NRR: Official 2014 World Chess Championship Thread

dkny64 wrote:

Will try to remember to pay attention to the next candidates tournament, which I hope will include Caruana + some/all of Nakamura, So and Giri.

Caruana, of course, belongs there, and Grischuk has quietly risen into the top ranks to warrant his inclusion. After that, things get a little murky. Topalov has played strong, entertaining chess recently, but I get the impression that he's getting tired of this way of life. Kramnik may be, too, and in contrast to Topalov, his results are showing it. It's hard to leave out Aronian. Anand deserves to be there if he wants it, even though his play may be more prosaic than in past times. Karjakin is a difficult choice; he's still young, but he's just not very exciting. Nakamura, on the other hand, is flawed but perhaps the most entertaining of the bunch; he's good for the game. Giri is still very young, and hasn't been as completely immersed in the game as others have, but I do wonder if he will ever be a strong W.C. candidate.

Wesley So is one of the most intriguing possibilities. He hasn't had that much experience against a number of the top players, and until recently, he hasn't had a great training environment. Whether his success in beating up inferior players will translate into good results against top players remains to be seen.

By the way, with So now playing for the U.S., and Caruana (a dual citizen who was born and grew up in the U.S.) apparently considering a switch from the Italian federation to the U.S. federation, it is possible that three of the top players in the world -- Caruana, Nakamura, and So -- could soon be playing under the U.S. flag. (I think, however, that Carlsen may still connect better with American fans than any of them.)

Huzzah

Carlsen remains king.

Really interesting game to end the match. Vishy really went for it.

He seemed in high spirits despite the loss. I was glad to hear he plans to continue playing.

A general update after London as it seemed relevant to many of the discussions in this thread.

Caruana basically was out of it after his first match by losing to Mickey.

Vishy, in turn, picked up a necessary win against Mickey in the final round to win in a tiebreaker.

Fabiano has not seemed like the world #2 since St. Louis - I don't know who to pick as a favorite to face Carlsen in the next world championship.

Interesting. Does this result have any direct bearing on who qualifies for the next candidates tournament?

I find the rules for qualifying for the candidates tournament confusing. I'm sure there were problems with the old zonals / interzonals system, but I believe it was more straight forward, no?