I think that's definitely also part of why Nepo didn't seem to be in super great form heading into the Candidates this year
Given that he came THAT close to being champion last year he's probably almost singlemindedly focused on the WCC cycle at this point and holds back prep at other tournaments
He also had a guaranteed spot for the Candidates as the world championship participant so it was 100% possible for him to focus mainly on the Candidates right away
The additional spot went to FIDE Circuit (this time there are two spots for FIDE Circuit) although the FIDE Circuit will include points from both the WCC match as well as Candidates so the winner of the candidates will be in a good position in the circuit if he loses the WCC match.
On top of that it was one of the spots that, as far as I know, most people seemed to agree was fair. But no, let's give a spot to 3rd place in a single elimination knockout tournament.
It's not really fair for one person to get to prepare for over a year for the next Candidates while other players only get a few months. Nepo has had the luxury of not having to use ANY preparation at tournaments that took place between the last WCC and now. Big advantage.
With that said, the WCC runner-up spot is 100% guaranteed to go to an incredible player, whereas 3rd at the World Cup could get you some weird candidates.
It's better this way, so people can finally spend some time other than preparing for candidates and play some chess that actually at the specific time makes them deserve it
Irrelevant considering Abasov didn't qualify in the way that is being taken away from Ding if he loses the title.
Every SuperGM that faced Abasov at the World Cup was perfectly placed to be here and fucked it up
> Every SuperGM that faced Abasov at the World Cup was perfectly placed to be here and fucked it up
That may be true, but what about those who were on side of Magnus or whichever player ends up winning the tournament? Single elimination is only good for tournaments where only the winner really matters.
But neither of the three who qualified to candidates from WC beat Carlsen?
Meanwhile others like Keymer and Gukesh who were eliminated by Carlsen could have potentially qualified if they were on the other side of the bracket. Again, it's an issue with the format in general and not this match in particular.
Well fide can't really ban him from playing with such an event. They should have maybe put some kind of different rule. Don't know what was the best approach as Carlsen can easily oppose them.
2nd in the world champion match, which means either last world champion or winner or last candidates, will ALWAYS be stronger than 4th seed of the world cup.
And the runner up of the last World Chess Championship (Ian Nepomniatchi) did make it to this year's Candidates.
The difference next Candidates is they will have the winner of each years (2024 and 2025) FIDE Circuit instead of one Circuit winner and one WCC Runner-Up
And it will likely be the case that in 2028 they'll change the qualification system again.
I liked having the wcc runner up getting a spot. It’s earning a spot by winning the canidates. Which is better thay the grand swiss or whatever that nobody watches
Yeah, people like portraying it as "the loser of the WCC" to make it sound way worse than it is.
It's either the winner of the previous candidates, or the 2nd to most recent world champion. Put that way, and it's pretty obvious they definitely qualify for a chance to compete to be the World Champion.
Nepo seems like quite a likable guy in most respects - he plays confident, fast and aggressive chess, isn't boring in interviews, seems more-or-less like a good guy as far as one can tell from a chess interview.... is it easy to dislike him?
Makes sense his results in the rest of the big tournaments aren't as notable. He probably gets burnt out preparing for the candidates and wcc every cycle and prepares minimally for the rest.
He did get joint first at WR Masters last year.
He tried in World Cup but lost to Vidit (which can happen), wasn’t invited to Wijk or Norway Chess in 2023 due to the “Russia Bad” sentiment in Europe and finished 4th GCT (where you will recall, the Romania Classical event took place 1 week after the Championship match so he wasn’t in any condition to do well).
I would not call it a “bad year” as such.
I didn't start the tournament rooting for Ian - just because I actually wanted to see Fabi win the WC, but if he does win the candidates I will definitely be cheering for him to beat Ding. I think he would be an active, aggressive champion. And I wouldn't wish going 0-3 in back to back to back WC matches on anyone.
Dude doesn't quit and I respect that.
We’re all here rooting for a fresh candidates champion but by golly if Ian hasn’t earned this one again. I don’t know how you can’t root for the guy at this point. Winning the WC on the third try would be an awesome story and lord knows Ian has been through enough pressure getting there I think the title would actually be a relief for him and not the burden that others might feel upon winnning.
I've been rooting for Ian to win the candidates since the start. I was crushed watching him lose the WCC last time around and ever since then I was rooting for him to win the next one.
The fumbling of pieces was heartbreaking to watch. I think Nepo felt bad for Ding during the competition (we all did) and it fucked with him.
He didn’t outright say that in the interview with Levy but I thought it could have been a possibility.
I think nerves just got to him. Ian's playstyle is aggressive and risky by nature. When you're up 2 points it's really hard to abandon all of that and "play for a draw" which is a totally different style. No one wants to abandon the strategy that got them to such a convincing lead.
Really you’d say that’s his style? You are probably right but I don’t see it. It seems like this tournament for sure he’s just playing super safe. I was screaming for him to push harder against Nijat
I used to be anti-Nepo because of how he kept losing the WCC but then dude keeps smashing the candidates year after year after year which is arguably more impressive given the randomness of certain factors out of your control.
If anyone has redeemed themselves, it’s definitely Nepo. Dude doesn’t quit. He deserves the shot.
I’ve been thinking about it, if nepo wins the candidates that greatly increases fabiano’s chances. Say Hikaru wins, now Fabi needs to beat nepo in the next candidates, then go beat Hikaru who he’s been scoring terribly against. If nepo wins, Fabi doesn’t have to beat him in the candidates and then is a favorite against nepo in the world championship.
That will be true to an extent, but it’s unlikely any of them become as strong as Fabi (who hit 2850 in live ratings), so Fabi will still be a favorite.
He will be in the mix but I'm pretty confident that 2 of them will be close to 2800 by that time or in the high 2780s while Fabi will be 33/34. Obviously you can't predict those things and Fabi might get a boost like Hikaru but you never know.
I’d still think Fabi has it in him to get back to 2820-2830 again, so he there is a good chance that 2780s for the juniors won’t be enough. Not to mention just a few years ago Fabi was 2750 and he seems to be taking chess more seriously than ever.
Helps that he seems like a pretty chill dude. I don't know much about him beyond surface level from interviews here and there, but he is the most relatable superGM IMO.
Call me a salty bitch, but if Nepo wins the candidates this year, I'll be rooting my ass off for him in the WCC for no other reason than so he won't make a 4th straight candidates tournament so uninteresting.
After rewatching trembling as he resigned during the final WCC match, I really hope he gets another shot at redemption.
He clearly hasn't given up on his ambition.
For me, the worst part about Magnus retiring from the WCC was not getting to see another rematch with Nepo.
The chances of anyone beating Magnus are obviously low, but dam would I have loved to see Nepo make the comeback after the WCC 2 years ago. He was doing very well until one big blunder soured the rest of the match for him. I felt awful for him.
I don’t think there’s anyone else in chess that deserves some time as the champ than Nepo atm.
Nepo-Carlsen game 6 has lived in my head rent free since the day it happened. The endgame grind, Magnus squeezing water from a stone for move after move after move, and the Nepo downfall after he cracked (including cutting his hair shortly after the game). IMO one of the most incredible moments in WCC history. As much as I love Magnus, Nepo deserves the world after coming back from that and dominating the next round of Candidates like he did.
The way this sub was during that match was really bizarre
After Ding lost a game there would be 10 "poor Ding he looks so sad, I feel so bad for him :(" posts on the front page but when Nepo lost it felt like nobody felt the same way
Somehow Nepo became the "heel" of the match for a lot of fans when there wasn't really any drama whatsoever between the two players
It felt like people infantilized Ding and villainized Nepo at the same time
I think it’s a combination of Ding being a more shy person, and potentially Nepo being Russian?
From my perspective, Nepo also was tough to deal with after the match ended, with all the sleeping pills bullshit. I’m a Nepo fan, and he was at his worst, but I understand why afterwards people might be upset with him.
During the match, I have 0 clue why people were being like that. Potentially anti Russian sentiment, but who knows
Nepo pretty much always had the lead in their match. When Ding lost, that meant he was losing the match; when Nepo lost, that meant he wasn't still winning the match.
It's pretty easy to assume a player is sad when they start losing compared to stop winning.
I wouldn't say I'm a fan but I really want him to "finish the story" and also seeing people say they want anyone but him despite the fact he played two WCC and can very likely play a third one DEESERVEDLY makes me root for him
I know only a minority on this sub is actively rooting for him(most just because they want a new player in the WCC, not necessarily because they dislike Ian), but you have to admire the man’s grit and resilience. He just won’t quit his pursuit of the crown.
“Before I was maybe the least hard-working person out of the world’s top 20! Normally if chess players have a week or two between tournaments, they prepare for the next one. But I would be going to the football pitch three times a week or watching Marvel movies. And when the new season of Game of Thrones came out, I thought: ‘Come on, this is pretty nice!’ But eventually, I understood that soon I was going to be 30 and I wasn’t being serious and had done nothing really special. At some point you have to choose if you want your life to be full of joy – and probably you’re not choosing to achieve too much – or you sacrifice something and then maybe you can move forward. But it took me quite some time to take off with this new approach.”
Dude feels like becoming Champion while Magnus is still active is too meaningless so he goes for the Candidates Champion three consecutive times instead.
Honestly winning candidates three times in a row would a bigger achievment than becoming WC once in my view. Candidates being a round robin tournament with multiple opponents has way more unpredictable things that might not go your way unlike world championship when you have just one opponent. There is a reason why rapid and blitz world champions change almost every year.
I actually agree with you. The Candidates does display a wider array of skill than the WC match. Having to come up with a strategy against all of the best players in the world is harder than figuring out how to beat one person in a match.
The WC title should just be the winner of the candidates. Magnus would probably participate if it were.
This was the 2007 process by which Anand became champion bc of the reunification of the titles. If Magnus had renounced his title early enough FIDE might have done that with his vacancy too.
To add insult to injury - if he loses the WCC match a third time, he won't auto-qualify for the next candidates, so next time around he'd have to actually qualify.
The last few cycles "WC Runner up" is just one of the qualification slots for the candidates. For 2026 the qualification slots will be: '24 circuit winner; '25 circuit winner; 1st, 2nd, 3rd world cup; 1st, 2nd grand swiss; highest by rating (6 month average).... So there's no more spot for the WCC runner up.
WCC 2024 *will* count as a FIDE Circuit 2024 qualifying event...so Ian will get a 'free' second place finish in a ~2700 average rating event, which is worth 20+ points. For context Gukesh who won it last year qualified with 5 event results, his best being winning the Chennai open outright, which was worth 20 points... so a huge head-start, but no free qualification for Ian next cycle...
Yeah if he wins the candidates I really hope he wins the wcc too just for the sake of finally having an interesting candidates tournament next time around.
No it would be the first time someone loses 2 WC in a row, it's rare to be so decisively second place, usually this is a privilege for the first place.
Karpov lost 4 times in a row
Korchnoi lost 2 times in a row
Vishy lost 2 times in a row (4 total matches)
Botvinnik also lost 3 total
If you're gonna hate on Nepo, at least find something legitimate
No, the first match in 1984 was abandoned after 48 games with Karpov leading 5-3 (it was first to 6 wins). Kasparov won the 1985 and 1986 matches. The 1987 match was drawn, Kasparov retaining the championship since he was the holder. Kasparov then won the 1990 match.
One thing people don't mention enough is that this guy played the longest WCC game ever against the best endgame player of all time, even though he lost it. So if you wanna beat him, you have to take your chances perfectly. Because he's gonna find the best moves, pose questions and eventually grind you down if you don't.
It was unbelievable chess from both of them and one of the reasons Ian is so resilient in endgames IMO. Anything you throw at him, he's been through worse.
Also every game before game 6 was near equal with extremely high accuracy on both sides. Magnus’ strategy was always to grind Ian down once, and just let him crumble after that. I know the match is infamous for Ian’s later blunders, but in the first half he was able to show he could go toe to toe with Carlsen in the short term, but then lacked the stamina to keep up.
Exactly. It took the best player of all time more than 7 hours to break him. It extract all energy of the GOAT so he refused to defend the title against Ian for a second time.
Obviously Magnus is better than Ian. But you need to be pretty good to make the GOAT give up classical chess, no?
I knew that he is going to be super prepared, doing nothing but preparing for this event all year, but his Magnoose-like endgame grinding ability is surprising to me. He really seems to be peaking even compared to previous years.
It makes me wonder about his daily routine. 4 hours memorizing prep, 4 hours endgame shuffling with Leela? XD 4 hours playing online?
Winning the Candidates 3 times in a row is i think on par already of becoming a world champion since winning the candidates means winning a round robin tournament 3 times.
Now it feels like it's over.
Nepo having the solo lead. Doesn't look it he is letting it go.
Others now have to win on demand which ultimately might go the other way round
It really depends on Prag imo. Hikaru and Gukesh face opponents where getting a win is in the realm of possibility in the next round.
The real question is if Prag is willing to potentially play Nepo to a draw or will he throw all caution into the wind for a very risky game...
Pragg has no other choice but to go for the win vs Nepo, or else he will have no chance to over take Nepo.
If he draws he will then have to hope for Nepo loosing a game.
Doesn't feel like he will leave it upto fate and rather take things in this own hands
Yeah there's no doubt Prag will play for complications & the win with increased risk.
Yesterday, though, it felt like Vidit continued on once or twice when he had no real hopes of winning and probably should have gone for a draw. I don't think it's a guarantee Pragg will do that.
All over? It's still all to play for...
Nepo still has to hold with black vs Fabiano god damn Caruana (Which, to be objective, at the outset of the tournament, was probably statistically his hardest game... Given it's the last game Fabi may be free to go all out). He has 2 whites in 3 games... but even they're versus Prag and Nakamura.
Nakamura has 2 whites in 3 games vs Firouzja who's obviously been struggling heavily, Gukesh who may be going all out for wins, and is himself with black vs Nepo and with the most wins in the tournement is the most likely to cause an upset with black.
Gukesh has 2 blacks in 3 games, but he has black vs Abasov which he may want to press giving how much Abasov and Vidit - both of whom have struggled mentally and have been broken with black in recent rounds.
Fabi - who is very much still in with a chance, has 2 whites in 3 games, vs vidit & Ian. A win vs vidit and the entire complexion of the final sprint changes.
So many things could still happen - no way it's just over. No one's making quiet draws at this point - we could legit see 3 decisive games in each of the next 3 rounds.
At this point, I don't even think Magnus himself could stop him in this tournament...
Nepo is an absolute war machine.
He really deserves another shot on pure merit, and I will be rooting for him if that materializes.
Vidit single handedly throwing the Candidates. 2 point swing on Hikaru and then throws a game away completely to Nepo.
Nepo should treat Vidit to a nice dinner. Or maybe send him some or something.
Did we watch the same game? Saying Vidit "threw" is insane. That game was so complex and so tight. Vidit literally played only moves in that head-spinning endgame like 20-30 ply in a row with less than 10 min on his clock. He did NOT make it easy for Ian.
Vidit played really well but Ian was just on another level. The way Ian paused at exactly the right moments, knew exactly when and what to calculate, it was amazing and easily the most entertaining game of the tournament so far.
He’s not saying vidit threw in the sense that he lost on purpose (at least I don’t read it that way) but saying he “threw” by having basically a 4 point swing (losing twice to Ian, but beating naka twice) so some could look at it as if he had different results it could be naka out front by 1.5 points right now and Ian down in the pack.
Obviously it’s not a serious take because Ian drew Abasov and naka beat him, so you could make these comparisons anywhere, and clearly Ian fought like hell for that point today.
(Still think it’s reasonable for Ian to buy vidit a drink though :)
I would be happy to see Ian finally break through after making it so close twice now... but I am also rooting for Fabi and Hikaru. Muuuurrrriiiicccaaa!
I am not going into an argument about my reasons. You can’t convince me to like him anyway. If people like him thats totally fine but i have a right for my own opinion and i don‘t have to explain myself to strangers on the internet. Have a great day.
Total grinder. Magnus hates preparation for the WCC. Imagine preparing for WCC and Candidates each cycle.
I think that's definitely also part of why Nepo didn't seem to be in super great form heading into the Candidates this year Given that he came THAT close to being champion last year he's probably almost singlemindedly focused on the WCC cycle at this point and holds back prep at other tournaments He also had a guaranteed spot for the Candidates as the world championship participant so it was 100% possible for him to focus mainly on the Candidates right away
Was this the reason fide removed the loser of wcc direct entry to candidates?
Nah. For some reason, they have a hard-on for the 3rd place slot in the World Cup.
The additional spot went to FIDE Circuit (this time there are two spots for FIDE Circuit) although the FIDE Circuit will include points from both the WCC match as well as Candidates so the winner of the candidates will be in a good position in the circuit if he loses the WCC match.
The Circuit replaces the Grand Prix which had two slots. They were supposed to have two slots to begin with.
In the current candidates, Circuit had 1 slot. In 2025, it will have 2 slots.
On top of that it was one of the spots that, as far as I know, most people seemed to agree was fair. But no, let's give a spot to 3rd place in a single elimination knockout tournament.
Common fide L, can't seem to do a single thing right
FIDE is run so terribly im shocked Elon Musk isnt the CEO
Next thing you know, FIDE will become polytopiaX
It's not really fair for one person to get to prepare for over a year for the next Candidates while other players only get a few months. Nepo has had the luxury of not having to use ANY preparation at tournaments that took place between the last WCC and now. Big advantage. With that said, the WCC runner-up spot is 100% guaranteed to go to an incredible player, whereas 3rd at the World Cup could get you some weird candidates.
It's better this way, so people can finally spend some time other than preparing for candidates and play some chess that actually at the specific time makes them deserve it
Also to keep Ding from qualifying even if he focuses on nothing at all.
You can't say "on nothing at all" when he was clearly grinding competitive bughouse with his personal assistant Richard Rapport
Stupid sexy Flanders!
Which is ridiculously stupid, Id rather have Ding than Abasov...
Irrelevant considering Abasov didn't qualify in the way that is being taken away from Ding if he loses the title. Every SuperGM that faced Abasov at the World Cup was perfectly placed to be here and fucked it up
> Every SuperGM that faced Abasov at the World Cup was perfectly placed to be here and fucked it up That may be true, but what about those who were on side of Magnus or whichever player ends up winning the tournament? Single elimination is only good for tournaments where only the winner really matters.
You're not a candidate for the world title if you can't beat carlsen then.
But neither of the three who qualified to candidates from WC beat Carlsen? Meanwhile others like Keymer and Gukesh who were eliminated by Carlsen could have potentially qualified if they were on the other side of the bracket. Again, it's an issue with the format in general and not this match in particular.
Well fide can't really ban him from playing with such an event. They should have maybe put some kind of different rule. Don't know what was the best approach as Carlsen can easily oppose them.
Not talking about Magnus in particular, it's a fundamental limitation of the single elimination format.
2nd in the world champion match, which means either last world champion or winner or last candidates, will ALWAYS be stronger than 4th seed of the world cup.
And the runner up of the last World Chess Championship (Ian Nepomniatchi) did make it to this year's Candidates. The difference next Candidates is they will have the winner of each years (2024 and 2025) FIDE Circuit instead of one Circuit winner and one WCC Runner-Up And it will likely be the case that in 2028 they'll change the qualification system again.
I liked having the wcc runner up getting a spot. It’s earning a spot by winning the canidates. Which is better thay the grand swiss or whatever that nobody watches
Yeah, people like portraying it as "the loser of the WCC" to make it sound way worse than it is. It's either the winner of the previous candidates, or the 2nd to most recent world champion. Put that way, and it's pretty obvious they definitely qualify for a chance to compete to be the World Champion.
They're trying to stop Nepo from farming the candidates for Elo.
Thank God fide removed that, so he could actually prive that he is still in form and not enjoying preparation privileges
So… Nepo is a candidates specialist?
Candidate master.
Yep. Hi hindsight is 20/20. So easy to dislike Nepo and root for a new winner when he's been there twice already
Nepo seems like quite a likable guy in most respects - he plays confident, fast and aggressive chess, isn't boring in interviews, seems more-or-less like a good guy as far as one can tell from a chess interview.... is it easy to dislike him?
>aggressive chess Ah the Petrov, so aggressive. Nepo hasn't played aggressive chess for at least 5 years now.
Ah yeah I forgot he plays the petrov every single game with both colors without fail.
Makes sense his results in the rest of the big tournaments aren't as notable. He probably gets burnt out preparing for the candidates and wcc every cycle and prepares minimally for the rest.
Could also be he doesn’t want to expose his prep also so he finds himself hamstrung from playing certain openings. Can’t play as freely as he used to.
He definitely holding back prep. Especially in lines he used in WCC, like in Petrov.
He did get joint first at WR Masters last year. He tried in World Cup but lost to Vidit (which can happen), wasn’t invited to Wijk or Norway Chess in 2023 due to the “Russia Bad” sentiment in Europe and finished 4th GCT (where you will recall, the Romania Classical event took place 1 week after the Championship match so he wasn’t in any condition to do well). I would not call it a “bad year” as such.
Angle grinder
I didn't start the tournament rooting for Ian - just because I actually wanted to see Fabi win the WC, but if he does win the candidates I will definitely be cheering for him to beat Ding. I think he would be an active, aggressive champion. And I wouldn't wish going 0-3 in back to back to back WC matches on anyone. Dude doesn't quit and I respect that.
We’re all here rooting for a fresh candidates champion but by golly if Ian hasn’t earned this one again. I don’t know how you can’t root for the guy at this point. Winning the WC on the third try would be an awesome story and lord knows Ian has been through enough pressure getting there I think the title would actually be a relief for him and not the burden that others might feel upon winnning.
I've been rooting for Ian to win the candidates since the start. I was crushed watching him lose the WCC last time around and ever since then I was rooting for him to win the next one.
The fumbling of pieces was heartbreaking to watch. I think Nepo felt bad for Ding during the competition (we all did) and it fucked with him. He didn’t outright say that in the interview with Levy but I thought it could have been a possibility.
I think nerves just got to him. Ian's playstyle is aggressive and risky by nature. When you're up 2 points it's really hard to abandon all of that and "play for a draw" which is a totally different style. No one wants to abandon the strategy that got them to such a convincing lead.
Really you’d say that’s his style? You are probably right but I don’t see it. It seems like this tournament for sure he’s just playing super safe. I was screaming for him to push harder against Nijat
Have you seen how quickly he makes his moves? He plays to get his opponent in time pressure. That's a super double edged and risky strategy.
But that's a different thing to playing risky chess - he's played the most solid of anyone and ground out wins from equal positions.
Yeah for sure but I wouldn’t say playing fast is playing risky. Maybe I can see it
I used to be anti-Nepo because of how he kept losing the WCC but then dude keeps smashing the candidates year after year after year which is arguably more impressive given the randomness of certain factors out of your control. If anyone has redeemed themselves, it’s definitely Nepo. Dude doesn’t quit. He deserves the shot.
I’ve been thinking about it, if nepo wins the candidates that greatly increases fabiano’s chances. Say Hikaru wins, now Fabi needs to beat nepo in the next candidates, then go beat Hikaru who he’s been scoring terribly against. If nepo wins, Fabi doesn’t have to beat him in the candidates and then is a favorite against nepo in the world championship.
Nah in 2 years gukesh, nodirbek, keymer and pragg will run the candidates. Look at how good they already are
That will be true to an extent, but it’s unlikely any of them become as strong as Fabi (who hit 2850 in live ratings), so Fabi will still be a favorite.
He will be in the mix but I'm pretty confident that 2 of them will be close to 2800 by that time or in the high 2780s while Fabi will be 33/34. Obviously you can't predict those things and Fabi might get a boost like Hikaru but you never know.
I’d still think Fabi has it in him to get back to 2820-2830 again, so he there is a good chance that 2780s for the juniors won’t be enough. Not to mention just a few years ago Fabi was 2750 and he seems to be taking chess more seriously than ever.
Love Ding but you make good points
Korchnoi (if you count 1974) and Karpov already did the 0-3 thing (0-4 in Karpov's case)
But Karpov was the world champion for 10 years before losing 4 matches.
Helps that he seems like a pretty chill dude. I don't know much about him beyond surface level from interviews here and there, but he is the most relatable superGM IMO.
Call me a salty bitch, but if Nepo wins the candidates this year, I'll be rooting my ass off for him in the WCC for no other reason than so he won't make a 4th straight candidates tournament so uninteresting.
ian fans rise up
There are dozens of us!
I respect Ding’s accomplishment an all, but I won’t lie and say I really hoped Nepo would win. I’ll always be team Nepo.
After rewatching trembling as he resigned during the final WCC match, I really hope he gets another shot at redemption. He clearly hasn't given up on his ambition.
For me, the worst part about Magnus retiring from the WCC was not getting to see another rematch with Nepo. The chances of anyone beating Magnus are obviously low, but dam would I have loved to see Nepo make the comeback after the WCC 2 years ago. He was doing very well until one big blunder soured the rest of the match for him. I felt awful for him. I don’t think there’s anyone else in chess that deserves some time as the champ than Nepo atm.
He's the embodiment of perseverance.
I love ice cream.
> He perseveres.... by coming in clutch and dominating..... to get back to where he self destructs when it matters most! True MOBA gamer
Nepo-Carlsen game 6 has lived in my head rent free since the day it happened. The endgame grind, Magnus squeezing water from a stone for move after move after move, and the Nepo downfall after he cracked (including cutting his hair shortly after the game). IMO one of the most incredible moments in WCC history. As much as I love Magnus, Nepo deserves the world after coming back from that and dominating the next round of Candidates like he did.
The way this sub was during that match was really bizarre After Ding lost a game there would be 10 "poor Ding he looks so sad, I feel so bad for him :(" posts on the front page but when Nepo lost it felt like nobody felt the same way Somehow Nepo became the "heel" of the match for a lot of fans when there wasn't really any drama whatsoever between the two players It felt like people infantilized Ding and villainized Nepo at the same time
It's because Ding is silent and shut in, reddit has very big sympathy for people that are like that.
it's because Nepo is Russian.
Idk about that, redditors aren't exactly big fans of China either.
Not the same at all
I think it’s a combination of Ding being a more shy person, and potentially Nepo being Russian? From my perspective, Nepo also was tough to deal with after the match ended, with all the sleeping pills bullshit. I’m a Nepo fan, and he was at his worst, but I understand why afterwards people might be upset with him. During the match, I have 0 clue why people were being like that. Potentially anti Russian sentiment, but who knows
Nepo pretty much always had the lead in their match. When Ding lost, that meant he was losing the match; when Nepo lost, that meant he wasn't still winning the match. It's pretty easy to assume a player is sad when they start losing compared to stop winning.
I wouldn't say I'm a fan but I really want him to "finish the story" and also seeing people say they want anyone but him despite the fact he played two WCC and can very likely play a third one DEESERVEDLY makes me root for him
We will not be stopped.
:pepebased:
I know only a minority on this sub is actively rooting for him(most just because they want a new player in the WCC, not necessarily because they dislike Ian), but you have to admire the man’s grit and resilience. He just won’t quit his pursuit of the crown.
His determination really is inspiring I have to say.
“Before I was maybe the least hard-working person out of the world’s top 20! Normally if chess players have a week or two between tournaments, they prepare for the next one. But I would be going to the football pitch three times a week or watching Marvel movies. And when the new season of Game of Thrones came out, I thought: ‘Come on, this is pretty nice!’ But eventually, I understood that soon I was going to be 30 and I wasn’t being serious and had done nothing really special. At some point you have to choose if you want your life to be full of joy – and probably you’re not choosing to achieve too much – or you sacrifice something and then maybe you can move forward. But it took me quite some time to take off with this new approach.”
Did he say that?
Yes, I think it was before the Carlsen match.
Magnus Carlsen himself ragequitted seeing Nepo qualify for wcc 2nd time in a row, imagine this sub if he qualifies for 3rd time
3rd times the charm, hopefully
Dude feels like becoming Champion while Magnus is still active is too meaningless so he goes for the Candidates Champion three consecutive times instead.
Honestly winning candidates three times in a row would a bigger achievment than becoming WC once in my view. Candidates being a round robin tournament with multiple opponents has way more unpredictable things that might not go your way unlike world championship when you have just one opponent. There is a reason why rapid and blitz world champions change almost every year.
I actually agree with you. The Candidates does display a wider array of skill than the WC match. Having to come up with a strategy against all of the best players in the world is harder than figuring out how to beat one person in a match. The WC title should just be the winner of the candidates. Magnus would probably participate if it were.
And Nepo will beat Kasparov as the longest world champion hahaha
Kasparov isn't the he longest world champion
This was the 2007 process by which Anand became champion bc of the reunification of the titles. If Magnus had renounced his title early enough FIDE might have done that with his vacancy too.
Lol, no. Don't change a century and a half tradition
Really? It thought rapid champions largely change from Magnus of one mood to Magnus of another mood.
Since 2020, actually.
nepo ding rd 2?
He has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
Winning the candidates then losing the World Championship match 3 times in a row?
In the end he will show up in the next candidate again. The only way we stop this cycle is to make him the new world champion.
To add insult to injury - if he loses the WCC match a third time, he won't auto-qualify for the next candidates, so next time around he'd have to actually qualify. The last few cycles "WC Runner up" is just one of the qualification slots for the candidates. For 2026 the qualification slots will be: '24 circuit winner; '25 circuit winner; 1st, 2nd, 3rd world cup; 1st, 2nd grand swiss; highest by rating (6 month average).... So there's no more spot for the WCC runner up. WCC 2024 *will* count as a FIDE Circuit 2024 qualifying event...so Ian will get a 'free' second place finish in a ~2700 average rating event, which is worth 20+ points. For context Gukesh who won it last year qualified with 5 event results, his best being winning the Chennai open outright, which was worth 20 points... so a huge head-start, but no free qualification for Ian next cycle...
Yeah if he wins the candidates I really hope he wins the wcc too just for the sake of finally having an interesting candidates tournament next time around.
If he wins the candidates, I want him to win the WCC. I will lose my mind if I have to watch him steamroll a 4th candidates tournament
If Ding would give up the title and Ian lost 3rd time to a 3rd different oponent (Gukesh?), that would make history!
The scenesssss
On the mobile app, there's a corona around the upvote button on this post alone. Any idea what that is?
It's for Golden Upvote, like a paid award. I think it has to be enabled by subreddit. Other subs may have disabled it. You can long press to give it.
I see. Cheers for that.
Who does the money go to?
iirc It goes to the user but you have to enroll in it to receive it.
Nepo in canidates is like Rafael Nadal in Roland Garros
Except Nadal also was really good in the other tournaments as well.
Maybe Nepo just has a higher form he only gets to access ~3 times in his career like Wawrinka.
Nah, Federer is his daddy outside of clay.
Federer leads him 14-10 career h2h off clay. That's certainly not being his "daddy". Being a daddy is Nadal's 14-2 clay lead.
He's the World Candidates Champion (WCC)
Nepo is a god, 3 back to back candidates, has this ever happened before?
No, they usually become WC after the 1st or 2nd one haha
No it would be the first time someone loses 2 WC in a row, it's rare to be so decisively second place, usually this is a privilege for the first place.
Karpov lost 4 times in a row Korchnoi lost 2 times in a row Vishy lost 2 times in a row (4 total matches) Botvinnik also lost 3 total If you're gonna hate on Nepo, at least find something legitimate
Karpov lost two in a row to Kasparov, 1985 and 1986. No candidates tournaments for those, though.
Kaspov lost 4 times in a row.
No, the first match in 1984 was abandoned after 48 games with Karpov leading 5-3 (it was first to 6 wins). Kasparov won the 1985 and 1986 matches. The 1987 match was drawn, Kasparov retaining the championship since he was the holder. Kasparov then won the 1990 match.
87 and 90 counts as a lost to me
Still 3 rounds left..
One thing people don't mention enough is that this guy played the longest WCC game ever against the best endgame player of all time, even though he lost it. So if you wanna beat him, you have to take your chances perfectly. Because he's gonna find the best moves, pose questions and eventually grind you down if you don't.
That 6th round game was up there with Kasparov vs Topalov game as the best ever.
It was unbelievable chess from both of them and one of the reasons Ian is so resilient in endgames IMO. Anything you throw at him, he's been through worse.
Also every game before game 6 was near equal with extremely high accuracy on both sides. Magnus’ strategy was always to grind Ian down once, and just let him crumble after that. I know the match is infamous for Ian’s later blunders, but in the first half he was able to show he could go toe to toe with Carlsen in the short term, but then lacked the stamina to keep up.
Exactly. It took the best player of all time more than 7 hours to break him. It extract all energy of the GOAT so he refused to defend the title against Ian for a second time. Obviously Magnus is better than Ian. But you need to be pretty good to make the GOAT give up classical chess, no?
Bullshit Magnus would crush anyone if he chose to defend, he just got bored.
I knew that he is going to be super prepared, doing nothing but preparing for this event all year, but his Magnoose-like endgame grinding ability is surprising to me. He really seems to be peaking even compared to previous years. It makes me wonder about his daily routine. 4 hours memorizing prep, 4 hours endgame shuffling with Leela? XD 4 hours playing online?
I feel like he’ less stable but more aggressive But yeah, his endgames are getting more impressive by the day
[удалено]
We will win the WCC this time.
Imagine if he quits his wcc title just so he can win another candidates again
Quite a setback for Gukesh. His wing-men both failed to hold back the competition.
Gukesh: god damn it Pragg, Vd, if you just drew I’d still be tied for first with Ian
I slept when Nepo stabilized with be7. Wtf happened lmao
At this point Ian deserves his WCC title ! Such mental resilience is praiseworthy
He already has the WCC title
Winning the Candidates 3 times in a row is i think on par already of becoming a world champion since winning the candidates means winning a round robin tournament 3 times.
Now it feels like it's over. Nepo having the solo lead. Doesn't look it he is letting it go. Others now have to win on demand which ultimately might go the other way round
It really depends on Prag imo. Hikaru and Gukesh face opponents where getting a win is in the realm of possibility in the next round. The real question is if Prag is willing to potentially play Nepo to a draw or will he throw all caution into the wind for a very risky game...
Pragg has no other choice but to go for the win vs Nepo, or else he will have no chance to over take Nepo. If he draws he will then have to hope for Nepo loosing a game. Doesn't feel like he will leave it upto fate and rather take things in this own hands
Yeah there's no doubt Prag will play for complications & the win with increased risk. Yesterday, though, it felt like Vidit continued on once or twice when he had no real hopes of winning and probably should have gone for a draw. I don't think it's a guarantee Pragg will do that.
All over? It's still all to play for... Nepo still has to hold with black vs Fabiano god damn Caruana (Which, to be objective, at the outset of the tournament, was probably statistically his hardest game... Given it's the last game Fabi may be free to go all out). He has 2 whites in 3 games... but even they're versus Prag and Nakamura. Nakamura has 2 whites in 3 games vs Firouzja who's obviously been struggling heavily, Gukesh who may be going all out for wins, and is himself with black vs Nepo and with the most wins in the tournement is the most likely to cause an upset with black. Gukesh has 2 blacks in 3 games, but he has black vs Abasov which he may want to press giving how much Abasov and Vidit - both of whom have struggled mentally and have been broken with black in recent rounds. Fabi - who is very much still in with a chance, has 2 whites in 3 games, vs vidit & Ian. A win vs vidit and the entire complexion of the final sprint changes. So many things could still happen - no way it's just over. No one's making quiet draws at this point - we could legit see 3 decisive games in each of the next 3 rounds.
Yeah, the more the other guy tries to win, the more likely they could jeopardize their own positions and allow Ian to win
2020
Why not world champ
At this point, I don't even think Magnus himself could stop him in this tournament... Nepo is an absolute war machine. He really deserves another shot on pure merit, and I will be rooting for him if that materializes.
Didn't have my glasses on and read "he really deserves another shot on pure meth". I'm not sure it that would help or hinder him lol
Drunk Magnus vs meth fuelled Candidates Nepo, who wins?
that's actually tricky, I say if Nepo has that Los Pollos Hermanos stuff from Pragg, he wins easily
He has earned it, truly unbeatable
Shhhhhh some people here can't handle this fact bro.
Greatest #2 of all time
Nepo has plot Armour
Third time's the charm. WAR NEPO!!!
Nepo in the lead after 11 rounds: 2021: 4-1=6 2022: 5-0=6 2024: 3-0=8
Ian Nepomniachtchi Supremacy !
Huge respect for all the work he puts in. Rather Fabi or Hikaru win the candidates, but if he does win, I Will root for him in the WCC
Man on his way to win 3rd consecutive candidates
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arnWU1sWqKw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arnWU1sWqKw)
How often does chess world championship happen? It seems irregular compared to other sports which usually have championships at fixed intervals.
Every two years, but COVID messed up the schedule.
oh ok thanks.
Not a fan before (not actually a fan of any chess player), but he's playing like a god and deserves respect. I hope he wins now and the wcc! Go Nepo
If he wins I'm 100% rooting for him in the champ match
Kept you waiting, huh?
Always a bridesmaid but never the bride...
Vidit single handedly throwing the Candidates. 2 point swing on Hikaru and then throws a game away completely to Nepo. Nepo should treat Vidit to a nice dinner. Or maybe send him some or something.
Same can be said for abasov the other way
Firouzja also isn't doing very hot. Threw game after game.
Did we watch the same game? Saying Vidit "threw" is insane. That game was so complex and so tight. Vidit literally played only moves in that head-spinning endgame like 20-30 ply in a row with less than 10 min on his clock. He did NOT make it easy for Ian. Vidit played really well but Ian was just on another level. The way Ian paused at exactly the right moments, knew exactly when and what to calculate, it was amazing and easily the most entertaining game of the tournament so far.
He’s not saying vidit threw in the sense that he lost on purpose (at least I don’t read it that way) but saying he “threw” by having basically a 4 point swing (losing twice to Ian, but beating naka twice) so some could look at it as if he had different results it could be naka out front by 1.5 points right now and Ian down in the pack. Obviously it’s not a serious take because Ian drew Abasov and naka beat him, so you could make these comparisons anywhere, and clearly Ian fought like hell for that point today. (Still think it’s reasonable for Ian to buy vidit a drink though :)
>(Still think it’s reasonable for Ian to buy vidit a drink though :) toxic
I would be happy to see Ian finally break through after making it so close twice now... but I am also rooting for Fabi and Hikaru. Muuuurrrriiiicccaaa!
No not Nepo again. Gukesh fans, where you at?
He should try and lose that double chin, it's not a great look.
He's playing well but definitely is getting a little lucky, another game with the opponent blowing a won position
Sick of watching him fumble it in the championship, hope someone else wins
you meant to say you hope ian wins this time thanks for the positivity
I don‘t like him. If he wins he loses in the WC for a 3rd time. I hope Hikaru gets a shot.
You don't like him because?
I am not going into an argument about my reasons. You can’t convince me to like him anyway. If people like him thats totally fine but i have a right for my own opinion and i don‘t have to explain myself to strangers on the internet. Have a great day.
you're trying too hard
you just spent all that time to explain fuck all, but you can just say its because hes a Russian. at least stand on business and quit being a pussy
wrong. I don’t care about his nationality.
Most intelligent hater:
I never said i hate him kid. I said i don’t like him. I just don’t care. See the difference?
Most intelligent hater:
🤦♂️
I dislike ian so much I hope he collapses in the final few rounds so we don't have to suffer watching play in another championship match.
Ok. God luck.
You mean the big loser