Chess

[Federberg]

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.

Good point. Didn’t consider the Soviet bias

 

[Federberg]

This might be the most dangerous game for Fabi. If Hikaru regains his ability to cause Fabi matchup problems, he might end up too far behind to catch up. Sindarov with the black pieces against Esipenko. Can Esipenko improve from his awful game against Wei Yi? There's a real risk of Sindarov expanding his lead to 2.5 points!

 

[DarthFed]

Quick draw for Sindarov and looks like Caruana is about to go down. Only real hope for Fabi is winning against Sindarov and 2-3 other wins while Sindarov collapses. It’s looking more and more like this tournament is over

 

[DarthFed]

The women are going to be in a 5 way tie for first after today it looks like. Talk about polar opposite tournaments.

 

[Federberg]

Quick draw for Sindarov and looks like Caruana is about to go down. Only real hope for Fabi is winning against Sindarov and 2-3 other wins while Sindarov collapses. It’s looking more and more like this tournament is over

Agreed. I had a foreboding for Fabi today. He has a real problem against Hikaru and it happened. It's going to take a choke for Sindarov to let this go now. I don't think he's the type

 

[Federberg]

Well that's that... I can't see Fabi winning the Candidates now. Who would have thought that Anish would be the last man standing to challenge Sindarov. It's not over yet....but

 

[DarthFed]

Yeah I didn’t have this one on my bingo card, especially with Giri losing his first game. Still hard to picture Sindarov losing this but he will be black against Giri, that’s the only chance for Anish to make this interesting. Tournament is now over for everyone else really which is beyond shocking

 

[Federberg]

Anish with the white pieces against Hikaru today. I'll bet that there's no player Hikaru wants to trip up more in this tournament than Anish. I wouldn't be shocked if Hikaru scores another point today. I'm wondering about Fabi's state of mind today. Wei Yi has had a few games where he was his old aggressive self. This could be a fun match up. It's funny, before the tournament started I would probably have been most fascinated by the two young guns facing up to each other... Sindarov vs Pragg

 

[Federberg]

Sindarov - Pragg looking wild already

 

[DarthFed]

Fire on the board already with Sindarov and Pragg!

 

[DarthFed]

Giri-Naka could have potential. Giri will have to be more aggressive in general than he wants to be in this tournament if he is going to challenge Sindarov.

 

[DarthFed]

Trouble now for Pragg. Main thing that sucked about his position is he was down 2 pawns for that piece on top of a wide open king. Oftentimes in such positions the player on defense creates weaknesses on the queenside just trying to defend the king.

 

[Federberg]

Yup. I wonder about the psychology of both Fabi and Anish, seeing that Sinadarov is in a dominant position. Will they allow that to mess with their minds in the games they're playing?

 

[DarthFed]

Yup. I wonder about the psychology of both Fabi and Anish, seeing that Sinadarov is in a dominant position. Will they allow that to mess with their minds in the games they're playing?

Fabi is probably on tilt after two straight losses and the realization he has no chance to win now. I don’t like his position vs Wei.

Giri is playing well, but this looks like a draw.

 

[Federberg]

yup. Giri-Hikaru is a draw, confirmed. Despite Sindarov having a massive advantage now, I must admit, it's not clear to me how to achieve the win, as long as those two rooks remain in contact. I guess, you manoeuvre the queen around and take as many pawns as possible and get the g and h pawns rolling...

 

[DarthFed]

yup. Giri-Hikaru is a draw, confirmed. Despite Sindarov having a massive advantage now, I must admit, it's not clear to me how to achieve the win, as long as those two rooks remain in contact. I guess, you manoeuvre the queen around and take as many pawns as possible and get the g and h pawns rolling...

It’s the two passed pawns. Pragg won’t be able to take on e3 anytime soon, or do anything else that can lead to white trading the queen for both rooks. It’d be really tough to hold this

 

[Federberg]

ok so Sindarov got the win. I think we can feel comfortable sticking a fork in the whole thing now?

 

[DarthFed]

And it’s already over. Now it’d take a historical collapse for him to lose this. Pretty amazing performance from Sindarov

 

[Federberg]

Ok.. so Fabi gets a draw... unless Sindarov is related to Greg Norman I just don't see a way he won't face Gukesh for the championship

 

[Federberg]

Tomorrow, Fabi has the white pieces against Sindarov, and Anish has them against Esipenko. Probably the last chance for something to happen. Fabi needs to beat Sindarov and Anish beat Esipenko for some drama to remain in the tournament.