Corus Predictions

I just thought for fun, I'd try to predict the results of the rounds in Corus A, to see how right or wrong I'd be. Here they are for round 7 (the midpoint):

Caruana - Anand: 0-1 Decently confident here. Anand is very strong against young players and aggressive players. Caruana is struggling; Anand will pinpoint some of his weaknesses in preparation, and steer the game into unpleasant waters for the young talent.

Tiviakov - Dominguez 1/2 despite black, I'd give the edge to Dominguez, but unless I feel very strongly, the default for most of these players is draw.

Van Wely - Karjakin 1/2 Van Wely has lost 5 in a row since winning rd 1. In such a spot, a coach would usually advocate using a white to make a draw, get back on the scoreboard and calm yourself down. He has good opening knowledge, and if he follows that advice he can make a draw. If he tries desperately to score a full point though, my prediction will be wrong.

Short - Kramnik 1/2 Well, any game where Kramnik is black you should predict a draw. This is the game where I give both players the smallest chance of winning.

Nakamura - Shirov Sure to be the game of the day. Fans were excited by Shirov's hot start, but Nakamura has faced considerably stronger opposition. In fact, I think through 6 rounds he has played the best. He drew without difficulty as black vs Anand and Ivanchuk, and played well against Carlsen...

1-0!

Carlsen - Ivanchuk 1/2 I do favor Carlsen in this match-up, but I could not remember their history, and whether either is a good or bad opponent for the other. I feel a little something is lacking from Magnus' play at Corus. I predicted him to win the tournament before it started, but I'm not proud, I'll admit that right now he's showing more of a second-third place level of play. If he's going to win the tournament, he probably needs to win this one. If he wins, I'll predict him to win with black against Shirov on Sunday, and make sure we cover that game on chess.com/tv.

I think 4 right out of 7 would be pretty good.