Meanwhile, Magnus... https://youtube.com/shorts/mNiPUPRt89Q
I watch the Botez sisters and even this kind of grosses me out.
FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
21–30 of 184 posts
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#22It was a very exciting WCC, but I feel like something should be done about the post-match press conferences. Many of the questions asked in the most prestigious chess tournament are not even remotely related to the games that were played, and sometimes plainly disrespectful towards the players.
The first question right after a new World Champion has been crowned was about the weather.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#23Nepo has brought it on himself, losing that dramatic 12th game while leading in the score with a an unbelievable blunder. Hope he comes back for the next title challenge.
Not just a blunder, but a blunder made too quickly when he had plenty of time. If Nepo won a third straight candidates (he's automatically qualified) that would be an extremely impressive achievement that would be a first in world history I believe.
I wonder if Carlsen will participate. I'm actually rather salty at him for forfeiting the title. If you are a chess champion, you have to defend the title until you lose, or die, whichever happens first. After he had refused to defend the title, it made the title of his successor automatically less worthy. That's bad.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#24A stunning end. those last minutes everyone had assumed it was a draw and Ding had the courage to keep pushing.
The main commentator stream was (reasonably) blindsided by Rg6, with comedic timing. Sachdev: "Rg6 is not a move that you'd consider here, right? It's the only move that I feel with black keeps the game going, but it looks more like a losing move than a winning attempt." Caruana: "If Rg6 is not better for white [Nepomniachtchi], I'd be shocked" Ding: [plays Rg6] https://youtu.be/cSxNZix1Xwc?t=16087
I do wonder if Fabiano Caruana (the commentator in question, world #7) is going to have some introspection following these events, because that pattern occurred several times during his commentary. He came up with endless (and completely valid) ways for both players to 'kill'/simplify/draw the games at various points, but the players chose far more ambitious routes ultimately culminating in the final game where it decided the world championship.
For some context here, Fabiano played a world championship match against Magnus Carlsen. Every single classical game was drawn, and he then lost 0-3 in the tiebreaks. Fabiano plays relatively weaker in faster time controls, whereas Magnus is also the strongest rapid player in the world by a fairly wide margin.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#25It was a very exciting WCC, but I feel like something should be done about the post-match press conferences. Many of the questions asked in the most prestigious chess tournament are not even remotely related to the games that were played, and sometimes plainly disrespectful towards the players. The first question right after a new World Champion has been crowned was about the weather.
It was also extremely odd to me that there was no Chinese press there. Ding's English is not excellent, and to not be able to catch his first moments in his native tongue seems to have been a major failing of the Chinese press.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#26Congrats champ!
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#27It should be noted that one of the reasons this WCC was exciting is because of Richard Rapport who helped Ding Liren with his preparation, he is well know for being creative with his openings, and his contributions were pretty obvious in games (we even saw a London System), specially that Ding is usually predictable.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#28I was such an exciting match. It was hard seing Nepo blitz so many bad moves when he often had a comfortable time advantage.
Edit: context
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just a blunder, but a blunder made too quickly when he had plenty of time. If Nepo won a third straight candidates (he's automatically qualified) that would be an extremely impressive achievement that would be a first in world history I believe.
I wonder if Carlsen will participate. I'm actually rather salty at him for forfeiting the title. If you are a chess champion, you have to defend the title until you lose, or die, whichever happens first. After he had refused to defend the title, it made the title of his successor automatically less worthy. That's bad.
I think I agree with you in that I am too feeling weird that Magnus decided to let go of his title, and unlike others like Bobby Fisher he is still playing chess.
Re: FIDE world chess championship decided in rapid tiebreaks
#30This match was super exciting to follow, I would not have predicted this outcome even a few games ago. It really felt like in both the candidates and now here Ding just grinded things out, so props to his mental endurance.
I hope they find better journalists to ask questions next around, they rightly got a lot of flack in this one.