(A version of this post was originally published here.) More details here. As the Meltwater tour has been around for a while now, many of you know the basic format: it’s a two-stage, 16 player, rapid event. A round robin cuts the field to eight players, who then engage in a series of knockout matches until there’s a winner; one-day matches for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, and a two-day match for the finals. As always with the Meltwater tour, the field includes many of the world’s absolute elite. This time around, Candidates Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Richard Rapport ..read more

(Originally published here. Please subscribe to my Substack blog - thanks!) I’m watching Sam Shankland’s Chess24 course “Why Play 1.d4?” (in part an ad for his Chessable course giving a 1.d4 repertoire), and in the third video he notes a repertoire issue. Suppose you’re a 1.d4 player who wants to avoid the Gruenfeld. No problem: you can start with 1.Nf3 (or 1.c4). If you’re a 1.e4 player trying to avoid certain openings with 1.Nf3, however, you’re stuck. You have to play 1.e4. If you start with 1.Nf3, then after Black’s two most popular moves, 1…Nf6 and 1…d5, you can’t get back to a 1.e4 open ..read more

(Originally published here, several days ago. Please subscribe to the Substack blog - thanks!) Since many of you are subscribers, you’ll receive my original post by email, and if I correct an error you’re unlikely to notice. Hopefully the vast majority of my errors will be typos and not substantive, but errare humanum est and all that. So here’s a post in which I correct an error, include a link I neglected to add, and throw in a bunch of other links just for fun. First, the error: In my annotations to Nepomniachtchi-Rapport in round 13 I stated that Nepo joined Smyslov and Spassky as the onl ..read more

(Originally published here several days ago. Please subscribe the Substack blog!) Happy 4th of July, America; our candidates both lost. What could have been… In truth, it would have been difficult for anyone to stop Ian Nepomniachtchi from winning the 2022 Candidates, who won the event going away. He played better than anyone else in the event, and whenever he found himself in trouble - as he did today - a combination of resourceful play and help from his opponents bailed him out. Jan-Krzysztof Duda has had a poor tournament, but today he had a real chance against Nepo. Nepo’s Petroff prep wa ..read more

(Originally published here several days ago. If any of you haven't yet subscribed to the Substack blog, please do so!) The question for round 14 of the Candidates is this: will there be one meaningful game, or none? The answer is up to none of the players, but to Magnus Carlsen. More on this below. First things first: congratulations to Ian Nepomniachtchi! After another pro forma draw, this time against Richard Rapport, he clinched clear first in the tournament with a round to spare (which he did in the last Candidates, too), and guaranteed himself a World Championship match against…some ..read more

His commentary during round 12 on Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja, Caruana and more. Come for the chess, stay for the travel suggestions ..read more

(Originally posted here; please subscribe to my Substack blog - thanks!) The narrative changes again (but not the meta-narrative about changing narratives). Here’s what a random blogger wrote yesterday: As for Ding, the truth, obviously, was that he needed a little time to get acclimated, and now that he has he’ll finish in second place - at worst. This is the full and sober truth, the entire explanation, and the final word on what has happened and why—at least until something happens in the next three rounds to upend these tidy explanations. But fear not: once that happens, the commentariat ..read more

(Originally posted on my Substack blog; please subscribe there.) Nothing too spicy, but it’s worth a minute of your time ..read more

(Originally posted on my Substack blog; please subscribe there.) “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” - Anonymous We commentators are remarkably insightful when it comes to explaining what has just happened, though this awesome gift of hindsight rarely translates into successful predictions the next time around. It turns out that commentators should not only avoid predictions before an event; they should also be careful about offering their explanations during an event. To wit: After seven rounds of the Candidates, it was “obvious” that Fabiano Caruana was in gre ..read more

(Originally posted on my Substack blog; please subscribe there.) I remember reading Vik Vasiliev’s biography of Tigran Petrosian when I was a kid, and his account of the 1962 Candidates came to mind. With five rounds to go, he was tied with Paul Keres for first and was, I think, a point ahead of Efim Geller. In the remaining five rounds, he made five draws - the prearranged draws with Keres and Geller, then with Pal Benko and Bobby Fischer, and finally in the last round a 14-move non-effort - with White - against tournament tailender Miroslav Filip. My recollection is that this unambitious st ..read more