World Chess Weekly: Everyone Wants To Call The Candidates Early
While chess got a buzz of excitement this week as Norwegian footballer star Erling Haaland revealed he's investing in the game, everyone knows there's one thing on the mind of the world's top players right now: the FIDE Candidates.
The chessosphere has been awash with chatter and speculation ahead of the hugely-consequential tournament which starts on March 29.
The Candidates is the big one: the final stop before the World Championship. For many, it's more exciting than the title match itself. At 14-rounds its long, gruelling, and challenging for the players which makes a stunning event to watch. The winner becomes the official World Championship Challenger, and gets a crack at GM Gukesh D's world title later this year.
With the grand curtain-raising so close, we've collected some of the predictions being made in the chess world about who will come out on top—and there have been many.
Svider on Bluebaum
When the eight-time Russian champion and popular commentator GM Peter Svidler speaks, it's usually worth listening to. Svidler has been signed up by FIDE to deliver its official commentary during the match and beforehand has been giving his opinion on tournament dark horse GM Matthias Bluebaum:
"If you talk about the clear outsider—and I don’t think he’ll be too upset if you call him that—it’s Bluebaum. He’s a bit lower down the rating list.
"But his play in Wijk aan Zee was very strange — he made a very presentable score. If he had converted every winning position he had, he even might have won the tournament.
"He beat very strong players, but he also didn’t win against some of them. He had so many winning positions against the absolute best in the world that you look at it and think: he’s not really such a long shot for the Candidates.
"If he plays a similar tournament, but converts his positions a little better, it could be really fun to watch!"
Nakamura Throws Shade
GM Hikaru Nakamura, the world number-two, will be at the Candidates battling it out for a chance to win the World Championship.
The American's prep has involved what he billed as a "Hikaru vs. Awonder Candidates Training Match" last week against GM Awonder Liang.
Nakamura didn't get the result he was hoping for. Liang scored three wins in four Rapid games, and two wins in four Blitz games to win with a two-point lead.
Not perfect for Nakamura, but that hasn't stopped him getting into the mood of the event by suggesting two of his opponents shouldn't be there:
"If I were to look at my perfect Candidates, I think I’d probably replace Esipenko with Arjun and Bluebaum with Vincent Keymer. I think both of these players deserve to qualify.
Vincent, especially — it’s just really, really insane that he’s not playing. In some ways, I’d even say he’s probably been the best player in the last 12 months, other than Magnus."
Jan On The Man
Joining Svidler in the commentary booth will be the dry wit of German GM Jan Gustafsson. Their double act is brilliant. Gustafsson has also been giving his predictions and, in a YouTube video, had some nice things to say about Uzbek underdog GM Javokhir Sindarov's chances:
"I would certainly count Sindarov among the very strong aggressive players. That doesn’t mean, of course, that he always wants the board to be on fire. Sometimes he also shows himself to be a very, very good technician from the positional side.
"He feels absolutely confident in both the opening and the endgame, even with a minimal advantage. But still, Sindarov is one of the most aggressive and optimistic players in the entire field.
"He recently had an incredible streak: winning the World Cup, second place in Wijk aan Zee. He must be overflowing with confidence.
"Nevertheless, the question of his chances is not so simple. He doesn’t have much experience yet at the very top level. This is his first Candidates Tournament, and it’s often the experience of participating in a Candidates Tournament that helps. Sindarov is still relatively new to this path.
"Still, I believe in his momentum, in his great energy — he truly has an incredible amount of it, we saw that at the World Cup. The question is how to translate that into chances.
"Summarising, Sindarov is definitely in my Top-3 favourites."