Round 14 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepo Wins (Still); Ding Beats Nakamura to Take Second

(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 was good, but Duda managed to create a messy position with kingside attacking chances. Nepo committed several inaccuracies after the opening, and if Duda had played 23.Rxd8+ he would have had real winning chances. Instead, he played 23.hxg6, and precise play by Black allowed him to slide into a drawn ending.

Thus Nepomniachtchi finished with an undefeated 9.5/14, the greatest Candidates score since the current format was introduced back in 2013. (Caruana had the previous record with 9 points in 2018; all other winners scored 8.5.) He has earned the right for a title tilt with Magnus Carlsen; whether it’s a championship worth celebrating is something we’ll have to see. (More on this below.)

As has been repeated ad nauseam on the blog and elsewhere, it’s possible that Carlsen will decline to defend the title. If he doesn’t, then the second-place winner here will face Nepo for the title. Coming into the round Hikaru Nakamura was in clear second, half a point ahead of Ding Liren. The pairing was perfect: Ding vs. Nakamura, with Ding getting the white pieces. Ding had nothing for a long time, but with plenty of time on the clock Nakamura twice failed to play …Rd8. Ding gave him one more chance to save the game with a big error on move 38, but that one was also missed. From there Ding showed excellent technique, increasingly restricting his opponent’s pieces while gaining material. Overall, a very good game by Ding, and the culmination of a remarkable comeback in the second half of the tournament. If he gets a championship match with Nepomniachtchi it will be well-deserved.

Nakamura thus finished in third - or rather, in equal third (and technically, fourth on tiebreak) with Teimour Radjabov after the latter’s weird win against Richard Rapport. Radjabov played a terrible opening and was just about lost after 18 moves. But rather than prepare g5 with 19.h4 or with 19.Nh4 followed by Nf5 and then h4, Rapport went into Elmer Fudd mode with the dreadful 19.g5?? fxg5? 20.Nxg5??, and while Radjabov did what he could to “forgive” him, he kept making mistakes. Ultimately, Rapport was a piece down with no attack at all, and resigned after Black’s 33rd move.

Finally, the tournament came to an end with another poorly played game between the two players who had nightmarish second halves in the tournament. Fabiano Caruana was given a gift when Alireza Firouzja played 19…f5? This gave Caruana a risk-free positional advantage, but when he decided to open the board straight away Firouzja was right back in the game. Further errors before the time control left Firouzja with a winning ending with an extra pawn, but he was unable to maintain the advantage. Alas, it was Caruana who made the final error, on the last move of the second time control. There were multiple moves to keep the draw, but 60.Ne4? cost him a second pawn, and he resigned three moves later. What a nightmare for Caruana, who was an undefeated +3 in the first half and a winless -4 in the second.

The games (with my notes) are here, and here are the final standings:

1.Nepomniachtchi 9.5 (out of 14)

2.Ding 8

3-4.Radjabov, Nakamura 7.5

5.Caruana 6.5

6.Firouzja 6

7-8.Duda, Rapport 5.5

Now let’s get to “what’s next”. Carlsen hasn’t said what he’s going to do—not exactly. But it is known that he has been in talks with FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, and has apparently proposed that a match not be - or not just be - a classical competition, but include a rapid (and blitz?) component. One element (hopefully not the whole thing, which would make a joke of the traditional world championship) would be the sets of rapid games used in the Meltwater tour events. (There, they play a best-of-four rapid match on day 1, with the day’s overall score counting like a single regular game of chess: a point for a win, half a point each for a draw, and nothing for a loss. Day 2: the same thing, and if it’s 1-1 there’s a blitz playoff culminating in an Armageddon game.) Given the current prevalence of rapid events, I’m open to its being a component of a championship match (though I’d rather it wasn’t, except in case of a tied match), but think that at least half of the overall points in the match should come from classical games. There’s already a world rapid championship, and there’s still value to classical chess. It isn’t perfect chess, but it’s a lot closer to it than 15-minute chess.

For more on this, see here (scroll down) and here.

Round 13 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepo Clinches First; Nakamura in Solo Second

(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…somebody. Hopefully Carlsen, but if he decides not to play it will be against the second-place finisher in this event.

Right now, that’s Hikaru Nakamura. He won against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but it was a game he easily could have lost. After the careless 31.Rfd1 he was in grave danger after 31…Bg5 32.Rd3 b5!; fortunately, after 33.Ba3 Duda uncorked a howler. His 33…d5?? gave away his advantage, and a few moves later 37…Nd7?? lost the game. That brought Nakamura to +2 in the tournament for the first time, a point and a half behind Nepo and half a point ahead of Ding Liren.

Ding gave it his best shot against Alireza Firouzja, who played uncharacteristically solid chess today. (Losing two straight and barely surviving the third game can do that to a player.) Firouzja’s decision to go pawn-grabbing after Ding’s provocative 20…h5 heated things up, but after very good play by both sides the game finished in a repetition.

Finally, the game between Teimour Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana could have been kept the player in the hunt for second, had either man won. Caruana tried a sharp line against Radjabov’s Catalan, and while both players wanted more it soon petered out to a drawn ending, leaving both players eliminated from contention once Nakamura won.

So we’re left with only one (potentially) meaningful game tomorrow, with Ding having White in a must-win situation against Nakamura. If Ding wins, he’ll have play Nepomniachtchi for the title; otherwise, Nakamura will play Nepo for the title. (Unless Carlsen decides to play, in which case it’s Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi II, when we hope that the sequel will be better than the original. Fortunately this is real life, not Hollywood, so it probably will be.)

Here are today’s games, with my comments, and here are the pairings for the final round, to be played on Monday:

Rapport (5.5) - Radjabov (6.5)

Caruana (6.5) - Firouzja (5)

Ding (7) - Nakamura (7.5)

Duda (5) - Nepomniachtchi (9)

Kasparov on the Candidates

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

Round 11 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding for the World Championship?

(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 great form, while Ding Liren was in bad shape. In Ding’s case, he was rusty when it came to top-level opposition, while he was probably burned out from all the games he played against relatively weak opposition in March as he scrambled to qualify for the tournament. That mad dash would also have taken away from time he would have spent in opening preparation. And for Caruana, just look at the games: great opening preparation, impressive victories, good fighting spirit - the whole package.

And now? Caruana has scored just half a point from his last four games, falling 2.5 points behind the leader and into fourth place, while Ding has only given up half a point from his last four games, winning three in a row and finding himself in clear second. Clearly, the narrative in the preceding paragraph was all wrong. Maybe Caruana’s form wasn’t entirely up to snuff - he failed to convert against Ian Nepomniachtchi in round 2, despite outpreparing and outplaying him, and once things got tough he fell apart. 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 will confabulate a new “full and sober truth”, and if we wait until the tournament is over the new story will undoubtedly stand the test of time…

I don’t know what exactly has gone wrong for Caruana over the past four rounds, or even if there is some overarching explanation that transcends what went wrong in each of the four games. Likewise, it’s hard to know why exactly Ding has won his last three games, after going winless through the first eight rounds. Ding came close to winning in rounds 3 and 5, and had a nice advantage in game 2; what was different about those rounds compared to rounds 9-11? I don’t know.

It is possible to explain the details of the games themselves, though, and you’ll want to have a look at today’s game between Caruana and Ding. They came into the round tied for second with Hikaru Nakamura, a point and a half behind Nepomniachtchi. Caruana had the white pieces and played very well up to the time control. He hadn’t made the most of his chances, but still enjoyed a clear advantage and good winning chances. But somehow, things started to go wrong, a bit at a time, and by the third time control Caruana was fighting for his life. He didn’t manage it, making his final error on move 75 and resigning after three more moves.

As Nakamura didn’t manage to defeat Richard Rapport (despite trying until move 96!), Ding is now in clear second. He remains a point and a half behind Nepomniachtchi, who is almost certainly uncatchable at this point, with just three rounds left. Nepo won a nice game against Alireza Firouzja, who went a bit bonkers trying to blow Nepo off the board. It’s hard to say for sure, but Firouzja’s over-caffeinated approach may have been partially due to his having played 357 hyperbullet (30-second) games on Lichess the previous evening/night/early morning.

Finally, Teimour Radjabov and Jan-Krzysztof Duda played a game that suggested that they’d like to get the event over with and move on to the next one.

The games, with my notes, are here.

A reminder: If Carlsen carries out his threat not to defend his title, the top two finishers here will play for the crown. Should that come to pass, Nepo is practically guaranteed to qualify, as he is two full points ahead of Nakamura, who is alone in third place. Guess what tomorrow’s marquee matchup is?

Round 12 Pairings:

Rapport (4.5) - Caruana (5.5)

Ding (6.5) - Radjabov (5)

Duda (4.5) - Firouzja (4)

Nepomniachtchi (8) - Nakamura (6)

Round 9 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepomniachtchi Escapes; The Peleton Awakens

(Originally published on my Substack blog. Please subscribe!)

It’s almost certainly too late for the chase pack in the 2022 Candidates tournament to make a real run at the title, but it’s nice to see that their slumber has finally come to an end. (See my comments about a “fresh start” in the round 8 post.) Going into round 9, four players had yet to win a game; now, only one.

We’ll get to that in a moment, but first: the Big Game. Fabiano Caruana had excellent chances to defeat Ian Nepomniachtchi in their game from the first cycle, but didn’t see or underestimated a critical idea at the end of the game and allowed a draw by repetition. Today, a point behind Nepo and needing a win, his excellent preparation gave him another shot at a full point. Caruana was highly critical of Richard Rapport’s opening disaster against Nepomniachtchi’s Petroff in round 7, and he showed the chess world how it’s supposed to be done. His 11.Nh4 was a very nice (almost) novelty, and while Nepo’s initial reaction was excellent he erred on move 17 and 18. The critical moment came on move 24; it’s White (Caruana) to move:

Happy solving! Suffice it to say that Caruana played the second best move, which allowed Nepo to scamper away to safety and an easy draw. Working out the details of the best move wasn’t easy (if it were, Caruana would have done it), but had he done so he’d have been winning, or near enough to winning to be a big favorite to reel in the point.

That was great news for Nepomniachtchi, and more was to come. Hikaru Nakamura could have joined Caruana in second with a win; instead, he lost to Teimour Radjabov, who had been winless up to that point. Perhaps Nakamura was in the wrong state of mind after his epic win over Caruana in the previous round, as he committed a serious misjudgment early on. His 12th and 13th moves baited Radjabov into grabbing a queenside pawn at the expense of kingside safety, but it turned out that Radjabov’s king was fine. As for the queenside pawn? That won the game. It was a surprisingly easy victory for Radjabov, who is back to -1, while Nakamura fell back to 50%, two points behind Nepo.

Richard Rapport’s first win came in round 8, but like Nakamura he was unable to build on it but instead took a step back. He was conquered by Alireza Firouzja, who exited the opening with a huge advantage and a massive attack. He made a couple of mistakes along the way, but Rapport did too, and the result was a very one-sided win for the young Frenchman. It was his first win of the tournament.

Ding Liren also winning for the first time in the tournament, grinding down Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a long game. The game looked (and was) very drawish for most of the first time control, but just before move 40 the position became more complex. Probably short of time, Duda made a major error on move 40, and while proving the win afterwards wasn’t so easy the world’s #2 was up to the challenge and got back to 50%. (The games, with my comments, are here.)

Now that the action is heating up…it’s time for a rest day. When play resumes on Wednesday, we’ll see these pairings for round 10:

Rapport (4) - Ding (4.5)

Duda (3) - Caruana (5.5)

Nepomniachtchi (6.5) - Radjabov (4)

Nakamura (4.5) - Firouzja (4)

Round 7 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepomniachtchi and Caruana Win Again

(Originally published on my Substack blog. Please subscribe!)

Maybe they should send the other six players home, and decide the Candidates with a match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana? A six-game match would do the trick, giving Nepo draw odds as an appropriate reward for his half-point lead at this stage.

Of course that’s not going to happen, but barring a stunning collapse or a comeback for the ages, Magnus Carlsen will play (or not play, if he decides to abdicate) a second match against one of his last two world championship opponents. Nepomniachtchi crushed Richard Rapport on the black side of a Petroff, while Caruana ground down Teimour Radjabov in a long, hard battle. Nepo thus finished the first cycle with a crazy +4 score, scoring 5.5 out of 7. Caruana is just half a point behind with a +3 score; in fact, their results were identical in every round except for round 4. Still, it could have been Caruana with 5.5 and Nepo with 5, had Caruana played …Rxb2 on move 30 or move 32 of their game in round 2.

Caruana had interesting comments on both games. About his own game, he said this: “It was the most difficult game I’ve played in a long time.” And about Nepo’s game, he got a bit spicy (especially by his standards): "I felt kind of sick to be honest. It's one of the most shocking games I've seen from a top player in a long time." Mark Crowther, in his TWIC comments on the round, noted Caruana’s explanation “that the line has been known for a decade and that if you get there as white you need to take the draw.” (Quoting Crowther, not Caruana.)

You can replay those games, along with the drawn games between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Hikaru Nakamura and between Ding Liren and Alireza Firouzja, here. Incredibly, five players are winless, including the top two seeds (Ding & Firouzja). Only Nakamura has managed to tread water, losing to Caruana in round 1 and bouncing back with a win over Rajdabov in round 2. He’ll have his chance for revenge tomorrow. Speaking of which, here are the pairings for tomorrow’s/today’s/Saturday’s round 8, the first round of the second cycle:

Rapport (3) - Duda (3)

Nepomniachtchi (5.5) - Ding (3)

Nakamura (3.5) - Caruana (5)

Firouzja (2.5) - Radjabov (2.5)

This will be a massively important for the leaders and their opponents, and in the next round Caruana will have the white pieces against Nepomniachtchi. Let’s hope the next two rounds live up to their potential.

Round 6 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepomniachtchi and Caruana Distance Themselves From the Field

(Originally published on my Substack blog. Please subscribe!)

There are still eight rounds left in the 2022 Candidates, but unless the chase pack, er, starts chasing - and soon - it will be a two-main race between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana, both of whom won today. For Nepo it was his third win in six games, this time at Jan-Krzysztof Duda’s expense; while Caruana won his second game, against Alireza Firouzja. (Firouzja is now alone in last place. Everyone else’s chess fans should enjoy it [non-maliciously] while they can, because once he has a little more experience he may be unstoppable by anyone but Magnus Carlsen.)

For Nepo, much of the credit goes to a clever opening choice. He played the Reti, and Duda chose a common line that hasn’t fared especially well, and that he didn’t seem to grasp in his fingertips. Nepo’s advantage rapidly grew, and while he had a stumble or two near the end, it wasn’t easy for Duda to exploit the errors - and he didn’t. The Russian FIDE player finished convincingly, and is leading the tournament heading into the second rest day. (Fun fact: he also leapfrogged Firouzja into fourth place on the live rating list.)

Caruana remains half a point behind and is for now the only player who seems to be awake, other than Nepo. Firouzja tried to make something happen in a position where nothing was happening nor should be happening, first with the dubious 15.e4?! and then with 20.Rxd7, which was either a blunder (missing 21…f5 22.Bxf5 Qe8) or a fatal misjudgment. Caruana’s technique was terrific, and his mature handling of the game was the counterpoint to Firouzja’s misjudgments. (Again, this won’t last for long, and soon the 19-year-old will be an almost unstoppable wrecking ball in the chess world.)

Hikaru Nakamura is the only player besides Nepo and Caruana to have won a game in this tournament, and he has come close in other games, too. With White against Ding Liren (mired at -1) he demonstrated some deep preparation, and was well over an hour ahead on the clock after 26 moves. But Ding played just about perfectly, and Nakamura started burning loads of time himself, most notably on move 30, which cost him 50(!) minutes. Despite his best efforts to cause Ding problems, the tournament’s top seed defended excellently, and a near-perfect game by both players finished in a repetition just after the time control.

Finally, Teimour Radjabov and Richard Rapport played a wild game that also finished in a draw. Despite the great complications, TR and RR played nearly perfectly until just before the time control, and…somewhat less than perfectly at that point. Rapport’s 36…Rg4? got him into trouble, while 37…Rxh4+?? should have lost the game. Surprisingly, with several minutes left to mate two moves, Radjabov missed 39.Bh2, which wins on the spot, instead forcing a draw with 39.Rf7?? A frustrating end for Radjabov, while Rapport somehow remains at 50% after five draws, even though he seems to be winning or losing at some point in every game. (To recap: Lost by move 10 against Duda in round 1, winning against Firouzja in round 2, completely lost against Ding in round 3, a normal draw with Nakamura in round 4, good winning chances though not clearly winning against Caruana in round 5, and lost today against Radjabov. -1 or -2 would have been about right, so he should feel optimistic about his chances given his even score.)

As noted already, the players have Friday off before round 7 on Saturday brings the first cycle to a close, after which the players try it again with colors reversed. Here are the round 7 pairings:

Rapport (3) - Nepomniachtchi (4.5)

Duda (2.5) - Nakamura (3)

Ding (2.5) - Firouzja (2)

Caruana (4) - Radjabov (2.5)

Radjabov has been playing better the last several rounds, but this is still a game where Caruana will be looking for the full point. And for Nepo, danger, especially as he lost in the same situation in the previous Candidates. We’ll see how well he has learned to moderate risk in this battle of two volatile, fighting players. In the meantime, here are today’s games, with my notes.

Round 4 of the 2022 Candidates: Nepomniachtchi Wins Again to Take the Sole Lead

(Previously published here - please subscribe to the Substack blog - thanks.)

There are still 10 rounds left in the Candidates, but those who - like me - were unsure how Ian Nepomniachtchi’s confidence would be after the World Championship, are getting a wake-up call. He is the clear leader after round 4, and this on the strength of crushing wins against two of the three pre-tournament favorites. His victim in round 1 was Ding Liren, and this time it was Alireza Firouzja.

The game was a very main line Byrne Variation Najdorf until Firouzja played 15…Bc4. It’s not a novelty, but it’s a minor line compared to 15…a4, which shows up almost 5000 times in ChessBase’s online database. I’m not sure if this is a trustworthy line, but it does seem that Firouzja was objectively okay before his 20th move. Had he chosen, say, 20…Kh8 he would have stayed okay, but 20…Bxf1 was the first misstep on the way to what would soon be a lost position. Add to this his mounting and very serious time trouble, and it wasn’t surprising that the rest of the game was a disaster, culminating in a made-for-the-tactics-app finish.

The remaining three draws finished peacefully. Hikaru Nakamura played well to hold comfortably on the black side of a Berlin against Richard Rapport, while Teimour Radjabov was a bit worse against Jan-Krzysztof Duda until White’s erroneous 17.Qf3 allowed the equalizing 17…f5.

The last game to finish was perhaps the marquee matchup of the round, Ding Liren vs. Fabiano Caruana. Ding was pressing throughout, and it seemed that he had serious winning chances when Caruana sacrificed a pawn for some activity. It seems, though, that Caruana had either worked everything out correctly or had properly assessed the situation. He had to defend for a good long while, and did so successfully, holding the draw. Ding may have been disappointed, but he doesn’t seem to have been winning or even that close to winning. (Today’s games, with my analysis, are here.)

Nepo and Caruana were tied for the lead from the beginning, but now Nepomniachtchi is in clear first with 3/4, with Caruana half a point behind and the rest of the pack on 50% or less. Will they continue in the lead? We’ll see tomorrow (Wednesday), when we’ll have these pairings for round 5:

Caruana (2.5) - Rapport (2)

Radjabov (1.5) - Ding (1.5)

Firouzja (1.5) - Duda (2)

Nakamura (2) - Nepomniachtchi (3)

Round 1 of the 2022 Candidates Tournament: Wins for Nepomniachtchi and Caruana

(Originally posted here, yesterday. Please subscribe to my Substack blog, where my posts will be published first.)

Round 1 of the 2022 Candidates lived up to the spectators’ hopes. All four games were exciting, two finished with a winner, and all four could have been decisive. Moreover, there was a significant upset, the openings were exciting - really, there was a bit of everything today.

The first game to finish was between the co-favorite (with Fabiano Caruana), Ding Liren, against the winner of the last Candidates tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi. While I didn’t expect Nepo to win the event (and it’s a still long ways off, though if he wins tomorrow he’ll already be the favorite) I did warn that he probably had a big stock of opening ideas from his preparation for the match with Magnus Carlsen. Ding played the English, and Nepo chose a very aggressive line in reply. Ding seemed uncertain and inadequately prepared for the variation, and his passivity in the face of Nepo’s attack soon proved fatal. As Caruana put it afterward, Ding was blown off the board.

That game finished in just 32 moves; the other games all lasted well into the second time control. The second game to finish was the other decisive affair, the all-American battle between Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Caruana obtained an advantage from the opening, but let it slip. The critical moment came on move 21, when Caruana played 21.b3 to scare Nakamura away from castling by hand to the queenside. He should have done so anyway, but instead played 21…0-0?, allowing White to enjoy good attacking chances until forever against Black’s exposed king. Both sides made inaccuracies from time to time, but Black’s chronic king problems eventually proved his undoing.

The other games were long, exciting, and will leave the white players with some regrets. Jan-Krzysztof Duda surprised Richard Rapport in the opening, and when Rapport played the awful 8…g6? he was already practically lost after 9.c5! (and unquestionably lost after 12.0-0). Over the next 20-25 moves or so Duda would give away his advantage, a bit at a time, only to get a fresh opportunity to play for a win (and achieve it with good play). His last big chance was missed on move 33, and while Rapport still had to defend for another 36 moves, Duda never got another chance to play for a win.

Finally, the battle between the oldest player, Teimour Radjabov, and the youngest player, Alireza Firouzja, was full of action in the first time control. With Black, Firouzja chose a strategically risky line, and then on move 18 essayed a very interesting exchange sac. Radjabov found a great response, offering a pawn and then the exchange back in pursuit of a kingside attack, and when Firouzja erred on move 25 Radjabov obtained serious chances to play for a win. Firouzja recovered well, and when Radjabov’s 31st move let most of the advantage slip. He managed to reach a pawn-up rook ending, but holding it was child’s play for Firouzja, and the game was drawn after 71 moves.

(All four games, with my analysis, are here.)

Here’s what we have to look forward to tomorrow (Saturday) in round 2:

Rapport (.5) - Firouzja (.5)
Nakamura (0) - Radjabov (.5)
Nepomniachtchi (1) - Caruana (1)
Duda (.5) - Ding (0)

Abdusattorov Wins World Rapid Championship in Playoff vs. Nepomniachtchi **UPDATED**

A gigantic follow-up post on the event will show up later today or tomorrow, but for now, the basic results: 17-year-old Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the 2021 World Rapid Championship in a blitz playoff over Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is now the runner-up of two world championship contests. The event finished in a four-way tie between those players, Magnus Carlsen, and Fabiano Caruana, but the two cars weren't fast enough to make it to the playoff, which was unfortunately limited to the two players with the best tiebreak scores. (A dumb rule, to be sure.)

It was an insanely great performance by Abdusattorov, who defeated, among others, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, and Boris Gelfand along the way. I think some of us might half-seriously consider retiring after such a performance, as it's almost impossible to top such an achievement. Of course this isn't going to happen. Indeed, I assume he will play tomorrow, when the World Blitz Championship gets underway.

It was a great event for Nepo as well, who was the only player - at least the only one of the winners - to get through the entire event (not counting the playoff) undefeated. (Abdusattorov lost to Anton Korobov in round 6.) He was rarely in trouble, either, while Abdusattorov was living on the edge in several rounds. He deserved his place in the final, but Abdusattorov was clearly doing the pushing in the playoff and deserved to win it.

Carlsen had a terrific start with 6/7, and if he had played for the draw in his round 10 game with Abdusattorov instead of unwarrantedly playing for a win in the endgame, he might have won the event. Even at the end he was close, pressing hard against Hikaru Nakamura in a pawn-up rook ending in the final round. He he won the game, he'd have won the tournament.

As for Caruana, his round 3 loss to Abdusattorov left him playing catch-up, which in turn meant that his tiebreak scores were always going to be a problem. It's possible that he didn't realize that tiebreaks were a factor, as he drew with Nepo in the last round, with White, in just six moves. Folks, you've GOT to know the rules, and Caruana's shocking ignorance (or that of his second or seconds, if any, if he put them in charge of telling him such things) cost him not only a chance for first but even a place on the podium.

Full results here.

**UPDATE** The first sentence proved false: Trying to get everything done while on vacation and trying to keep up with the blitz proved a bit too much. The large post is still in the works and I intend to see it through, but further patience will be required, unfortunately.