Chess Opinionist

CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT 2014: 

ROUND 9

Now over halfway through the tournament, the ex-world champion Vishy Anand leads the pack with a full point lead. The question is, can Anand maintain this lead? Judging from his performance in the current Candidates tournament in Russia, his chances seem pretty good. Or is it? Let us not forget on what happened to the seemingly "invincible" Levon Aronian who lost the thread during the 2013 Candidates tournament. Aronian was co-leading in that event at that time with then "just" #1 player, Magnus Carlsen. In that event, all of a sudden, Aronian unfortunately got served with back-to-back losses against Svidler and Kramnik in the 11th and 12th rounds respectively. So if a chess giant like Aronian could fall, perhaps Anand could fall to? The answer to that my friend is... yes... AND no. Let me explain... there's a chance for Anand to lose track in the tournament simply owing to the fact that playing in a Candidates(!) event can be as nerve-racking as one's first date. He may make the wrong moves, be too assuming of the situation, and etcetera. On the other hand, Anand is also the most experienced player in the event. And when I say he's the most experienced player, I mean he's played world championship matches against Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, and dont forget, even Carlsen. And that to me is remarkable, considering his "old" age. Since he is the most experienced in the tournament, one might be tempted to think that the Candidates tournament is just a "walk in the park" for the 44-year-old veteran. But really, that's just rubbish. In my opinion, every chess competition in the level same as the colossal Anand should not be taken lightly because every top level event is obviously, tough! So there is only little air to breathe in such competitions, with just one mistake to make all the difference :) 

Vishy Anand (right) discusses his game he had with Vesselin Topalov (left) in their
encounter in Round 9.

Trailing by just one point behind Anand, is WIM Arianne Caoili's boyfriend, Levon Aronian. So why am I telling you this nonsense? To those of you who still don't know, the Filipino-Australian, Arianne Caoili played for the Philippine Team in the Chess Olympiad several years ago. But she is now residing in Australia with her parents and happily plays for that country. Anyways, enough of Caoili! Hehe ;) Let's go back to the world class crusher LEVON ARONIAN! Aronian has just 5 points after 9 rounds as of this moment and needs to snatch a full point during the Candidates tournament to equal with Anand's score of 6 points after 9 rounds. So what's Aronian's strategy? Only Aronian or his team can tell! But based on a lot of Candidates events I've seen so far (mostly from live stream), the "old" strategy to "play for the win" in the last two rounds may not be the best approach for him. Anyways, to some of you who might be curious of how I realized of what that "old strategy" really was, it's just some strategy that I've quietly observed from 2700+ players when they get into difficult situations, specifically in round-robin matches type of tournaments.

But frankly, I think Aronian should avoid this strategy. Instead, he SHOULD at least, "try" to play for a win like playing some risky-looking but objective opening during rounds 10 and 11. And only then, should he have a "I'll just play solidly" mindset in the few remaining rounds. This is to avoid any comfortable predictability from his counterparts especially since, I think, every top 10 player already knows the "old strategy", they just won't admit it ;)

Levon "Lev" Aronian (right) shakes hands with rival
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

In third place for the quest to become Carlsen's challenger, is Vladimir Kramnik (He is third, and actually along with Sergey Karjakin and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but Kramnik has really superior tiebreaks over the two). Kramnik is a very strong player who managed to take away the world championship crown from Garry Kasparov in 2000, provided that he played a lot of Berlin Defense during that match against which was super-boring for the average joe like me, LOL. Anyways, Kramnik is a respectable ex-world champion who had great, and not so great results during his heyday especially when people started to speculate that his match with Kasparov was merely pre-arranged. His endgames are awesome though, and I suggest you take look at it with your Fritzes and Houdinis, hehehe. Back to the topic...

Recently, Kramnik radically changed his chess style which was a little more universal and won the World Cup last year and nearly even won the 2013 Candidates Tournament in the same year in a great style, were it not for the kill-joy tiebreaks. Changing chess styles is not new for Kramnik as he had already did this before in 2002, in what was a steep year for the then reigning world champion. He experimented with the Najdorf, played exciting moves, and even started playing 1 e4 more frequently. Unfortunately, he got a lot of losses from his experiments. Yet somehow, he got the "feel" of his new toys after several months of beating, hehe. That was only in 2002 of course, but not now :( 

Vladimir Kramnik (right) smiles before the start of his game with Russian compatriot,
Sergey Karjakin

By the way, there are a lot of chess fans around the world and on the internet, who are actually rooting for him, especially the positional players. Maybe it's because Kramnik is a positional player too? Anyways...

In conclusion, I think that only Anand, Aronian, and Kramnik stand a chance to become the winner of this year's Candidates Tournament and face the very young Magnus Carlsen. Let us not be close-minded though, as Sergey Karjakin, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, and even the rest in the playing field might just stand a chance! Here are the latest standings:

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Res.	vict	SB
1	6	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2770	IND	6	0	3	25,75
2	7	GM	Aronian Levon	2830	ARM	5	0	3	22,00
3	4	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	2787	RUS	4½	2	2	20,50
4	2	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2766	RUS	4½	1½	2	19,50
5	5	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2757	AZE	4½	½	3	18,75
6	3	GM	Svidler Peter	2758	RUS	4	1½	2	17,00
7	1	GM	Andreikin Dmitry	2709	RUS	4	½	1	17,75
8	8	GM	Topalov Veselin	2785	BUL	3½	0	1	16,75

© Guy Chessman 2014