(Originally published on my Substack blog. Please subscribe!)
A few rounds ago I cited Magnus Carlsen’s colorful commentary on Ian Nepomniachtchi’s decision to go for a repetition against Hikaru Nakamura rather than going for blood, and in round 7 I quoted Fabiano Caruana’s expression of disgust about Richard Rapport’s ignorance of the Petroff line chosen by Nepomniachtchi.
And yet…Vladimir Kramnik seems to have taken the prize for the harshest commentary so far on the 2022 Candidates. The headline on the post nicely summarizes his conclusion: “I have never seen so many bad games in a top-level tournament.” Have a look for yourself, and see if you agree not only with his assessments, but with his conjectures about the causes. I would add my own thought about Ding Liren, that he is doubly rusty: rusty from having barely played during the pandemic, and then rusty for ~2800 level chess after feasting on a huge collection of comparatively weak players.