2016 FIDE (Chess) Candidates Tournament

[TheRealJoeFish]

The 2016 Chess Candidates Tournament is taking place right now, and, as it could determine the next WORLD CHESS CHAMPION (possible AN AMERICAN (hopefully that will keep the attention of my bored compatriots)), it is certainly worthy of its own thread!

The Candidates Tournament is how the chess world determines who will face the current World Chess Champion in the next title match.  Essentially, the 8 top challengers for the title of "world's best chess player" (not necessarily the #2-#9 ranked players, but various tournament winners and such, all of whom are in the top 20) play a Round Robin tournament, with the winner earning the right to face the reigning world champion.  Because each player faces every other player once as black and once as white, there are 14 rounds, spanning 20 days.  Round 11 of the tournament is just concluding; the last round is March 30.

Here are the competitors:

Fabiano Caruana - American, 23 y.o., #3 in World Rankings.  Qualified by winning 2014-15 FIDE Grand Prix
Anish Giri - Belgian, 21 y.o., #4 in World Rankings.  Qualified by having top 2 rating in 2015 among non-auto qualifiers
Hikaru Nakamura - American, 28, #6 in World Rankings.  Qualified by finishing 2nd in 2014-15 FIDE Grand Prix
Levon Aronian - Armenian, 33, #7 in World Rankings.  Wild-card qualification (Tournament Host's choice, must be Top 20)
Veselin Topalov - Bulgarian, 41, #8 in World Rankings.  Qualified by having top 2 rating in 2015 among non-auto qualifiers
Viswanathan Anand - India, 46, #12 in World Rankings.  Qualified by finishing Runner-Up in 2014 World Chess Championship
Sergey Karjakin - Russia, 26, #13 in World Rankings.  Qualified by winning Chess World Cup 2015
Peter Svidler - Russia, 39, #16 in World Rankings.  Qualified by finishing 2nd in Chess World Cup 2015

Caruana, Topalov, Anand, and Karjakin were considered the potential winners (with Topalov as the wild card), and the results are bearing that out (except for Topalov, who appears to be not terribly committed).  I'll update with some results and such later!

[TheRealJoeFish]

Well, Round 11 is in the books, and here are the standings:

1. Caruana (USA) - 6.5/11
2. Anand (IND) - 6.5/11
3. Karjakin (RUS) - 6/11
4. Giri (BEL) - 5.5/11
5. Aronian (ARM) - 5.5/11
6. Svidler (RUS) - 5.5/11
7. Nakamura (USA) - 4.5/11
8. Topalov (BUL) - 4/11

In Round 11, Svidler (playing as Black) beat Aronian, which is stunning for a couple of reasons - not only was Aronian contending for the lead, this was only the second match in the tournament (out of 44) in which Black beat White. Anand (White) beat Karjakin (Black), allowing Vishy to move past Karjakin (who was leading after Round 10). Caruana and Nakamura both drew as Black (kind of like holding your serve in Tennis).

Essentially, it would be a stunner if anyone other than Caruana or Anand won the tournament. Karjakin still has a match against Caruana, with Karjakin playing White. If Karjakin wins that outright, it will be very difficult for Caruana to win. If Caruana draws, he'll be in a very good position to win, especially if he gets a win in one of his other two remaining matches (both as White, against Svidler and Aronian). Vishy Anand (the World Champion from 2000-2002 and 2007-2013) needs Karjakin to beat Caruana, as Caruana holds the tiebreaker over Anand (Caruana beat him and drew against him), but Anand holds the tiebreaker over Karjakin. Karjakin could sneak in, but it would take luck.

As of right now, Caruana has probably a 50-60% chance to make it through to challenge the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen (25 y.o., Norwegian), who defeated Anand in the last two World Championships. If Caruana can earn the title of World Champion, he would be just the third American to do so (Wilhelm Steinitz was Austrian, but immigrated after winning the first-ever chess championship, and then there was Bobby Fischer).

[c172]

Where is this, and is there a link? I was recently watching some of the 2015 (?) US Championship on YouTube. St. Louis Chess Club.

[TheRealJoeFish]

http://moscow2016.fide.com/#intro

Here's a link to the official (English) site

[robvalue]

Awesome stuff

I'm out of date, I don't recognise any of those names!

I just went to the local chess club for the first time last night. It was the first time I'd played anyone of a decent standard in about 15 years. I really enjoyed it! My brain was not firing on all cylinders and I was struggling for positive moves at some points, but I did OK and it was very good for me to be out of the house and socialising. They were really nice to me and excited to have a new member!

[robvalue]

I've realized the way I play chess is very much like my love life in general.

I'm not naturally very aggressive. I'm not good at going after what I want, so I tend to idly play with my pieces until someone else leaves theirs exposed.

I find mating with queens to be very easy, but I've never mastered the technique of doing it with a knight and a bishop at once. Luckily that opportunity has never presented itself so I've been spared the embarrassment.

I'm happy to get it over and done with quickly if I see the chance, but sometimes I resign myself to a long drawn out affair. I tend to find that once mating has begun, the weaker party (sometimes me) just lays down and takes it without resistance. I can tell pretty quickly how experienced someone is.

[Little lunch]

It's so hard to find good players to compete against these days.
I'm teaching my daughter checkers and next is chess.
She knows the basics and now I'm am trying to teach her the art of sacrifice.
I think every good chess player knows the importance of strategic sacrifice.
Only then do you realise that the pawns are the heart of the game. :-)

[Little lunch]

Surprised not to see a Polish competitor.

[robvalue]

I suck at making good sacrifices. I'm too anal about material. Certainly something I need to work on.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Awesome update about a chess tourney. This is exciting stuff. I plan to gear up by watching paint dry.

Boru