Chess

[Federberg]

Sad to say but it's looking increasingly obvious, that Levon is not up to this type of pressure

 

[DarthFed]

Haven't been able to play over the full game yet but Qg5 looked crazy from Levon

 

[DarthFed]

Kramnik completely done too. Mamed has his number, 4-3 in classical but he's won the last 4 decisive ones. Not really competitive games either

 

[DarthFed]

Rest day today, couldn't come at a better time for Kramnik and Aronian. They will be licking their wounds. Obviously they are in trouble but they are far from out of it.

Round 7:

Aronian - Caruana - Big for Levon of course. A good time to cook up a surprise and get aggressive, though it could backfire. A loss here and he is definitely done but a win gets him back in it. I'm going with a draw (a cop out I know).

Grischuk - Mamed - Grischuk having a decent tourney so far all things considered, more like he's been a bit lucky but that counts. I think he wins this one and spices things up a bit.

Kramnik - Ding - draw. Ding is looking more and more like the Giri of this tourney. Not fighting and taking chances like the other players.

Karjakin - So - draw

 

[Federberg]

Round 7:

Aronian - Caruana - I'll go for Aronian here. He's so dangerous, and he could easily cook up something crazy

Grischuk - Mamed - I agree Grischuk for me

Kramnik - Ding - I'm actually going to go for Ding here, just have a feeling Vlad is in a fuck it kind of mood and will over extend himself

Karjakin - So - draw

 

[Federberg]

Interesting game between Levon and Fabi. Still not sure if Levon's g4 was deep prep or bluff. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Certainly has great attacking potential but he needs to do something quick otherwise it could fizzle out

 

[DarthFed]

Not sure Aronian has enough time to make that attack work but I like the fact he's going all out for it. He knows he needs the win today.

Disappointed that Grischuk had a quick draw with Mamed today. Where is the ambition after a rest day?

 

[Federberg]

Re: Sascha, agreed. Looks like Levon missed the best continuation and is now lost. But will Fabi see it. After being under severe pressure for so long he might still be in defence mode

 

[Federberg]

so that ended quickly. Fabi takes it and is really starting to look like the challenger. But so dangerous to say so as we're only at the half way mark

 

[DarthFed]

Still think Aronian did the right thing but it's always tough against a rock solid positional player when they're expecting an all out attack like today. Aronian' attack never had enough juice and he stumbled pretty quickly. Still a long ways to go but realistically Aronian and So are completely done for this tourney.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I'm happy Fabiano is in the lead. Once it was obvious Aronian wasn't up for it (again), he became the guy I was rooting for to win the candidates. It's obviously an uphill battle but he'd be a more interesting opponent for Magnus than most. I hope he can hold on to the lead and avoid something similar to two years ago, where we ended up with Karjakin, which was underwhelming to be honest. Still wish MVL was there.

 

[DarthFed]

Grischuk - Kramnik - Draw

Ding - Aronian - we will see if Aronian is on full tilt. At this point you'd expect all guns blazing every game which makes him very vulnerable to more losses. I will go with Ding here

Mamed - Karjakin - Mamed

So - Caruana - not sure why but I sense an upset here. I don't think Caruana is going to make it unscathed

 

[Federberg]

Grischuk - Kramnik - Draw

Ding - Aronian - he might be on tilt, but every dog has his day. Aronian

Mamed - Karjakin - Draw

So - Caruana - Draw

 

[Federberg]

lol! is Levon just trying to force a repetition here?

 

[DarthFed]

Predictably he is going for more fireworks and again I'm not seeing a whole lot for him here. Crazy to think he may end up being the Topalov of this tourney. He's already been handing out wins like a child molester giving out candy

 

[DarthFed]

Fun game it's turned out to be. Board is on fire with Ding up a pawn.

 

[Federberg]

This is becoming unprofessional now. I'm just appalled at Levon in this tournament

 

[DarthFed]

Looking like all draws today. Ding managing to draw today shows he is going for the 14/14 peace award

Grischuk up a pawn but should be a pretty easy draw here. However, after 6 hours the old man (Kramnik) could easily falter

 

[Federberg]

Looking like all draws today. Ding managing to draw today shows he is going for the 14/14 peace award

Grischuk up a pawn but should be a pretty easy draw here. However, after 6 hours the old man (Kramnik) could easily falter

yes I've been wondering about if we're entering blunder territory for Vlad

 

[Federberg]

Looks like Ding won, I'll have to go over the game later to see where Kramnik lost the thread