London is also the last tournament of the Grand Chess Tour, current standings:
Topalov 17
Nakamura 16
Aronian 15
Carlsen 14
Giri 13
Anand 12
Vachier-Lagrave 12
Caruana 9
Grischuk 8
Hammer 1
So 1
London is also the last tournament of the Grand Chess Tour, current standings:
Topalov 17
Nakamura 16
Aronian 15
Carlsen 14
Giri 13
Anand 12
Vachier-Lagrave 12
Caruana 9
Grischuk 8
Hammer 1
So 1
13-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 is how the points are distributed (with 12 instead of 13 to first place if won by playoff).
Carlsen is going to be hungrier than usual after a couple of for him unusually bad results this year. If he wins London and the Grand Chess Tour it will still go down as an overall good year for a World Champion, with four classical top turnament wins plus the rapid world championship. Only Karpov and Kasparov could top that, and only during their best years. It won't be easy to win London though, and Carlsen will need to play as he did in the first half of the year to do it.
Topalov v Giri - I'm going for the player whose vowels in his surname are separated by consonants.
Grischuk v Nakamura - I'm going for the player with 8 letters in his surname.
Vachier-Lagrave v Carlsen - I'm going for the player who has 'e' as the 6th letter in his surname.
Caruana v Aronian - I'm going for the player with 3 consonants and 4 vowels in their surname.
Anand v Adams - I'm going for the player whose 5 letter surname starts with 'A'.
Topalov v Giri - I'm going for the player whose vowels in his surname are separated by consonants.
Grischuk v Nakamura - I'm going for the player with 8 letters in his surname.
Vachier-Lagrave v Carlsen - I'm going for the player who has 'e' as the 6th letter in his surname.
Caruana v Aronian - I'm going for the player with 3 consonants and 4 vowels in their surname.
Anand v Adams - I'm going for the player whose 5 letter surname starts with 'A'.
I'm going for all draws :-)
I suspect the norwegian will be VERY motivated to show he's the boss after all the so-so results, so if he doesn't do well and win this thing, he can start worrying a lot.
I'm jut hoping Aronian can keep his form from the Sinquefield Cup and Grischuk can rediscover his.
I wonder if the players have finally got used to the time controls yet or whether we'll have a loss on time for the 3rd tournament in a row.
I wonder how having gotten the last Candidates spot will affect Aronian. He might feel relieved and play better than in a long time, or already start thinking about the Candidates and lose concentration a bit. I think it's too early for the latter though, so my guess is that he will be one of the main favourites together with Carlsen, and then maybe Nakamura and Caruana just behind.
My prediction:
1.Aronian
2.Carlsen
3.Caruana
4.Nakamura
5.Giri
6.Vachier-Lagrave
7.Anand
8.Grischuk
9.Topalov
10.Adams
Actually I was just remembering, Caruana didn't actually lose on time last tournament did he? He just played a losing move with ~1s left on his clock, resigned immediately and left the commentators confused for a minute or so as to exactly what the result was!
Nakamura has had a great 2015, winning not only "minor" events like Millionaire Chess, the US Championships and Gibraltar, but also Zurich and the FIDE GP in Khanty. In Norway and Sinquefield Cup he finished second.
If Naka could win London and with that also the Grand Chess Tour he might even be the first player since 2008 to not be Magnus Carlsen and win the Chess Oscar.
Very open tournament and Grand Prix. I've absolutely no idea who will win, but it's clear everybody will watch Magnus...
After the recently finished European Team Championship Giri and Carlsen are playing two tournaments in December and then Tata in January. Quite a tough schedule.
Carlsen is going to be hungrier than usual after a couple of for him unusually bad results this year.
That's what people said before St. Louis ;)...
Carlsen is going to be hungrier than usual after a couple of for him unusually bad results this year.
That's what people said before St. Louis ;)...
Well, he finished second there and that's the result I predict here :-)
The odds:
Carlsen 2.25
Aronian 7
Nakamura 7
Caruana 8
Anand 12.50
Giri 12.50
Vachier-Lagrave 12.50
Topalov 15
Grischuk 18
Adams 31
http://www.nicerodds.co.uk/chess
This is going to be a fun event to watch. All of these guys are so strong, and although I would say there are certain players more likely to win the event, it is very open; the last two tournaments have been somewhat surprising.
It will be interesting to see how Adams does. Wesley So and Hammer got crushed (a bit surprising for So). Adams has a lot of experience and is still playing very well. I love his style of play and hope he does well.
The odds:
Carlsen 2.25
Aronian 7
Nakamura 7
Caruana 8
Anand 12.50
Giri 12.50
Vachier-Lagrave 12.50
Topalov 15
Grischuk 18
Adams 31
Put some money on Topalov, Anand and Grischuk. You getodds of about 6 combined if you use the best odds from that side (avg 19, divide by 3), and I think the chance that one of them wins is a bit higher than 1 in 6. So, a pretty good play.
My prediction: Nakamura scores his first win against Carlsen, and wins the tournament on tiebreaks.
Just a few days left until it starts and the pairings have been announced. First round:
Topalov vs Giri
Grischuk vs Nakamura
Vachier-Lagrave vs Carlsen
Caruana vs Aronian
Anand vs Adams