Nova Daily - 19 June 2025: My seat on the plane
Hi!
Alright, time for my answer to my Monday's blog's question.. The list of who is who is at the end of this blog, as I feel that it'd break up the flow here.
My seat on the plane
It's very hard to pick any one choice. If you want to have a quiet flight, place 11 is probably the best one (although Ju Wenjun might be facing some issues with her chair). If you want beef, then so many places would qualify.
I'd pick SEAT 4, in front of Carlsen so I can eavesdrop, and behind the Botez sisters so that I can listen in on the latest gossip. But most importantly: I'd be sitting next to my favourite player: Vaishali.
During the 2024 Candidates tournament, Vaishali had 2.5 points out of 5. Then she lost four in a row, putting her on 2.5 points out of nine, bottom of the table, a full point behind the number 7. I felt very bad for her, because of what she'd have to endure in the wake of such things: self-doubt, horrible text in the press, the media trying to flame up a sibling rivalry that she doesn't seem to feel. Mainly, she'd be written off as someone who probably doesn't belong in the Candidates. She had mentally already resigned.
And then her redemption arc started. She won round 10. She won round 11. 12, 13, 14. She finished with 7.5 out of 14, a very respectable +1, and a shared second place. Playwrights would think of such a story as too cheesy. Such a comeback is unrealistic. But Vaishali proved that it's not. Her comeback was too epic for fantasy.
And that's why she's currently my favourite player.
Game analysis
It's time to get back on track: I have a game to look at. Unfortunately I also have other things to look after, such as the blogs that have been submitted for the June contest in TBA. But I still have to make good on my promise to look at my own games.
Model game:
The following game shows clearly how quickly black's game can get south:
Source analysis:
My game wasn't perfect, as I suspected. There were some clear things that I missed. But I did play the opening reasonably well.
Update on 23 June: I did the analysis at last.
List of people in the plane:
1A: Ian Nepomniachtchi, GM and WCC contender
1C: Fabiano Caruana, GM and WCC contender
1D: Andrea Botez, Twitch-streamer
1E: Alexandra Botez, Twitch-streamer
2B: Levy Rozman, IM & YouTuber
2C: Wesley So, GM
2D: My seat
2E: Rameshbabu Vaishali, GM
2F: Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, GM
3A: Garry Kasparov, GM and former WCC
3B: Viswanathan Anand, GM and former WCC
3D: Magnus Carlsen, GM and former WCC
3F: Faustino Oro, youngest IM ever when the image was published
4A: Vladimir Kramnik, GM and former WCC
4C: José Martínez, GM
4E: Hikaru Nakamura, GM
4F: Daniel Rensch, IM and Chesscom's CCO
5B: Judit Polgar, GM
5C: Bodhana Sivanandan, WFM and rising star
5D: Anish Giri, GM
5E: Daniel Naroditsky, GM and Twitch-streamer
6A: Martin, the worst Chesscom bot
6B: Gukesh Dommaraju, GM and reigning WCC
6D: Ju Wenjun, GM and WWCC
6F: Anna Cramling, WFM, Twitch-streamer and YouTuber
