"Any idea why the Russians skipped this? Something to do with not wanting to play in the US?"
No idea, but especially Karjakin and Grischuk have been quite open with their political views and maybe that could be connected to their declining to play in the USA, but that is just speculation.
With how badly Carlsen is playing, he's just lucky he hasn't faced trotters64 yet.
Reading through the comments, I'm surprised no one mentioned this
Maurice Ashley: What do you think of Caruana's performance?
Carlsen: It helps when his opponents are blundering all over the board
I respect Carlsen a lot but let me put it this way...I can never see gentlemen like Aronian or karjakin saying that.
With how badly Carlsen is playing, he's just lucky he hasn't faced trotters64 yet.
I'll go easy on him and give him pawn odds . 
"Nowhere have I said that Rc5 was the winning move"
You said that there is no doubt that Topalov missed the win, but have never given any winning line, which would be interesting to see.
Carlsen himself felt he was losing ..that belief could have been enough to ensure defeat in a self fulfilling way had Topalov not missed opportunities that were inherent in the endgame position .
Many people including grandmasters intuited that there was a win there for Topalov .... you want the precise line; email 4 times US champion Yasser Seirawan , he might be able to help you.
Carlsen should stop with his "contempt" openings and play normally. It is pretty clear he is hiding his sicilian, Slav and ruy Lopez preparations from Anand.
Aronian on the other hand needs to lie down and skip a few tournaments. He had a medical procedure recently and said after Norway that the medications were tiring him. Take a break , levon
I predict an English symmetrical game between the two. Both will make errors and carlsen will win in the end because of stamina
"Many people including grandmasters intuited that there was a win there for Topalov .... you want the precise line; email 4 times US champion Yasser Seirawan , he might be able to help you"
So I guess we agree that there was no winning line, even though it is no doubt that it was winning :-)
@290 yeah he's just not good socially. That wasn't very sporting. But he was annoyed.
Carlsen should stop with his "contempt" openings and play normally. It is pretty clear he is hiding his sicilian, Slav and ruy Lopez preparations from Anand.
Great point. I mean, Anand is all over playing his normal openings and letting everyone see his preparation. No wait, he's not playing chess at all.
Today there will be one decisive result: Nakamura takes his head to head score against Caruana to 4-0, and the latter will be considered to be "past it".
@296 - Look, you can't play a 2800 guy and play 2. Bc4 and expect to get something from the opening. Carlsen likes to believe that opening preparation doesn't matter but Caruana's has made the difference. Carlsen can continue doing this.....he'll just lose some rating points, form and confidence ahead of the great test.
It's like a hundred years since Aronian with white against Carlsen was anything else than a draw, and it's five years since Aronian's latest win (and that was with black).
@297- nah, too much has been said about carlsen. He'll grab a win today against this pale shadow of aronian
You'd be crazy to predict topalov and MVL will draw...naka will at best draw against red hot caruana
@298 and then win ;)
@296 - Look, you can't play a 2800 guy and play 2. Bc4 and expect to get something from the opening.
Which has nothing to do with your hypocritical comments that Carlsen is hiding his opening prep from Anand.
It's the fifth day in a row they are playing, I think some of them will be tired and not going for the most complicated stuff, but hopefully Topalov will continue to entertain.
"Many people including grandmasters intuited that there was a win there for Topalov .... you want the precise line; email 4 times US champion Yasser Seirawan , he might be able to help you"
So I guess we agree that there was no winning line, even though it is no doubt that it was winning :-)
I agree that Topalov had a very strong position..incidentally , one thing that we have yet to see in any of the first 4 rounds is a winning line from Magnus..he hasn't even had a sniff of a win..which is very poor form ,of that there can be no question.
Anyway signing off now , back in time for the fifth round ..byeee .
Aronian has been over 2800 on 36 of the last 37 rating lists but just dropped down to 2797.9.
"Any idea why the Russians skipped this? Something to do with not wanting to play in the US?"
No idea, but especially Karjakin and Grischuk have been quite open with their political views and maybe that could be connected to their declining to play in the USA, but that is just speculation.
I'm glad there's someone different. As Nigel Short said, it just becomes incestuous when you get the same players in every elite tournament. I think it means other players don't get the same chance to improve their ratings or keep them high like the select few always do.
Well.....no disrespect to MVL but you know what I mean....
Sergey showed great grit in Norway and it would have been fitting to have the youngest ever grandmaster as part of the strongest ever tournament. Plus Karjakin is one of those players who doesn't have any mental blocks and plays long brutal chess building fortresses that nene engines struggle to comprehend
Any idea why the Russians skipped this? Something to do with not wanting to play in the US?
fabelhaft wrote:
"If instead of MVL , Karjakin had played this would have been chess-gasm"
Well MVL is sole second and has more than showed that he deserved to be invited after Karjakin declined, and it isn't much separating the two anyway, 1.8 Elo at the moment.