The !! isn’t me, that’s the chess.com evaluator thingy, which is pretty liberal with its “brilliant” designations. But anyway, what I saw was this: there is no realistic alternative for Black to Rxf7, the threats are just too nasty. So after Rxf7 Rxf7, there comes Nc7+! If Qxc7, Qxf7+ then Qf8 is checkmate (this happened in the game). If Kf8, mate on f7. And if Ke7, Qxf7+ all the same, and Black is obviously getting murdered. I ended my analysis there and played Rxf7. I only saw this amazing move in that line later, when the engine showed it to me. So after Rxf7 Rxf7, Nc7+ Ke7, Qxf7+ Kd6, we reach this position:
What did the engine have in mind here? I mean you can just take the rook and be completely winning, that’s what I would have done in the game. Anything better?
Yeah well e5# is threatened whether the knight is taken or not.
Well it’s still just e5+ and Black has to take on e5 with the queen and then the king. Then you just play Qxd7, king is in the middle of the board, it’s mate in a few moves.
I think alot of people want to see Firouzja match up with Carlsen, which is fair. I kind of want Duda to win, he seems to be at his peak and seems to do well against Carlsen. And Hikaru will have a big fan base pulling for him. Worst case I think would be a Nepo rematch.
He’s an immature egotist, but I think his success streaming has soothed his ego enough that he can keep it under wraps more now.
I would be happy with Firouzja, Ding or Hikaru winning, I think all those would be interesting WC matchups for varying reasons. Duda or Rapport would be fine although both might result in Carlsen vacating the title. Rooting against Caruana, Nepo and Radjabov.
You have to admit though, it would be funny if Hikaru made the WC match and Magnus demolished him by like 5 points.
Like Hikaru becoming world champ would obviously be fucking insufferable, but their classical record is like 800-1 Magnus or something. Magnus has his number.
Anyone of these guys can win on any given day. But I do think Nepo is a touch under appreciated, Magnus made him look bad last year but everyone forgets that Nepo wasn’t gifted the Candidates last year, he actually beat the field to get the chance to be beat by Magnus.
Nepo is hardly an easy win for Carlsen. He crumbled psychologically after the monster game 6 so the final score was a blowout, but he had been very competitive before that, pushing for advantage at times in several games including game 6 itself.
Nakamura with White against Nepo today will be a big game. If Hikaru wants to vault back into contention this is a golden opportunity to do it. I’m going to predict an Italian.
It’ll be interesting whether the players take Magnus seriously that he will relinquish the world championship If they do, it might create a situation in the final round where people are happy to take second place.
I was a bit hyperbolic there with “easy win”. But I do think that after that beat down, I think Nepo is going to have a hard time getting in the right frame of mind to be as competitive as he s capable
I realize Nepo is a professional, but Magnus is the GOAT.
Giuoco Piano seems like an odd choice if you’re really trying to go for a win.
still gotta be bitter, could’ve won that with better play in the midgame.
the tournament could be more interesting at the end now that 2nd could have some equity other than a few bucks but gonna be awkward as hell if it’s people vs guys who are out of it who just want to draw fast and go home.
