I read that Naka tweeted he's rested from a summer break from chess & is looking forward to it.
World Cup is here! Who's favored to be 1st & 2nd?
Sort:
I just rechecked the schedule & Saturday is only the players meeting & opening ceremony. Round 1 is on Sunday. I also read that although Aronian & Kramnik are qualified to play in next years candidates tournament based on their ratings, they only get to play in that tournament IF they play in either the World Cup (this one) or are in the FIDE Grand Prix (the current one). So those 2 aren't going to be that motivated anyway. The favorites (taking that into account) will be (IMO) Grischuk, Caruana, & Mamedyarov & 1 of those 3 will qualify from the Grand Prix anyway. Also, Topalov isn't in this because he's qulified for the candidates anyway. But the rest of the worlds best are playing.
The 3 that have a good chance of winning & this will be their last & only chance of qualifying are Karjakin, Nakamura, & Gelfand. Maybe Svidler is in the running but I'm not sure Kamsky has it anymore & Adams is probably tired from winning Dortmund. Also, Judit Polgar will be playing. I'm happy to see she's playing again, I hope she does well. We'll see.
Dang!! Judit lost in the 1st round, that sucks. Ray Robson beat a strong opponent to go to round 2. Now he's rewarded with Chucky in the next round! Chucky is the kind of player thats strong enough that he can put it all together & win the whole thing. I don't know whats wrong with Kamsky, he has to play tiebreak tomorrow but hes strong enough to win the whole tournament (he has before), I just don't think he will. Aronian may be #1 seed but he's already qualified for the candidates tournament no matter what he or Kramnik do here. So I don't think either he or Kramnik are that motivated. The top 2 finishers here get spots in the candidates tournament next year. 5 of the 8 spot are already taken.
The World Cup is here. Round 1 is Sat, 2 days from now. The top 2 finishers qualify for a spot in next years candidates tournament which already has 5 of the 8 spots claimed. Those are: 1st spot, the loser of the Anand-Carlsen match. 2nd spot, Aronian (based on rating, he's #2 in the world rankings). 3rd spot, Kramnik (based on rating, #3 in the world). 4th spot, Topalov (has most points in fide grand prix). 5th spot, will be between Mamedyarov, Grischuk, & Caruana (all 3 of these fighting for the 2nd qualifying spot from grand prix). The 6th & 7th spots will be from this tournament unless they're already qualified. Then the next one in line gets the spot. The 8th spot is the wild card selection of the organizing commitee. Crazy, rediculous way to put a player in but at least they have to be above 2725. So does Kamsky (who's won this huge event before) or Nakamura have a chance? Maybe Karjakin or Svidler have a chance. ALL the top players in the world are in it, except for Carlsen & Anand for obvious reasons.
For those of you who don't know, this tournament is a 128 player elimination bracket where each match is 2 games at classical time control. Then if its tied 2 more at game 25 with a 10 second increment. Then if still tied 2 more games at 15 minutes with 10 second incement. Then at, oh heck, I cant remember, but it keeps getting faster & faster. You get the idea. Wikipedia has a good description of it. I guess fide.com does too. Bring it on! I'm excited to watch it.