Chess

[DarthFed]

And Wei does manage to draw. Both he and Naka are a full two points behind Sindarov so their tournaments are close to being on life support.

 

[DarthFed]

This Naka-Sindarov game is already crazy. Tough to see this one ending in a draw especially since Naka badly needs to win. Needless to say if he loses today his tournament is over.

 

[Federberg]

This Naka-Sindarov game is already crazy. Tough to see this one ending in a draw especially since Naka badly needs to win. Needless to say if he loses today his tournament is over.

agreed! Just got in. At first blush I like the look of Hikaru's bishops, that queen side rook of Sindarov's looks useless. Then I noticed the number of pawns! Hikaru is going to have to prove that his piece activity can compensate for the deficit, while it seems to me Sindarov just has to get pieces off the board

 

[DarthFed]

Wow, Naka traded off a bunch of pieces. I don’t see how he holds this draw. Pretty straightforward win. Sad result for him in this tournament so far and it’s done for him. Even if he goes +5 from here it’d give him practically no chance, and he isn’t going +5 in 9 games.

 

[Federberg]

I can't see Hikaru surviving this, even if it's opposite coloured bishops. That passed pawn will take the attention of the dark square bishop and Sindarov's kingside pawn majority will surely roll

 

[DarthFed]

Quickly becoming a 2 man race. Caruana has a very good position against Bluebaum so he may stay just .5 back after this.

 

[Federberg]

yup. As you said. Fabi won. He's just a point behind. This is going to be fun. Can't wait to see their second game later in the tournament. It'll tell us a lot about Sindarov

 

[DarthFed]

Fabi wins and was wrong. He is a full point behind.

 

[DarthFed]

Wow, just read that Naka spent over 67 minutes on move 13 and still made a mistake with h4. I can’t really fault the aggressive approach since he was already down two points coming into today.

And for Sindarov, he paid homage to the Fischer philosophy of grabbing material whenever it’s available, and Naka never got much counterplay.

 

[Federberg]

Wow, just read that Naka spent over 67 minutes on move 13 and still made a mistake with h4. I can’t really fault the aggressive approach since he was already down two points coming into today.

And for Sindarov, he paid homage to the Fischer philosophy of grabbing material whenever it’s available, and Naka never got much counterplay.

I can't help feeling that Hikaru made it easy for him. Go crazy against one of the out of form players, not the leader. Bad game strategy in my opinion

 

[DarthFed]

I can't help feeling that Hikaru made it easy for him. Go crazy against one of the out of form players, not the leader. Bad game strategy in my opinion

I just think he was desperate with being 2 points already. But you should see Naka’s comments in his stream after. He put the entire blame on his team for not having any preparation for Sindarov castling on move 12.

Pretty ridiculous. You lose in chess, you are to blame. Most people don’t give their opponents credit for beating them in chess, I know I don’t. And there is a reason for that beyond ego…chess is only decided by mistakes and it usually takes several.

 

[Federberg]

interesting line ups today. The only game that on the face of it looks competitive to me is Hikaru vs Pragg. For the others I expect Fabi to beat Esipenko, but wouldn't be shocked if Esipenko tries to make it dry and drawish. Given Wei Yi's form, it's hard to see Sindarov not having a decent chance to get at least a half point if not a win if Wei is ambitious. Giri Blumbaum might be interesting if Mattias is able to create enough of a threat for Anish to see ghosts and just go for a draw. I've got the pop corn ready

 

[Federberg]

looks like Wei Yi is going to get himself into some serious time trouble. 9 minutes left with 16 moves to go. Not good!

 

[Federberg]

Sindarov wins again. He's like the goddarn Borg!

 

[Federberg]

Fabi tried to stick around like Magnus and squeeze something. I don't think you can do that stuff against a classical Russian player. Not unless you're Magnus/Fischer/Karpov. So that's a draw and Sindarov is now 1.5 points ahead. If he can't start matching him point for point this could get out of hand quickly. Sindarov doesn't seem like the sort to choke

 

[DarthFed]

Confidence is a hell of a drug. I left after Bd4 and though the engines had it even, it was a much more uncomfortable position to play as white so I’m not surprised at the result given each player’s form.

Caruana game looks like a draw so this is starting to get away from him too. Caruana has to win the second game between them to have a chance and it’s especially hard to beat a great player who will happily play for a draw.

 

[DarthFed]

And Caruana game is in fact a draw. It’s going to be tough and it’s safe to say the tourney is over for the other 6 players which is nuts after 6 rounds.

 

[DarthFed]

I have a bad feeling there are going to be people that believe Sindarov is cheating and I’m reading old threads online and there seems to be rumors he has been banned in the past from Lichess and Chess.com. I feel like if those are legitimate rumors that is going to be brought up.

I believe it’s pretty damn difficult to cheat at a tournament like this, the only way it’s possible is a surgically implanted device IMO. And even that could potentially be detected.

 

[Federberg]

I have a bad feeling there are going to be people that believe Sindarov is cheating and I’m reading old threads online and there seems to be rumors he has been banned in the past from Lichess and Chess.com. I feel like if those are legitimate rumors that is going to be brought up.

I believe it’s pretty damn difficult to cheat at a tournament like this, the only way it’s possible is a surgically implanted device IMO. And even that could potentially be detected.

ugh! That's not good. I've agree it's hard to cheat at the Candidates, and I would also include the World Cup. I haven't heard one top player even hint at suspicions about him. Not even Kramnik or Nepo, the two most likely individuals to raise concerns. Furthermore he plays what looks like clean chess and has a fairly consistent style. I would have a much harder time believing that of him than Hans. People will say what they want to say, but what happened between Magnus and Hans in St Louis is understandable. From what I heard Magnus had not only played him online before that, but he also played him casually outdoors. Knowing how Magnus got to understand Hikaru's style with those blitz games, I'm guessing that Magnus wanted to get a feel of his strength, and when Hans played him on the board at St Louis, the difference, in emotional behaviour and style made Magnus paranoid, given his known online cheating. Even if Hans didn't actually cheat, it's perfectly understandable that Magnus was suspicious. Hans made it worse by his inability to explain his thinking in post match interviews at that same tournament. With Sindarov I don't get the same feeling. He plays powerful chess in a relatively understandable way. So I hope to goodness it's not the case

 

[DarthFed]

ugh! That's not good. I've agree it's hard to cheat at the Candidates, and I would also include the World Cup. I haven't heard one top player even hint at suspicions about him. Not even Kramnik or Nepo, the two most likely individuals to raise concerns. Furthermore he plays what looks like clean chess and has a fairly consistent style. I would have a much harder time believing that of him than Hans. People will say what they want to say, but what happened between Magnus and Hans in St Louis is understandable. From what I heard Magnus had not only played him online before that, but he also played him casually outdoors. Knowing how Magnus got to understand Hikaru's style with those blitz games, I'm guessing that Magnus wanted to get a feel of his strength, and when Hans played him on the board at St Louis, the difference, in emotional behaviour and style made Magnus paranoid, given his known online cheating. Even if Hans didn't actually cheat, it's perfectly understandable that Magnus was suspicious. Hans made it worse by his inability to explain his thinking in post match interviews at that same tournament. With Sindarov I don't get the same feeling. He plays powerful chess in a relatively understandable way. So I hope to goodness it's not the case

There’s a lot to hate about Kramnik and unfortunately Nepo seems to be doing the same shit. But a big part of it is they won’t accuse a Soviet player. If Naka was sitting on 5.5 you’d have heard from them both by now.