Who will win the candidates and who will win the WC

Naka said he was losing money here, but obviously he thought it was worth it. Now it could be seen as an investment, given his good performance.

A friend of mine took this one:

very nice, glad he had the opportunity and yeah i think naka is just enjoying it honestly

The height of those ceilings ...

It's a palace.

But yes, Beth Harmon would need a telescope there.

It's a three-way tie for second place right now. Exciting turn of events!

(I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a loss from Nepo ... just to keep everyone on the edge of their seats.)

Ding just beat Caruana and is in 2nd place with 3 rounds to go...

So ok, this could happen... Carlsen quits > Nepo and Ding (1st and 2nd place finishers) play a match for the world champion title > Nepo collapses again because he has poor psychology > Ding becomes world champion

And this would be after almost not getting invited... it's a miracle they let him in instead of yet another Russian, and all because Karjakin wanted to sh!tpost on twitter like a teenager (and the time before that they were going to select Radj above MVL... and the time before that Kramnik even though he had hardly played that year... always a freakin Russian)

Anyway, Ding would be a cool champ, I'm kind of rooting for him now.

I can't believe Fabi lost that. He had a clear advantage around the first time control.  Ding has won 3 in a row.  The race for 2nd is the main thing now since it looks like Nepo can coast to a win.  2nd place might have more significance historically now because of the uncertainty of whether Magnus will play the winner. 

I'd rather anyone else win, but Nepo has this in the bag.  Hope he puts up a better fight than last time.

I think nerves have gotten to Fabi in the 2nd half, he lost 3 out of the 4 games which is not normal for him. It's pretty unfortunate

Nepo will win candidates. Magnus will resign his title.

Seems Carlsen has some other interests at the moment:

https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/27063-chess-legend-magnus-carlsen-to-play-at-world-series-of-poker-main-event

I really hope he doesn't, it would be such a shame for him to resign the title

It would seem that Magnus is just a class level player at poker. But it's a cool endeavor to pursue.  He's probably got 10 or 15 mil so he doesn't need chess tournaments for income now. He can do whatever he wants now. Fun life it looks like.

Whoa...  Ding has fallen under an attack by Radja that looks winning for Radja. This is really shaking up the race for 2nd place. 

Firouzja looks like he's throwing in the towel for this tournament.  He's probably in justfuggitall mode.   

Anybody that's ever played real otb tournaments knows that feeling. 

Yeah.

And sometimes it's easy to forget that huge talents are still human. A 12 year old grandmaster, for example, is still a kid who might sleep with stuff animals, get scared of the dark, etc etc.

An 18-19 year old Firo has yet to accumulate the common wisdom of adults. Naka mentioned a few basic mistakes, such as he stopped playing in tournaments (which makes you rusty). Then a day or two ago he apparently played 4-5 hours of bullet haha. He's still a kid, but he'll eventually have both the talent and the wisdom.

Oh yeah, Alireza will get back into the candidates many times I'm sure.  It's good that he's got this one as experience at 19.  He'll definitely do better next time.  

I was very interested in how well Naka would do this time (his 2nd time).  I think he scored 50% in his 1st one.

Yeah, it's nice Firo gets to play one so early.

And yeah, IIRC Naka finished on 50% last time.