The Candidates' tournament will be a great fight. Looking forward to it. The new generation of players are catching up and the place of the older legends is not secure anymore. Chess is really tough!
Kramnik and the rating race
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Since 2010 Naiditsch has scored +2-2=3 against Kramnik, with white he has +1-0=3 so tough game to win for Kramnik today.
I see that Chess24 wrote in their report from round 4 that ”Kramnik got his wish to spend another day in the sun”, and that sounds strange unless he knows he gets the wild card. Even if it was just over one Elo to win every point is crucial given how close the rating race is. And white against 2400s or 2500s are games Kramnik never failed to win easily for decades.
Kramnik said that he can play the European Team Championship if he wants, but the question is if he will now. If he had won the games he didn’t play here (as his replacements did) he would be only ten Elo from the rating spot with three games to go here. If he didn’t get the ten Elo here it would be a given to play the ETC, where one single win could be enough to get a rating spot in that case. But I think a draw today would mean that he is done playing for the year and aims for the wild card.
I think Kramnik knows already that he gets the wildcard as you said. It makes not much sense otherwise for him to sit out, unless he is ill or something which doesn´t seem to be the case.
The draw today means that Kramnik is 18 Elo on the November list from reaching So for a rating spot. If he plays and beats Ding Liren and Svidler he would still be 10 Elo from it, which would mean 20 Elo on the December list. So even if he would win the games and play the European Team Championship and score excellent results there, it should still be too far up to get that rating spot.
Black against Ding Liren today for Kramnik if none of them rest. Another difficult game to win.
Ding Liren vs Kramnik confirmed, a draw (as their three previous encounters) would mean -0.3 for Kramnik.
Should be Kramnik vs Inarkiev today and that finally looks like a win and some Elo gained for Kramnik. He has won all his previous games against Inarkiev regardless of colour. But too many points left to reach those 2802 on the November list:
DeirdreSkye wrote:
Kramnik doesn't seem to worry too much.Since the sponsor is Kaspersky Lab , seems that his chances to be the wild card are quite a lot(he might even already know it).
I think he knows he gets it and is a bit relieved not to have to play also the European Team Championship now. If he was close to the rating spot he could give Svidler or Grischuk the wild card instead, but at the price of wasting prep and not being able to prepare. He said in an interview that he had prepared for 18 months for the Candidates 2013, and he will have much less now. The wild card can also be announced earlier this way when Kramnik no longer can qualify. Most people still seem to think the Russian sponsor will pick MVL for the wild card, going by the discussions at various sites, but that would surprise me. For all previous wild cards the sponsor picked a countryman, and it’s much money involved to get the right to pick the wild card.
DOes not matter?Carlsen will rule till 30 ; )