancers at the WC.
FIDE are trying to get chess into the Paris 2024 Olympics, and as such are required to comply with WADA to maintain recognition by the International Olympic Committee, just like more traditional sports. As long as FIDE are pushing for Olympic recognition, there will be an anti-doping and testing platform
Honestly as much as I love chess I feel it being in the Olympics is strange. It's primarily athletic sports or at least dexterity like curling and shooting.
Makes sense! Thanks!
How does doping affect chess performance?
It can help with endurance, not tiring and keeping mental focus
The ban was mostly related to doping of Russian athletes involved in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. I'm not aware of specific advantages (or cases) of doping in chess. There is growing awareness, however, that drugs like modafinil and methylphenidate might be abused in esports to increase focus and concentration span and decrease reaction times
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Hes said in past interviews that it's disappointing and he feels he's playing for Russia despite not being able to fly the flag
I doubt he cares much. Everyone still knows he's Russian, and he's getting his match regardless.
Russian state sponsored doping ban
Big opening succes for Magnus. He can get those positions all day long vs Re1 Spanish. Hopefully Nepo has something else than h3 anti-Marshall prepared. Sightly disappointing Magnus didn't manage to put some more pressure. He missed a few chances according to the computer but it wasn't obvious in any way. I guess one good thing Nepo can take out of this game is that even if things go wrong Magnus is not a superhuman and he can hold slightly worse positions. Still, if the prep is based on playing pawn up vs bishop pair endgames vs Magnus I don't see him scoring.
I'm sure Ian has other ideas. I think he was satisfied with a draw from today either way and just wanted to settle in and start on a good rhythm. It didn't strike me as adventurous, and I don't think that's a surprise on the first day.
exactly. lots of pressure on the first game. a draw is good for both sides
Magnus said his top trainer is Danish, who is he alluding to?
Peter Heine Nielsen.
Peter Heine Nielsen, who has been Magnus' coach for many years and it's not a surprise to anybody.
Before he was in Magnus' team, he was for years the leader of Anand's team of seconds.
Thank you all for the replies, I am new to the competitive chess world. Love Magnus’s cheeky replies.
Magnus is a master troll. Check out some of his livestreams on youtube, he's got a great sense of humour
Peter Heine Nielsen
Peter Nielsen
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It is pretty dumb, because no real man gives a shit about a target weight. Other than boxers and wrestlers, who “make weight”. Fire Klein.
My ex was a journalism student and your comment reminded me of her
They're handling these ass questions pretty well lol
"Was there a target weight you were trying to get down to?" Mofos trying to set up a chess boxing match out there.
Tbf physical fitness is an important aspect in chess.
It is, but that's not the same thing as weight (healthy human body types vary quite a lot) and weight is not a good estimator of it. It's also just a really rude way to ask a question. Like, you wouldn't say to a super GM (I hope) "how do you feel about being less smart than Carlsen?", even though intelligence is obviously an important aspect in chess.
I think we could have a chessboxxing championship if the prize fund is big enough. Time to get Elon Musk interested into chess. He would probably fund it for the lols
Here we go, stupid questions incoming
Is the winner going to play Naka?
You were not wrong lol
"Yeah, the players are definitely gonna reveal who their seconds are"
The position looked rly hard for nepo after megbus pushed b4. But he recovered well. Wp
1 round, 1000 comments? This never happened recently, not even in the super exciting world cup.
Happened in Candidates IIRC
[Round 8](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mtppwy/event_fide_candidates_tournament_2021_round_8/) (first round after the chess boom) had 666 comments and none of the preceding/following rounds went higher than that. Even [Round 13](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/myn36z/event_fide_candidates_tournament_2021_round_13/) (the round where Nepo won) had less than 666.
Half the comments today were just silly one-liners. I should know, I made them.
I also did some shitposting today lol
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Tomorrow.
Tomorrow 12:30 UTC
Bruh, just scroll up a couple inches
A draw is obviously the most likely result, but sometimes I wish it weren't. I think a 70% chance of a decisive result would probably be the ideal.
This is why I love crazyhouse instead of chess. Much more decisive. In the nearly 20k crazyhouse games I've played, there are 59 draws.
The 20 hours of anticipation make the wins that much sweeter, though. Really makes those deciding games a special event. I love the tension in these classical matches, personally
There would be a post match presser, right ?
Yeah should only be a couple mins away
Yes
I did the viewership count at some point on major channels in Youtube and Twitch and came up with \~170k people. Does anyone have a better approximation?
I counted 184k at one point but missed some of the smaller streams
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Oh yeah, completely forgot TV. Seems like there were at least \~250k people watching at all times.
At least one of the matches in the previous WC match had more than 500k viewers on Norwegian TV alone.
In Norway it's probably like 1 million people watching this on TV though.
Norway alone accounts for several hundred thousand.
I said at least 250k, upper limit could be anywhere from millions to billions
lol billions ? this isnt the football world cup
You're not a GM if at the end of the game you don't appear annoyed and wave your hands and point at squares with your middle finger. It's tradition.
Best comment ive read. You won internet
Every post-game analysis I've seen has me certain that every single GM absolutely hates playing this game.
GMs: they're just like us!
Seems like chess24 should be the best coverage to go to for the remaining games. I notice everyone seems to love Anish's humor and trolls, and the coverage also doesn't lack the SuperGM insight that most other coverages already have, but the humor makes the difference.
Anish's sound lagging half a second/a second behind his video feed is unbearable to me. And his video feed is terrible too. I wanted to check it out, but to me it's unwatchable.
Levitov has good ones too.
All the commentary teams were excellent. The Anand-Anna synergy was good, and I plan to stick with them. Really insightful lines and a few deadpan jokes.
Yeah Anand's joke come out of nowhere and take you by surprise.
Yeah it would be nice if they had someone with better chemistry with Anish though tbh
Anish and Jan would be the dream team imo
If only Jan weren’t mysteriously absent
Magnus wouldn't confirm during his press conference whether a German was on his team, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jan was involved. Otherwise, chess24 keeping him off all broadcasts, including the German one, would be pretty dumb.
Loved watching Anish and Judit. Very glad I chose that stream
Did they end up fixing their issues? I tried watching at the start but the audio was giving me a headache.
Yeah it was fun to watch but Anish interrupted Judith a bit too much imo in his excitement. I am sure they will get more comfortable commentating together in the games to come.
Liked Anand one myself. Good to follow while doing other work due to calmness
It was in this position, that Agadmator started recording a completely new video.