Candidate Wesley So: Thou Shalt Not Rely Exclusively on Computer Engine Preparation

Yes, Scotch!

Yup, he's back to top form! The other players better watch out!

White side or Black side?

Everyone's an expert on the Berlin these days.

but there are who only copy ideas and there are innovators like kramnik.

If I was a believer, I wouldn't ask for this type of help. I remember the case of a cyclist, can't recall his name. He said once he would pray for not losing his life on a mountain pass, but not for winning a race.

While that's true, Wesley will probably say that every player, and every person has the same Lord as he does (whether you recognize and trust the same Lord as he does is another matter altogether).  Akin to saying that everyone has the same Sun shining upon them.  It's not Wesley's Sun, but everybody's.

Again, if I was a trusted advisor to Wesley, I would counsel him to reach out to Garry Kasparov or Anatoly Karpov for help.  To have former World Champions, nay Chess Legends, to help grow your game, and he certainly needs it if he wants to challenge and topple King Magnus, is a must.

Kasparov's and/or Karpov's experience and knowledge of the highest levels of chess competition, priceless.  Next cycle, Wesley, next cycle.  

That's why I said "next cycle Wesley" in my comment above yours.  

A fiery Kasparov might be better for Wesley precisely because his temperament and style is different from Wesley's.

I just heard a great line by Jan Gustafsson:

"Memory checks and main lines won't get you very far" as a Candidate. Basically, at the highest level, you gotta prepare some non-theoretical and new stuff.

Wesley got a draw against Shak Mamedyarov in Round 4 today.  Watched a little bit of the commentary today with GM Aman Hambleton and GM Yasser.  Aman said:  "Wesley is stabilizing the ship."

Now Yasser said something which I totally expected, if you read my comments above.   Paraphrasing, but essentially the correct gist.   Yasser:  "If I was Shak's second, I would be angry and disgusted.  Shak, what are you doing?  You have to beat the tail-ender Wesley while he's wounded.  Take more risks.  You have the White pieces and you had a rest day yesterday.  Plenty of preparation to obtain an imbalanced position against Wesley, and go for the jugular.  Shak, you gotta win with the White pieces against the cellar dweller!"

Yasser saw this as a terrible lost opportunity by Shak.  This makes complete sense to me.  And recall that Yasser was Korchnoi's second against Karpov back in the day.

On the flip side, if I was on Team Wesley, I would make sure that Wesley knew that the other players are going to take chances against him, and THIS is his best chance to get back into tournament contention.  Pray and hope for the over-reach, and then counter-attack hard when they press for the win against you.

I suppose Yasser saw something I didnt. The games I looked at Wesley sabotaged himself, and the position was dead draw otherwise. Liren pressed with the Marshalls and it was a draw.

Of course all this when the elephant in the room is Kramnik. If they cant stop Kramnik, what chance do they have against Carlsen? Zero. And its been that way since before day 1 of this tourney. You either have the talent to get ahead or you dont....at the end of the day the wins come from being a better chess player.

Nice....I remember reading somewhere that players average 100 points above their elo in these key matches...with winners likely somewhere between 125-175 above their elo. And so its good news if the underdogs can pull it off.

The Kramnik-Caruana game was just wild.  Simply crazy.  Unbelievable.  Caruana just did a g7-g5 move, kinda like Kramnik did yesterday.  And then he got a winning position.  I did some tasks, thinking the game was over.  Came back to the game and then Kramnik was winning!  Fabio got in time trouble, and not only did he blow the win, but Kramnik was clearly better.  I just laughed, and felt very encouraged that at the very highest levels, blunders and time pressure and psychological pressure affect even the greatest players in the world, and thus, I shouldn't feel too bad about my game.

So ran off and did some errands.  Was thinking that it's Kramnik's tournament, 3.5 out of 4 and all he needs to do is draw the rest of his games.  And he'll be playing Magnus for the World Championship.  And that Anish Giri, his second, would just be shaking his head, wondering how Kramnik won a lost game against Fabi.   Kramnik had 2 passed pawns on the 7th rank!

So I come back, and Fabio wins the game!!!  I mean, what the heck?!?  How did Kramnik lose that game?  It was just nuts.  Vlad blundered away a rook and that was all she wrote.  Now Fabi is in sole first place with 3.0 points out of 4.  This candidates tournament just got real interesting.

Kramnik is not going to forget this game for a long time.  Kinda wished I watched the game the whole time.

Wesley So played an AlphaZero positional pawn sacrifice and won a really nice game as White against Levon Aronian today.  So now he gets back to -1 for the tournament and no longer the cellar dweller.

Also, Wesley said this in an earlier press conference:  "I’m not sure why I played very bad. There’s a lot more pressure here in this tournament than in others - also I really badly wanted to win this tournament, as second place is worth peanuts."

That's the right attitude, Wes!!

Lastly, Levon is not having a good tournament.  He bounced back after losing a brilliancy to Kramnik by winning the next game, BUT he blew a half point by not beating Grischuk in a won game, and today, he lost to Wesley.

Wesley So got roasted and toasted by the Chess Brahs GM Hansen and GM Hambleton.  They were very disappointed in Wesley's approach with the White pieces today and just playing a perfunctory drawish, symmetrical line.

It might be worthwhile to see if Kasparov (or someone like that who) could light a fire under Wesley and motivate him to be more aggressive.

Even though Kramnik has been taking a lot of heat for his post-mortem analysis and excessive optimism, at least, and much to his credit, he is trying to win every game!!  I really respect that in Big Vlad.

MVL fell apart in the last qualifier. It's easy to judge by the results that the bottom 3 of any tournament shouldn't have been there. But who would have guessed that So, Kramnik, and Aronian would be the bottom three this time?

Someone who doesn't understand chess, perhaps?

Isn't Kramnik the one voluntarily making the game go 5+ hours? Against Grischuk he had at least two chances to effectively draw the game instantly and passed them up to """""press for a win""""""

Wesley So played aggressive before he was in the top ten, maybe he adjusted too much and is playing more caution; but I faith In Wesley, he will learn a valuable lesson and next time he play his true strength and start winning tournaments.